Born into a family ofBritish nobility, Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 whenshe married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son ofKing George V andQueen Mary. The couple and their daughters, Elizabeth andMargaret, embodied traditional ideas of family and public service.[2] As Duchess of York, Elizabeth undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance.[3]
In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedlyascended the throne as George VI when his older brother,Edward VIII,abdicated in order to marry American divorcéeWallis Simpson. Elizabeth then becamequeen consort. She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of theSecond World War. During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. After the war, her husband's health deteriorated, and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new monarch.
After thedeath of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth was viewed as the matriarch of theBritish royal family. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even at times when other royals were suffering from low levels of public approval.[4] She continued an active public life until just a few months beforeher death at the age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret.
The location of Elizabeth's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents'Westminster home atBelgrave Mansions,Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital.[7] Other possible locations includeForbes House inHam, London, the home of her maternal grandmother,Louisa Scott.[8] Her birth was registered atHitchin, Hertfordshire,[9] near the Strathmores'English country house,St Paul's Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the1901 and1911 censuses.[10] She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the local parish church, All Saints.
Elizabeth spent much of her childhood atSt Paul's Walden and atGlamis Castle, the Earl's ancestral home inScotland. She was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs.[11] When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with twoGreek words fromXenophon'sAnabasis. Her best subjects were literature and scripture. After returning to private education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler, she passed theOxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen.[12]
At a charity sale event in 1915
On Elizabeth's fourteenth birthday, Britaindeclared war onGermany. Four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brotherFergus, an officer in theBlack Watch Regiment, was killed in action at theBattle of Loos in 1915. Another brother,Michael, was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917.[13] Three weeks later, the family discovered he had been captured after being wounded. He remained in aprisoner of war camp for the rest of the war. Glamis was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, which Elizabeth helped to run. She was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916.[14] One of the soldiers she treated wrote in her autograph book that she was to be "Hung, drawn, & quartered ... Hung in diamonds, drawn in a coach and four, and quartered in the best house in the land."[15] On 5 November 1916, she wasconfirmed at St John'sScottish Episcopal Church inForfar.[16]
The first love of Elizabeth was considered to beCharles Gordon-Lennox, Lord Settrington, whose sister, Lady Doris, was a close friend of hers. Upon his death, Elizabeth called him "my only true friend", writing: "I was not shy about him and he was so delightful. It's terrible, and his family just adored him.[...] Charlie was the only one I could talk to in a completely natural and simple way – he was dear to me, and I miss him very much".[17] Settrington died of wounds received in action while serving as an officer with theRoyal Fusiliers in theNorth Russia Relief Force on 24 August 1919.[18]
Elizabeth and Albert on their wedding day, 26 April 1923
Prince Albert, Duke of York—"Bertie" to the family—was the second son ofKing George V andQueen Mary. He initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to".[19] When he declared he would marry no other, Queen Mary visited Glamis to see for herself the young woman who had won her son's love. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but refused to interfere.[20] At the same time, Elizabeth was courted byJames Stuart, Albert'sequerry, until he left the prince's service for a better-paid job in the American oil business.[21]
In February 1922, Elizabeth was a bridesmaid atthe wedding of Albert's sister,Princess Mary, toViscount Lascelles.[22] The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more.[23] Eventually in January 1923, Elizabeth agreed to marry Albert, despite her misgivings about royal life.[24] Albert's freedom in choosing Elizabeth, not a member of a royal family, though the daughter of a peer, was considered a gesture in favour of political modernisation; previously, princes were expected to marry princesses from other royal families.[25] They selected a platinum engagement ring featuring aKashmir sapphire with two diamonds adorning its sides.[26]
