![\"Elizphillip.b\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elizphillip.b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Duke of Edinburgh was at the Queen\u2019s side for more than six decades of reign, becoming the longest-serving consort in British history in 2009<\/p>\n
Their first son, Charles, was born in 1948, followed by Princess Anne, in 1950, Prince Andrew, in 1960, and Prince Edward, in 1964. Between them, they gave their parents eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya in 1952, representing the ailing King, when Philip broke the news that her father had died. She immediately returned to London as the new Queen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can,\u201d she later recalled.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953, aged 27, in front of a then-record TV audience estimated at more than 20 million people.<\/p>\n
Subsequent decades would see great change, with the end of the British Empire overseas and the swinging \u201960s sweeping away social norms at home.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth reformed the monarchy for this less deferential age, engaging with the public through walkabouts, royal visits and attendance at public events. Her commitment to the Commonwealth was a constant \u2013 she visited every Commonwealth country at least once.<\/p>\n
But there were periods of private and public pain. In 1992, the Queen\u2019s \u201cannus horribilis\u201d, fire devastated Windsor Castle \u2013 a private residence as well as working palace \u2013 and three of her children\u2019s marriages broke down.<\/p>\n
After the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car accident in Paris in 1997, the Queen drew criticism for appearing reluctant to respond publicly.<\/p>\n
There were questions about the monarchy\u2019s relevance in modern society.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo institution\u2026 should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don\u2019t,\u201d she acknowledged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Elizabeth II, the UK\u2019s longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-630013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-royal-families","13":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115711869392837910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}