Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was also the last Empress of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved on 15 August 1947. After her husband died, she was officially known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to avoid confusion with her daughter Queen Elizabeth II.
Born into a family of British nobility, Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. As Duchess of York, Elizabeth undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance.
In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedly ascended the throne as George VI when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in order to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth then became queen consort. She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of the Second World War. During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. After the war, her husband's health deteriorated, and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new monarch.
After the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth was viewed as the matriarch of the British royal family. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even at times when other royals were suffering from low levels of public approval. She continued an active public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret.
Early life
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born on 4 August 1900, the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her mother was descended from British prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.The location of Elizabeth's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital. Other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London, the home of her maternal grandmother, Louisa Scott. Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores' English country house, St Paul's Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. She was christened there on 23 September, in the local parish church, All Saints.
Elizabeth spent much of her childhood at St Paul's Walden and at Glamis Castle, the Earl's ancestral home in Scotland. She was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs. When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophon's Anabasis. Her best subjects were literature and scripture. After returning to private education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler, she passed the Oxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen.
On Elizabeth's fourteenth birthday, Britain declared war on Germany. Four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brother Fergus, an officer in the Black Watch Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915. Another brother, Michael, was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917. Three weeks later, the family discovered he had been captured after being wounded. He remained in a prisoner of war camp for the rest of the war. Glamis was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, which Elizabeth helped to run. She was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916. One of the soldiers she treated wrote in her autograph book that she was to be "Hung, drawn, & quartered ... Hung in diamonds, drawn in a coach and four, and quartered in the best house in the land." On 5 November 1916, she was confirmed at St John's Scottish Episcopal Church in Forfar.
The first love of Elizabeth was considered to be Charles Gordon-Lennox, Lord Settrington, whose sister, Lady Doris, was a close friend of hers. Upon his death, Elizabeth called him "my only true friend", writing: "I was not shy about him and he was so delightful. It's terrible, and his family just adored him. Charlie was the only one I could talk to in a completely natural and simple way – he was dear to me, and I miss him very much". Settrington died of wounds received in action while serving as an officer with the Royal Fusiliers in the North Russia Relief Force on 24 August 1919.
Marriage
—"Bertie" to the family—was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. He initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to". When he declared he would marry no other, Queen Mary visited Glamis to see for herself the young woman who had won her son's love. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but refused to interfere. At the same time, Elizabeth was courted by James Stuart, Albert's equerry, until he left the prince's service for a better-paid job in the American oil business.In February 1922, Elizabeth was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert's sister, Princess Mary, to Viscount Lascelles. The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more. Eventually in January 1923, Elizabeth agreed to marry Albert, despite her misgivings about royal life. Albert's freedom in choosing Elizabeth, not a member of a royal family, though the daughter of a peer, was considered a gesture in favour of political modernisation; previously, princes were expected to marry princesses from other royal families. They selected a platinum engagement ring featuring a Kashmir sapphire with two diamonds adorning its sides.
The couple married on 26 April 1923 at Westminster Abbey. Unexpectedly, Elizabeth laid her bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior on her way into the abbey, in memory of her brother Fergus. She was thereafter styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York. Following a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace prepared by chef Gabriel Tschumi, Elizabeth and Albert honeymooned at Polesden Lacey, a manor house in Surrey owned by the wealthy socialite and friend Margaret Greville. They then travelled to Scotland, where she contracted "unromantic" whooping cough.
Duchess of York
After a successful royal visit to Northern Ireland in July 1924, the Labour government agreed that Albert and Elizabeth could tour East Africa from December 1924 to April 1925. The Labour government was defeated by the Conservatives in a general election in November and the Governor-General of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Sir Lee Stack, was assassinated three weeks later. Despite this, the tour went ahead, and they visited Aden, Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan, but Egypt was avoided because of political tensions.Albert had a stammer, which affected his ability to deliver speeches, and after October 1925, Elizabeth assisted in helping him through the therapy devised by Lionel Logue, an episode portrayed in the 2010 film The King's Speech. In 1926, Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Princess Elizabeth—known as "Lilibet" to the family—who would later become Queen Elizabeth II. Albert and Elizabeth, without their child, travelled to Australia to open Parliament House in Canberra in 1927. She was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby". Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey was a public relations success. She charmed the public in Fiji when, as she was shaking hands with a long line of official guests, a stray dog walked in on the ceremony and she shook its paw as well. In New Zealand she fell ill with a cold and missed some engagements, but enjoyed the local fishing in the Bay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fisherman Harry Andreas. On the return journey, via Mauritius, the Suez Canal, Malta and Gibraltar, their transport,, caught fire and they prepared to abandon ship before the fire was brought under control.
The couple's second daughter, Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis Castle in 1930. The couple initially lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park, before moving to 145 Piccadilly.
Queen consort
On 20 January 1936, George V died and his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, became King Edward VIII. Elizabeth's husband, Albert, became heir presumptive. Just months into Edward's reign, the King's decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson caused a constitutional crisis that resulted in his abdication. Albert reluctantly became king of the United Kingdom and emperor of India on 11 December 1936 under the regnal name of George VI. Elizabeth became queen and empress. Their coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled for Edward VIII's coronation. Elizabeth's crown was made of platinum and was set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond.Edward married Wallis Simpson, and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but while Edward was a Royal Highness, George VI withheld the style from Wallis, a decision that Elizabeth supported. Elizabeth was later quoted as referring to Wallis as "that woman", and Wallis referred to Elizabeth as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to a fat Scots cook. Claims that Elizabeth remained embittered towards Wallis were denied by her close friends; the Duke of Grafton wrote that she "never said anything nasty about the Duchess of Windsor, except to say she really hadn't got a clue what she was dealing with".