After a successful royal visit toNorthern Ireland in July 1924, theLabour government agreed that Albert and Elizabeth could tour East Africa from December 1924 to April 1925.[32] The Labour government was defeated by theConservatives in ageneral election in November (which Elizabeth described as "marvellous" to her mother)[33] and theGovernor-General ofAnglo-Egyptian Sudan, SirLee Stack, was assassinated three weeks later. Despite this, the tour went ahead, and they visitedAden,Kenya,Uganda, and Sudan, but Egypt was avoided because of political tensions.[34]
Albert had a stammer, which affected his ability to deliver speeches, and after October 1925, Elizabeth assisted in helping him through the therapy devised byLionel Logue, an episode portrayed in the 2010 filmThe King's Speech. In 1926, Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Princess Elizabeth—known as "Lilibet" to the family—who would later becomeQueen Elizabeth II. Albert and Elizabeth, without their child,travelled to Australia to openParliament House inCanberra in 1927.[35] She was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby".[36] Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey was a public relations success.[37] She charmed the public in Fiji when, as she was shaking hands with a long line of official guests, a stray dog walked in on the ceremony and she shook its paw as well.[38] In New Zealand she fell ill with a cold and missed some engagements, but enjoyed the local fishing[39] in theBay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fishermanHarry Andreas.[40] On the return journey, via Mauritius, the Suez Canal, Malta and Gibraltar, their transport,HMS Renown, caught fire and they prepared to abandon ship before the fire was brought under control.[41]
On 20 January 1936,George V died and his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, becameKing Edward VIII. Elizabeth's husband, Albert, becameheir presumptive. Just months into Edward's reign, the King's decision to marry the American divorcéeWallis Simpson caused a constitutional crisis that resulted inhis abdication. Albert reluctantly became king of the United Kingdom andemperor of India on 11 December 1936 under theregnal name of George VI. Elizabeth became queen and empress.Their coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled forEdward VIII's coronation.Elizabeth's crown was made of platinum and was set with theKoh-i-Noor diamond.[45]
Edward married Wallis Simpson, and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but while Edward was a Royal Highness, George VI withheld the style from Wallis, a decision that Elizabeth supported.[46] Elizabeth was later quoted as referring to Wallis as "that woman",[47] and Wallis referred to Elizabeth as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to a fat Scots cook.[4] Claims that Elizabeth remained embittered towards Wallis were denied by her close friends; theDuke of Grafton wrote that she "never said anything nasty about the Duchess of Windsor, except to say she really hadn't got a clue what she was dealing with".[48]
Overseas visits
In summer 1938, a state visit to France by the King and Queen was postponed for three weeks because of the death of Elizabeth's mother. In two weeks,Norman Hartnell created an all-white trousseau for Elizabeth, who could not wear colours as she was still inmourning.[49] The visit was designed to bolster Anglo-French solidarity in the face of aggression fromNazi Germany.[50] The French press praised the demeanour and charm of the royal couple during the delayed but successful visit, augmented by Hartnell's wardrobe.[51]
Nevertheless, Nazi aggression continued, and the government prepared for war. After theMunich Agreement of 1938 appeared to forestall the advent of armed conflict, the British prime ministerNeville Chamberlain was invited onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the King and Queen to receive acclamation from a crowd of well-wishers.[52] While broadly popular among the general public,Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in theHouse of Commons, which led historianJohn Grigg to describe George VI's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century".[53] However, historians argue that the King only ever followed ministerial advice and acted as he was constitutionally bound to do.[54]
In May and June 1939, Elizabeth and her husbandtoured Canada from coast to coast and back, the first time a reigning monarch had toured Canada.[55] They also visited the United States, spending time with PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt at theWhite House and hisHudson Valleyestate.[56][57][58][59] First LadyEleanor Roosevelt said that Elizabeth was "perfect as a Queen, gracious, informed, saying the right thing & kind but a little self-consciously regal".[60] The tour was designed to bolster trans-Atlantic support in the event of war, and to affirm Canada's status as an independent kingdom sharing with Britain thesame person as monarch.[61][62][63][64]
According to an often-told story, during one of the earliest of the royal couple's repeated encounters with the crowds, aBoer War veteran asked Elizabeth, "Are youScots or are you English?" She replied, "I am a Canadian!"[65] Their reception by the Canadian and U.S. public was extremely enthusiastic,[66] and largely dissipated any residual feeling that they were a lesser substitute for Edward VIII.[67] Elizabeth told Canadian prime ministerWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, "that tour made us",[68] and shereturned to Canada frequently both on official tours and privately.[69]
