After the war, her husband's health deteriorated, and she was widowed at the age of 51. Glamis was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, which Elizabeth helped to run. [88] Popularly, she became the "Queen Mother" or the "Queen Mum". However, I have to point out that people born in his generation (and the next one, too) both in the UK and the US often rather routinely consumed an amount of alcohol (and tobacco) that today we would consider shockingly intemperate and unhealthy. And it was her sang-froid and her absolute refusal to be shocked by this, which immediately silenced all the students. [167], Her habits were parodied by the satirical 1980s television programme Spitting Image. King George VI was shy, and was at first reluctant to take on his new duties and responsibilities. After the resignation of Chamberlain, the King asked Winston Churchill to form a government. Download this stock image: King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth seen here on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, London, England the day of their coronation, 12 May, 1937, with their daughters Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth, future Queen Elizabeth II and the king's mother Mary of Teck. [150][151] This, however, was contradicted by the official records,[152][153] 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. But remembering her duty, she accepted the tragic loss with stoic courage and soon resumed her public duties. [98] She owned the winners of approximately 500 races. [178] Following her death, the Queen successfully applied to the High Court so that details of her mother's will would be kept secret. "[80] Woodrow Wyatt thought her "much more pro-Conservative" than other members of the royal family,[81] but she later told him, "I like the dear old Labour Party. [35] 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. Rt. Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was one of the best-known and most fashionable portraitists of 18th century France; her clients included the queen Marie Antoinette. [94][95], Elizabeth oversaw the restoration of the remote Castle of Mey, on the north coast of Scotland, which she used to "get away from everything"[96] for three weeks in August and ten days in October each year. [23] 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. The beginning of George VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of King George VI; Philip of Greece and Denmark, husband of Queen Elizabeth II; Queen Dowager. [184] The shield is surmounted by the imperial crown, and supported by the crowned lion of England and a lion rampant per fess Or and Gules. https://www.biography.com/royalty/queen-mother-elizabeth. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but nevertheless refused to interfere. [45] Elizabeth was later quoted as referring to the Duchess as "that woman",[46] and the Duchess referred to Elizabeth as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to a fat Scots cook. The sailor king has been typecast over the years by forgiving biographers as a flawed but fundamentally decent man, bluff rather than brutal. "[159] However, she did distrust Germans; she told Woodrow Wyatt, "Never trust them, never trust them. Letter from Elizabeth to Lady Strathmore, 1 November 1924, quoted in Shawcross, p. 217, Elizabeth's diary, 6 January 1927, quoted in Shawcross, p. 264, Letter from George VI to Winston Churchill in which the King says his family shared his view, quoted by Howarth, p. 143. The internationally renowned Maria Callas captivated audiences with her iconic opera performances, showing off her vocal range in productions like 'Tosca' and 'Norma.'. King George VI gave his wife Queen Elizabeth this brooch to mark their 1939 state visit to Canada. [132][135], On 5 March 2002, Elizabeth was present at the luncheon of the annual lawn party of the Eton Beagles, and watched the Cheltenham Races on television; however, her health began to deteriorate precipitously during her last weeks after retreating to Royal Lodge for the final time. [91] 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. [77][78], In the 1945 British general election, Churchill's Conservative Party was soundly defeated by the Labour Party of Clement Attlee. The Palace had lost much of its staff to the army, and most of the rooms were shut. However, after a meeting with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, she broke her retirement and resumed her public duties. After the war, Britain's economy was all but bankrupt. [75], 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. the Earl of Woolton C.H., P.C., D.L., LL.D. [54][55][56][57] U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said that Elizabeth was "perfect as a Queen, gracious, informed, saying the right thing & kind but a little self-consciously regal". [178][180] Under an agreement reached in 1993,[181] property passing from monarch to monarch is exempt from inheritance 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. He had married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. A possible source of contention between the two men was the King’s elder brother David and his American wife Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Jul–Sep 1900 Hitchin, vol. [158] 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 the Commonwealth. "[17], Prince Albert, Duke of York—"Bertie" to the family—was the second son of King George V. 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". 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. She launched the ship on 27 September 1938 in Clydebank, Scotland. [74] During the "Phoney War" the Queen was given revolver training because of fears of imminent invasion. When King George V, son of Edward VII, died in 1936, the crown went to Elizabeth's uncle Edward, but he abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American. On February 6, 1952, King George VI died. [114], In her later years, Elizabeth became known for her longevity. She was officially crowned at the age of 27. In addition to her public duties, she enjoyed growing camellias in her gardens, fishing and horseracing, owning several prize-winning steeplechase horses. Her last surviving sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester,[137] exceeded that, dying aged 102 on 29 October 2004. She is best known for her moral support to the British people during WWII and her longevity. [102] She recuperated during a Caribbean cruise aboard the royal yacht, Britannia. The trip proved to be very successful as the queen was immensely popular with Americans. Elizabeth said that the news of their institutionalisation came as a surprise to her. The Queen Mother Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon on August 4, 1900. [69] Elizabeth publicly refused to leave London or send the children to Canada, even during the Blitz, when she was advised by the Cabinet to do so. Notwithstanding a worker's death and few injured servants, the royal couple fortunately escaped unharmed. Queen Elizabeth, King George VI, Princess Margaret, and Princess Elizabeth She was 101 years old and at the time of her death, held the record of being the longest living member of Britain's royal family until Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, surpassed her at 102. [85] In summer 1951, Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled the King's public engagements in his place. [67], During the Second World War, the King and Queen became symbols of the fight against fascism. Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom; Credit – Wikipedia. [25], They married on 26 April 1923, at Westminster Abbey. The former King Edward VIII became the Duke of Windsor, went to live in France, and maintained a cool relationship with his family in England. Nicknamed "the Black Dahlia," Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered in Los Angeles in 1947, her body cut in half and severely mutilated and her killer was never found. 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. Elizabeth then became queen. [58] 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 the same person as monarch. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even when other members were suffering from low levels of public approval. Her second daughter, Princess Margaret Rose, was born at Glamis in 1930. After the Munich Agreement of 1938 appeared to forestall the advent of armed conflict, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was invited onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the King and Queen to receive acclamation from a crowd of well-wishers. Edward was in love with Wallis Simpson, an American socialite and divorcee. [100] As an art collector, she purchased works by Claude Monet, Augustus John and Peter Carl Fabergé, among others. "[165] Emine Saner of The Guardian suggests that with a gin and Dubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch, a port and martini at 6 pm and two glasses of champagne at dinner, "a conservative estimate puts the number of alcohol units she drank at 70 a week". In September, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. A Queen Dowager is the widow of a king. Following her service as queen, the Queen Mother said, "My only wish is that I may be allowed to continue the work that [George VI and I] sought to do together.". On March 30, 2002, the Queen Mother died in her sleep at her home, the Royal Lodge at Windsor Great Park, with her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, at her side. She celebrated her 90th birthday in August 1990, and continued to stay active with appearances at official celebrations. [29] Following a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace prepared by chef Gabriel Tschumi, the new Duchess and her husband honeymooned at Polesden Lacey, a manor house in Surrey, and then went to Scotland, where she caught "unromantic" whooping cough. [5] She continued an active public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101 years, 238 days, which was seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen. [16] 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. Elizabeth was very supportive of his therapy, often participating in his sessions. [31] The Labour government was defeated by the Conservatives in a general election in November (which Elizabeth described as "marvellous" to her mother)[32] and the Governor-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Sir Lee Stack, was assassinated three weeks later. After returning to private education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler, she passed the Oxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen. Morshead was George V's librarian. [169] In the end, she was portrayed as a perpetually tipsy Beryl Reid soundalike. She continued to travel and make public appearances in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth, and she didn’t allow personal illness to slow her down: She dealt with an appendectomy, colon cancer and an operation to remove a fishbone caught in her throat, all while serving as matriarch. She is best known for her religious persecutions of Protestants and the executions of over 300 subjects. Oh, could you take it?' Just out of the terrible twos. Queen Mary and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, supported him in his new role. Born into a family of British nobility, she came to prominence in 1923 when she married the Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. On 20 January 1936, King George V died and Albert's brother, Edward, Prince of Wales, became King Edward VIII. Most people alive today would know her by the title she took after George VI's death - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth also suffered personal sorrow when both her nephew and the king's youngest brother were killed during the war. Peter Cazalet was her trainer for over 20 years. [154][155] Claims that Elizabeth used racist slurs to refer to black people[150] were strongly denied by Major Colin Burgess,[156] the husband of Elizabeth Burgess, a mixed-race secretary who accused members of Prince Charles's Household of racial abuse. She was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs. On February 9, 2002, her youngest daughter, Princess Margaret, died at the age of 71. [178] In her lifetime, she received £643,000 a year from the Civil List, and spent an estimated £1–2 million annually to run her household. THE Queen Mother was our Queen Elizabeth's mum, her name was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. After her husband died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth's father became King George VI. Her refusal to agree to an annulment of their marriage led to the creation of the Church of England. [21] The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more. Her distinctive colours of blue with buff stripes were carried by horses such as Special Cargo, the winner of the 1984 Whitbread Gold Cup, and Devon Loch, which spectacularly halted just short of the winning post at the 1956 Grand National[99] and whose jockey Dick Francis later had a successful career as the writer of racing-themed detective stories. Soon after he wed Princess Diana, the Queen Mother welcomed Diana and took her under her wing. In January 1936, King George V died, and Prince Edward (Duke of Windsor) ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. At one point, her four grandsons Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Viscount Linley mounted the guard as a mark of respect—an honour similar to the Vigil of the Princes at the lying in state of King George V.[141][142], On the day of her funeral, 9 April, the Governor General of Canada issued a proclamation asking Canadians to honour Elizabeth's memory that day.

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