Queen Elizabeth II

(Old file photograph of the Queen. Though countless recent ones are availably freely, I just loved this one as she looks so serene in it!)

One of the reasons I love my online learning project is the little things that I learn alongside when researching someone’s life - Like the fact that the the British Monarchy has an official website of their own, very cool!

All that the official website pointed out about the present Queen of England is:

The present Queen was born in London on 21 April 1926, the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York. Although when born it was unlikely that she would become Queen, events in the 1930s led to her father’s Accession and her becoming heir to the Throne.

The Accession of The Queen in 1952 was sudden, although not entirely unexpected owing to the ill-health of King George VI. The Queen’s Coronation followed on 2 June 1953.

For more than 50 years, during a period of great social change, The Queen has carried out her political duties as Head of State, the ceremonial responsibilities of the Sovereign and an unprecedented programme of visits in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and overseas.

Not much to go on, I agree. Especially when one is used to so much goss from tabloids wrt the Royal family of England. So I continued my research at other sites.

Came up with all sorts of interesting trivia:
* She is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, hence is also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand among other places!
* She is one of only two people who are simultaneously head of state of more than one independent nation. (The other being the President of France, who is ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra.) In practice, she personally exercises virtually no political executive power.
* Very interesting -> In the war in 1945, she convinced her father that she should be allowed to contribute directly to the war effort & then trained as a driver, and drove a military truck while she served!

* She was the first, and so far only, female member of the royal family to actually serve in the armed forces.
* When she was 13 years old, she first met her future husband Prince Philip. She fell in love with him and began writing to him when he was in the Royal Navy. Unlike most of her children, she is still married to him today.
* Queen Elizabeth is the most widely-travelled head of state in history - she and Philip made a six-month, around the world tour, becoming the first monarch to circumnavigate the globe.
* Elizabeth is a conservative in matters of religion, moral standards and family matters. She has a strong sense of religious duty and takes her Coronation Oath seriously.
* The Queen still meets with the Prime Minister - I would assume this would include new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She have a sort of farewell meet with outgoing PM Tony Blair & his wife Cherie
* She has personal relationships with world leaders are warm and informal, and she has developed friendships with many foreign leaders. George W. Bush who infamously kissed her on her visit to America, was the first American President in more than 80 years to stay at Buckingham Palace.
* In private, she is also regarded privately as an excellent mimic.
* Her main leisure interests include horse racing, photography and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis.
* In 1997, she and other members of the Royal Family were perceived in the British tabloid press as cold and unfeeling when they did not participate in the public outpouring of grief at the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. However despite a fall in popularity then & rumors of the end of the Monarch, the Queen still enjoys a very favorable public view & the British monarchy is still going strong.

I don’t know how accurate the movie was, but when I watched The Queen, I felt like I understood where she was coming from.

80 More Interesting Facts about the Queen here.

And since one cannot really study up on the Queen of England and not touch upon the rest of the royals, I drew up a chart of the British Royal Hierarchy as is at present:
(click to enlarge)

Material Sources (apart from those already credited):
(01) Wikipedia
(02) Wikipedia

Tags: Britian, British-Monarchy, British-Royal-Hierarchy, London, Online-Learning, Queen-Elizabeth-II, Times-Magazine, Trivia, UK