Second World War
Eleanor Roosevelt (centre), King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, 23 October 1942
During theSecond World War, the royal couple became symbols of the fight against fascism.[70] Shortly after the declaration of war,The Queen's Book of the Red Cross was conceived. Fifty authors and artists contributed to the book, which was fronted byCecil Beaton's portrait of Elizabeth and was sold in aid of theRed Cross.[71] She also broadcast to the nation in an attempt to comfort families during theevacuation of children and the mobilisation of fighting-age men.[72] Elizabeth publicly refused to leave London or send the children to Canada, even duringthe Blitz, when theBritish Cabinet advised her to do so. She declared, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave."[73]
Elizabeth visited troops, hospitals, factories, and parts of Britain that were targeted by the GermanLuftwaffe, in particular theEast End nearLondon's docks. Her visits initially provoked hostility; rubbish was thrown at her and the crowds jeered, in part because she wore expensive clothes that served to alienate her from people suffering the deprivations of war.[4] She explained that if the public came to see her they would wear their best clothes, so she should reciprocate in kind; Norman Hartnell dressed her in gentle colours and avoided black to represent "the rainbow of hope".[74] When Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during the height of the bombing, Elizabeth said, "I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face."[75]
The Queen and Princess Elizabeth talk toparatroopers preparing forD-Day, 19 May 1944
Though the King and Queen spent the working day at Buckingham Palace, partly for security and family reasons they stayed at night atWindsor Castle about 20 miles (32 km) west of central London with their daughters. The palace had lost much of its staff to thearmy, and most of the rooms were shut.[76] The windows were shattered by bomb blasts, and had to be boarded up.[77] During the "Phoney War" the Queen was given revolver training because of fears of imminent invasion.[78]
French prime ministerÉdouard Daladier characterised Elizabeth as "an excessively ambitious young woman who would be ready to sacrifice every other country in the world so that she may remain Queen."[4]Adolf Hitler is said to have called her "the most dangerous woman in Europe" because he viewed her popularity as a threat to German interests.[79] However, before the war both she and her husband, like most ofParliament and the British public, had supported appeasement and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, believing after the experience of the First World War that war had to be avoided at all costs. After the resignation of Chamberlain, the King askedWinston Churchill to form a government. Although the King was initially suspicious of Churchill's character and motives, in due course the royal couple came to respect and admire him.[80][81]
Post-war years
Southern Rhodesian stamp celebrating the 1947 royal tour of Southern Africa
In the1945 British general election, Churchill's Conservative Party was soundly defeated by the Labour Party ofClement Attlee. Elizabeth's political views were rarely disclosed,[82] but a letter she wrote in 1947 described Attlee's "high hopes of a socialist heaven on earth" as fading and presumably describes those who voted for him as "poor people, so many half-educated and bemused. I do love them."[83]Woodrow Wyatt thought her "much more pro-Conservative" than other members of the royal family,[84] but she later told him, "I like the dear old Labour Party."[85] She also told theDuchess of Grafton, "I love communists."[86]
During the 1947 royal tour ofSouth Africa, Elizabeth's serene public behaviour was broken, exceptionally, when she rose from the royal car to strike an admirer with her umbrella because she had mistaken his enthusiasm for hostility.[87] The 1948 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed because of the King's declining health. In March 1949, he had a successful operation to improve the circulation in his right leg.[88] In summer 1951, Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled the King's public engagements in his place. In September, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.[89] After a lung resection, he appeared to recover, but the delayed trip to Australia and New Zealand was altered so that Princess Elizabeth and her husband, theDuke of Edinburgh, went in the King and Queen's place in January 1952.[90]George VI died in his sleep on 6 February 1952 while Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Kenya on a Commonwealth tour, and with George's death his daughter immediately became Queen Elizabeth II.[91]
