Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary), born on April 21st, 1926, was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from February 6th, 1952 until her death on September 8th, 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and 15 at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, making then-Princess Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in 2021. They had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as Head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, devolution in the United Kingdom, the decolonisation of Africa, and the United Kingdom's accession to the European Communities and withdrawal from the European Union. The number of her realms varied over time as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. As queen, Elizabeth was served by more than 170 prime ministers across her realms. Her many historic visits and meetings included state visits to China in 1986, to Russia in 1994, and to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, and meetings with five popes.

Rather conservative in dress, the Queen was well-known for her solid-colour overcoats and decorative hats, which allowed her to be seen easily in a crowd. Although she attended many cultural events as part of her public role, in her private life the Queen was said to have little interest in culture or the arts. Her main leisure interests included horse racing, photography, and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

In diplomatic situations the Queen was extremely formal, and royal protocol was very strict. Though some of the traditional rules for dealing with the British Monarch have been relaxed during her reign (bowing is no longer required, for example) other forms of close personal interaction, such as touching, are still discouraged. In 1992, the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating was dubbed the "Lizard of Oz" by the British press for touching the Queen on the back, and in 2000 his successor John Howard had to deny that he too had touched the Queen. A similar flap occurred when Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Tobin was photographed touching the Queen's back as he accompanied her up a flight of stairs; he protested he was merely attempting to help an elderly lady avoid falling. The Queen was also notably the subject of the Sex Pistols 1977 song "God Save the Queen".

Significant events included Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022, respectively. Although she faced occasional republican sentiment and media criticism of her family—particularly after the breakdowns of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales—support for the monarchy in the United Kingdom remained consistently high throughout her lifetime, as did her personal popularity. Elizabeth died in 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, at the age of 96, and was succeeded by her eldest child, Charles III. Her state funeral was the first to be held in the United Kingdom since that of Winston Churchill in 1965.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the  Wikipedia article "Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom". You can explore more on the Wikipedia website. The text and the images are used here only for educational purposes.

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