Queen Elizabeth II

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Happy Birthday to Queen Elizabeth II! Born Princess Elizabeth to the then Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bows-Lyon, she was the first granddaughter of King George VI and Queen Mary, and the older sister of Princess Margaret. In 1936, the Princess Elizabeth became Heiress Presumptive after the Abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, which led to her parents becoming King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. The Princesses spent WWII at Windsor Castle, and in 1947, Princess Elizabeth married Lt. Phillip Mountbatten, formerly Prince Phillip of Greece, at Westminster Abbey. The couple have four children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward, and celebrated their 70th Anniversary in 2017, having the longest British Royal Marriage at the time of his death in 2021. In 1952, she succeeded to the Throne upon the sudden death of her father, while she was on tour of Kenya. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in June 1953, and is the Queen of the United Kingdom and the 16 Commonwealth Realms as well at the Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Probably the most traveled woman in the world, the Queen is known universally as a symbol of Britain, and, in her tenth decade, widely admired and respected. She is the oldest and longest-serving British Monarch, as well as the oldest currently reigning Monarch. Her reign has marked Britain’s transition from a colonial superpower, and her ‘soft-power’ is credited with uniting the Commonwealth. I wish Her Majesty a very Happy Birthday, and many Happy Returns!