Shortly after George VI's death, Elizabeth began to be styled asHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother because the normal style for the widow of a king, "Queen Elizabeth", would have been too similar to the style of her elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.[92] Popularly, she became the "Queen Mother" or the "Queen Mum".[93] She was devastated by her husband's death and retired to Scotland. However, after a meeting with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, she broke her retirement and resumed her public duties.[94] Eventually, she became just as busy asqueen mother as she had been as queen consort. In July 1953, she undertook her first overseas visit since the funeral when she visited theFederation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland with Princess Margaret. She laid thefoundation stone of the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland—the currentUniversity of Zimbabwe.[95] Upon her return to the region in 1957, Elizabeth was inaugurated as the college's president, and attended other events that were deliberately designed to be multi-racial.[96] During her daughter's extensive tour of the Commonwealth over 1953–54, Elizabeth acted as acounsellor of state and looked after her grandchildren,Charles andAnne.[97] In February 1959, she visited Kenya and Uganda.[98][99]
The Queen Mother arriving atWalker Naval Yard, June 1961
Elizabeth oversaw the restoration of the remoteCastle of Mey, on the north coast of Scotland, which she used to "get away from everything"[100] for three weeks in August and ten days in October each year.[101] She developed her interest in horse racing, particularlysteeplechasing, which had been inspired by the amateur jockeyLord Mildmay of Flete in 1949.[102] She owned the winners of approximately 500 races. Although (contrary to rumour) she never placed bets, she did have the racing commentaries piped direct to her London residence,Clarence House, so she could follow the races.[103] As an art collector, she purchased works byClaude Monet,Augustus John andPeter Carl Fabergé, among others.[104]
In February 1964, Elizabeth had an emergency appendectomy, which led to the postponement of a planned tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji until 1966.[105] She recuperated during a Caribbean cruise aboard the royal yacht,Britannia.[106] In December 1966, she underwent an operation to remove a tumour, after she was diagnosed withcolon cancer. Contrary to rumours which subsequently spread, she did not have acolostomy.[107][108] She was diagnosed withbreast cancer in 1984 and a lump was removed from her breast. Her bouts with cancer were never made public during her lifetime.[109]
During her widowhood, Elizabeth continued to travel extensively, including on over forty official visits overseas.[110] In 1975, she visited Iran at the invitation of ShahMohammad Reza Pahlavi. The British ambassador and his wife,Anthony and Sheila Parsons, noted how the Iranians were bemused by her habit of speaking to everyone regardless of status or importance, and hoped the Shah's entourage would learn from the visit to pay more attention to ordinary people.[111] Between 1976 and 1984, she made annual summer visits to France,[112] which were among 22 private trips to continental Europe between 1963 and 1992.[113]
In 1982, Elizabeth was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and had an operation to remove it. Being a keenangler, she calmly joked afterwards, "The salmon have got their own back."[114] Similar incidents occurred atBalmoral in August 1986, when she was hospitalised atAberdeen Royal Infirmary overnight but no operation was needed,[115] and in May 1993, when she was admitted to the Infirmary for surgery undergeneral anaesthetic.[116]
In 1987, Elizabeth was criticised when it emerged that two of her nieces,Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, had been committed toa psychiatric hospital in Redhill, Surrey, in 1941 because they had severe learning disabilities.[117] However,Burke's Peerage had listed the sisters as dead, apparently because their mother, Fenella (Elizabeth's sister-in-law), "was 'extremely vague' when it came to filling in forms and might not have completed the paperwork for the family entry correctly".[118] When Nerissa died in 1986, her grave was originally marked with a plastic tag and a serial number. Elizabeth said that the news of their institutionalisation came as a surprise to her.[119]
Centenarian
AtBanting House during a royal visit to Canada, 1989
In her later years, Elizabeth became known for her longevity. Her 90th birthday—4 August 1990—was celebrated by a parade on 27 June that involved many of the 300 organisations of which she was a patron.[120] In 1995, she attended events commemorating the end of the war fifty years before and had two operations: one to remove a cataract in her left eye and one to replace her right hip.[121] In 1998, her left hip was replaced after it was broken when she slipped and fell during a visit toSandringham stables.[122]
Elizabeth's 100th birthday was celebrated in a number of ways: a parade, with contributions from SirNorman Wisdom and SirJohn Mills, celebrated highlights of her life;[123] theRoyal Bank of Scotland issued a commemorative £20 note with her image;[124] and she attended a lunch at theGuildhall, London, at whichGeorge Carey, theArchbishop of Canterbury, accidentally attempted to drink her glass of wine. Her quick admonition of "That's mine!" caused widespread amusement.[125] In November 2000, she broke her collarbone in a fall that kept her recuperating at home over Christmas and the New Year holiday.[126]
