LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, spent a night in hospital but returned to Windsor Castle on Thursday.
Here are some facts about the 95-year-old queen:
PRINCESS:
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born at 17 Bruton St, London W1 on April 21, 1926 and christened on May 29, 1926 in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace.
After her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 for the love of a divorced American woman, the queen’s father George VI inherited the throne.
Two years after World War Two, she married navy lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a Greek prince, whom she had fallen for during a visit to a naval college when she was just 13.
QUEEN
She was just 25 when she became Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952 on the death of father, while on tour in Kenya with Prince Philip.
She was crowned monarch on June 2, 1953, in a ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey that was televised live.
MOTHER AND WIFE
Philip was said to be shattered when his wife became queen.
Her marriage to Philip, who she wed aged 21, stayed solid for 74 years until his death in April 2021.
Elizabeth and Philip’s children are Charles, born in 1948, Anne, born in 1950. Their third, Andrew was born in 1960 and her last child Edward was born in 1964.
MONARCH
Winston Churchill was the first of her 14 British prime ministers.
Elizabeth, who acceded to the throne as Britain was shedding its imperial power, has symbolised stability for generations of British people, building the popularity of the monarchy despite seismic political, social and cultural change which threatened to make it an anachronism.
A quiet and uncomplaining dedication to the duty of queenship, even in old age, has earned her widespread respect both in Britain and abroad, even from republicans who are eager for abolition of the monarchy.
(Writing by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
