The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth II
Accession and Coronation
Princess Elizabeth was on holiday at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya
when she learnt that her father, King George VI, had died and that
she was now Queen Elizabeth II. The remote location delayed
the news - a local reporter first told the Princess's private
secretary of the King's death. Prince Philip broke the news
to the new Queen, walking on the banks of the Sagana River.
The royal party flew to London via Entebbe to be greeted by Prime
Minister Winston Churchill.
Over a year later, on 2nd June 1952, Queen Elizabeth II was
crowned at Westminster Abbey. There was one vital departure
from tradition: the ceremony was televised for the first
time. Watched by 27 million people, the event kick-started
large scale television ownership and transformed the cultural life
of Britain. On the morning of the ceremony came highly
symbolic news: Mount Everest had been conquered by a British team
led by Sir John Hunt.
Watch Lord
Wakehurst's film about the death of George VI and the Accession of
Queen Elizabeth II
Family Affairs
In 1955, the Queen faced a family and constitutional crisis due
to the attraction between Princess Margaret and a royal equerry,
Peter Townsend, a war hero who happened to be divorced.
Princess Margaret reluctantly gave him up and in 1960 married
Anthony Armstrong-Jones, divorcing him in 1976.
The Queen came from a loving close-knit family, so the failed
marriages of her sister Margaret and children Princess Anne, Prince
Andrew and, especially Prince Charles to the tragic Princess Diana,
caused her great pain. However, while the childhoods of
Charles and Anne were a little chilly and formal, the later births
of Prince Edward (1960) and Prince Andrew (1963) were followed by a
warmer and more intimate childhood relationship with their
mother.
Another potential problem was Queen Elizabeth's mother the
former Queen Consort, left a widow at 51 and without an obvious
role. However the Queen Mother proved a great asset,
providing tireless support for her daughter and becoming one of the
most valued and loved of royals.
Great Events, Great Changes
In 1952 the year of the Queen's accession, Britain became the
world's third nuclear power, after the USA and Russia, and in 1955
produced a hydrogen bomb. Despite the rapid reduction of
armed forces following World War II Britain was still a major,
heavily-armed international power with a large empire.
However, after the 1956 Suezdebacle, Britain increasingly cast
off the trappings of power and Empire. In 1957, while Queen
Elizabeth II addressed the UN General Assembly, America and the
USSR vied for supremacy in the space race, which culminated in the
US putting a man on the moon in 1969.
The 1960s saw England win the World Cup, the old British Empire
shrinking as more nations gained independence and the rise of the
Beatles. In 1971 Britain introduced decimal currency and in
1973 became a member of the EEC. In 1976 the supersonic Anglo
French Concorde went into service.
[Next]
Consent Preferences