On 1 August 2001, Elizabeth had a blood transfusion for anaemia after suffering from mild heat exhaustion, though she was well enough to make her traditional appearance outside Clarence House three days later to celebrate her 101st birthday.[127][128] Her final public engagements included planting a cross at theField of Remembrance on 8 November 2001;[129] a reception at the Guildhall, London, for the reformation of the600 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 15 November;[130] and attending the re-commissioning ofHMS Ark Royal on 22 November.[131][132][133]
In December 2001, aged 101, Elizabeth fractured herpelvis in a fall. Even so, she insisted on standing for the national anthem during the memorial service for her husband on 6 February the following year.[134] Just three days later, their second daughter, Princess Margaret, died. On 13 February 2002, Elizabeth fell and cut her arm in her sitting room at Sandringham House; an ambulance and doctor were called, and the wound was dressed.[135] She was still determined to attend Margaret's funeral atSt George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, two days later on the Friday of that week,[136] even though the Queen and the rest of the royal family were concerned about the journey the Queen Mother would face to get from Norfolk to Windsor;[137] she was also rumoured to be hardly eating. Nevertheless, she flew to Windsor by helicopter, and so that no photographs of her in a wheelchair (which she hated being seen in) could be taken—she insisted that she be shielded from the press[137]—she travelled to the service in apeople carrier with blacked-out windows,[138][139] which had been previously used by Margaret.[137][140]
On 5 March 2002, Elizabeth attended the luncheon of the annual lawn party of the Eton Beagles and watched theCheltenham Races on television; however, her health began to deteriorate precipitously during her last weeks, after she retreated toRoyal Lodge for the final time.[141]
The Queen Mother's funeral carriage. The coffin was draped with her personalstandard, shown below.
On 30 March 2002, at 3:15 pm, Elizabeth died at Royal Lodge, Windsor, at the age of 101. Her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, was by her side.[133] The Queen Mother had been suffering from achest cold since Christmas 2001.[135] At 101 years and 238 days old she was the longest-living member of the British royal family at the time of her death, and the first member of the family tolive past the age of 100. Her surviving sister-in-law,Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester,[142] exceeded that, dying at the age of 102 on 29 October 2004.[143] She was one of the longest-lived members of any royal family.[144]
Elizabeth grewcamellias in each of her gardens, and before her flag-draped coffin was taken from Windsor tolie in state atWestminster Hall, an arrangement of camellias from her own gardens was placed on top.[145] An estimated 200,000 people over three days filed past as she lay in state in Westminster Hall at thePalace of Westminster.[146] Members of theHousehold Cavalry and other branches of the armed forces stood guard at the four corners of thecatafalque. At one point, her four grandsons–Prince Charles,Prince Andrew,Prince Edward andViscount Linley–mounted the guard as a mark of respect, an honour similar to theVigil of the Princes at the lying in state of King George V.[147][148]
In London, more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile (37 km) route from central London to Elizabeth's final resting place in theKing George VI Memorial Chapel beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel.[151] At her request, after her funeral thewreath that had lain atop her coffin was placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in a gesture that echoed her wedding-day tribute 79 years before.[152]
Legacy
Known for her personal and public charm,[19] Elizabeth was one of the most popular members of theroyal family,[153] and helped to stabilise the popularity of themonarchy as a whole.[154][155]
Elizabeth's critics includedKitty Kelley, who falsely alleged that she did not abide by therationing regulations during the Second World War.[156][157] This, however, was contradicted by the official records,[158][159] and Eleanor Roosevelt during her wartime stay at Buckingham Palace reported expressly on the rationed food served in the Palace and the limited bathwater that was permitted.[160][161] Claims that Elizabeth used racist slurs to refer to black people[156] were strongly denied by Major Colin Burgess,[162] the husband of Elizabeth Burgess, a mixed-race secretary who accused members of Prince Charles's household of racial abuse.[163] Elizabeth made no public comments on race, but according toRobert Rhodes James, in private she "abhorred racial discrimination" and decriedapartheid as "dreadful".[164] Woodrow Wyatt records in his diary that when he expressed the view that non-white countries have nothing in common with "us", she told him, "I am very keen on theCommonwealth. They're all like us."[165] However, she did distrust Germans; she told Wyatt, "Never trust them, never trust them."[166] While she may have held such views, it has been argued that they were normal for British people of her generation and upbringing, who had experienced two vicious wars with Germany.[167]
