At the time of her accession, Britain had more than 70 territories overseas. The 25-year-old was now a queen.Įlizabeth II, Britain’s 61st monarch, would reign over a vast empire and serve as head of the Church of England. During a brief getaway with Philip in Kenya, word arrived that her father had died. In 1952, she undertook a world tour in King George VI’s stead. The young queenĪs a young wife and mother-Charles III was born in 1948 and Princess Anne followed in 1950-Elizabeth began to step into her aging father’s shoes. They married in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. “She had a protective shell around her, and he brought her out of it,” said one observer. But Elizabeth was captivated, reportedly falling in love at age 13. He was relatively poor and seemingly rootless, his childhood marked by instability and trauma. The dashing, blunt prince-who was exiled to England as an infant amid political strife in Greece and became naturalized as Philip Mountbatten in 1947-was an unlikely match for the reserved queen-to-be. After the war, their relationship bloomed. Elizabeth’s third cousin, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark often stayed there when he was on leave from the Royal Navy. Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II at Windsor Castle. When the war ended later that year, she wore her uniform and slipped into the celebrating crowds, blending in with the revelers as she basked in the joy and relief of peace.īy then, the seeds of what would become a seven-decade romance had been sown. In 1945, Elizabeth made history when she became the first woman in the royal family to serve full-time in Britain’s military as a truck driver and mechanic. The teenage princess took part in the war effort in another way, too.
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