In his official biography,William Shawcross portrays Elizabeth as a person whose indomitable optimism, zest for life, good manners, mischievous sense of humour, and interest in people and subjects of all kinds contributed to her exceptional popularity and to her longevity. SirHugh Casson said Elizabeth was like "a wave breaking on a rock, because although she is sweet and pretty and charming, she also has a basic streak of toughness and tenacity. ... when a wave breaks on a rock, it showers and sparkles with a brilliant play of foam and droplets in the sun, yet beneath is really hard, tough rock, fused, in her case, from strong principles, physical courage and a sense of duty."[168] SirPeter Ustinov described her during a student demonstration at theUniversity of Dundee in 1968:
As we arrived in a solemn procession the students pelted us with toilet rolls. They kept hold of one end, like streamers at a ball, and threw the other end. The Queen Mother stopped and picked these up as though somebody had misplaced them. [Returning them to the students she said,] 'Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?' And it was her sang-froid and her absolute refusal to be shocked by this, which immediately silenced all the students. She knows instinctively what to do on those occasions. She doesn't rise to being heckled at all; she just pretends it must be an oversight on the part of the people doing it. The way she reacted not only showed her presence of mind, but was so charming and so disarming, even to the most rabid element, that she brought peace to troubled waters.[169]
Elizabeth was well known for her dry witticisms. On hearing thatEdwina Mountbatten was buried at sea, she said: "Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash."[114] Accompanied by the gay writer SirNoël Coward at a gala, she mounted a staircase lined with guards. Noticing Coward's eyes flicker momentarily across the soldiers, she murmured to him: "I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out."[170]
After being advised by a Conservative minister in the 1970s not to employ homosexuals, Elizabeth observed that without them, "we'd have to go self-service".[170] On the fate of a gift of anebuchadnezzar of champagne (20 bottles' worth) even if her family did not come for the holidays, she said, "I'll polish it off myself."[171] Emine Saner ofThe Guardian suggests that with agin andDubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch, aport andmartini at 6 pm and two glasses of champagne at dinner, "a conservative estimate puts the number ofalcohol units she drank at 70 a week".[172] Her lifestyle amused journalists, particularly when it was revealed she had a multi-millionpound overdraft withCoutts Bank.[173]
TheCunard White Star Line'sRMS Queen Elizabeth was named after her. She launched the ship on 27 September 1938 inClydebank, Scotland. Supposedly, the liner started to slide into the water before Elizabeth could officially launch her, and acting sharply, she managed to smash a bottle of Australian red over the liner's bow just before it slid out of reach.[180] In 1954, Elizabeth sailed to New York on her namesake.[181]
In March 2011, Elizabeth's eclectic musical taste was revealed when details of her small record collection kept at the Castle of Mey were made public. Her records includedska, local folk, Scottish reels and the musicalsOklahoma! andThe King and I, and artists such as yodellerMontana Slim,Tony Hancock,The Goons and Noël Coward.[183]
Eight years before her death, Elizabeth had reportedly placed two-thirds of her money (an estimated £19 million)[184] intotrusts, for the benefit of her great-grandchildren.[185] In her lifetime, she received £643,000 a year from theCivil List, and spent an estimated £1–2 million annually to runher household.[186] By the end of the 1990s, her overdraft was said to be around £4 million.[184][186] She left the bulk of her estate, estimated to be worth between £50 and £70 million, including paintings,Fabergé eggs, jewellery, and horses, to her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.[185][187] Under an agreement reached in 1993,[188] property passing from monarch to monarch is exempt frominheritance tax, as is property passing from the consort of a former monarch to the current monarch, so a tax liability estimated at £28 million (40 percent of the value of the estate) was not incurred.[189] The most important pieces of art were transferred to theRoyal Collection by Elizabeth II.[185] Following her death, the Queen successfully applied to the High Court so that details of her mother's will would be kept secret.[190] This brought criticism from Labour politicians and segments of the public, and the Queen eventually released the outlines of her mother's will.[187]
A commemorative plaque displaying Elizabeth's title during widowhood inGuernsey
Elizabeth held numerous titles starting with her birth, as the daughter of an earl and through her marriage to the-thenDuke of York, who later became King-Emperor. She was the last person to beEmpress of India, and wasQueen Mother during widowhood.
^abThe hyphenated version of the surname was used in official documents at the time of her marriage, but the family itself tends to omit the hyphen.[1]
^Lady Colin Campbell claims Elizabeth's biological mother was the family cook, Marguerite Rodiere, by means of a surrogacy arrangement that was not uncommon in aristocratic families at the time. This theory is dismissed by royal biographers such as Michael Thornton andHugo Vickers.[5] In an earlier allegation, published byKitty Kelley in 1997, Elizabeth's mother is said to have been a Welsh maid.[6]
^Sinclair, David (1988),Two Georges: the Making of the Modern Monarchy, Hodder and Stoughton, p. 230,ISBN978-0-340-33240-5
^Powell, James,"The 1939 Royal Visit",The Historical Society of Ottawa, Ottawa, retrieved31 October 2021,It was the first visit by a reigning sovereign to Canada...
^Bell, Peter (October 2002), "The Foreign Office and the 1939 Royal Visit to America: Courting the USA in an Era of Isolationism",Journal of Contemporary History,37 (4):599–616,doi:10.1177/00220094020370040601,JSTOR3180762,S2CID159572988
^Rhodes, Benjamin D. (2001),United States foreign policy in the interwar period, 1918–1941, Greenwood, p. 153,ISBN978-0-275-94825-2
^Rhodes, Benjamin D. (April 1978), "The British Royal Visit of 1939 and the "Psychological Approach" to the United States",Diplomatic History,2 (2):197–211,doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1978.tb00431.x
^Lanctot, Gustave (1964),Royal Tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Canada and the United States of America 1939, Toronto: E. P. Taylor Foundation
^Speech delivered by Her Majesty the Queen at the Fairmont Hotel, Vancouver, Monday, 7 October 2002 as reported in e.g. Joyce, Greg (8 October 2002) "Queen plays tribute to Canada, thanks citizens for their support",The Canadian Press
^Picknett, Lynn; Prince, Clive; Prior, Stephen; Brydon, Robert (2002),War of the Windsors: A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy, Mainstream Publishing, p. 161,ISBN978-1-84018-631-4
^Pinches, John Harvey; Pinches, Rosemary (1974),The Royal Heraldry of England, Heraldry Today, Slough, Buckinghamshire: Hollen Street Press, p. 267,ISBN978-0-900455-25-4
^Wagner, A. R. (1940), "Some of the Sixty-four Ancestors of Her Majesty the Queen",Genealogist's Magazine,9 (1):7–13
Bibliography
Bradford, Sarah (1989),The Reluctant King: The Life and Reign of George VI, St Martin's
Forbes, Grania (1999),My Darling Buffy: The Early Life of The Queen Mother, Headline Book Publishing,ISBN978-0-7472-7387-5
The generations include wives of princes descended fromGeorge I, who formalised the use of the titlesprince andprincess for members of the British royal family.
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