Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana
Frances;[fn
1] née Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31
August 1997), was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the
eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
Diana was born into a family of British nobility with royal ancestry as
The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer. She
was the fourth child and third daughter of John Spencer, 8th Earl
Spencer and The Honourable Frances Shand Kydd. Following her parents´
divorce, Diana grew up in Park House, which is situated on the
Queen´s Sandringham estate, and was educated
in England and Switzerland. In 1975, she became Lady Diana
Spencer, after her father later inherited the title of Earl Spencer.
Her wedding
to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 was held at St Paul´s Cathedral and reached a global
television audience of over 750 million. While married, Diana bore
the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay and Countess of Chester. The
marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and
third in the line of succession
to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook
royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at
functions overseas. She was celebrated for her charity work and for
her support of the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was involved with dozens of
charities, including London´s Great Ormond Street Hospital for
Children, of which she was president from 1989.
Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and
after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media
attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash
in Paris on 31 August 1997 and subsequent televised
funeral.
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21
April 1926
[a])
is, and has been from her accession in 1952, Queen of the
United Kingdom,
Canada,
Australia, and
New
Zealand, and
Head of the Commonwealth. She is
also Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her
accession:
Jamaica,
Barbados,
the
Bahamas,
Grenada,
Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands,
Tuvalu,
Saint Lucia,
Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines,
Belize,
Antigua and Barbuda, and
Saint Kitts and Nevis.
[b]
Elizabeth was born in London as the elder daughter of the Duke
and Duchess of York, later King George
VI and Queen Elizabeth, and
educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the
abdication of his brother
Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the
heir presumptive. She began to undertake
public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the
Auxiliary Territorial
Service. In 1947, she married Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
Elizabeth´s many historic visits and meetings include a state
visit to the Republic of Ireland and reciprocal visits to and
from the Pope. She has seen major constitutional changes, such as
devolution in the United
Kingdom, Canadian patriation, and the decolonisation of Africa. She has
also reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of
her realms. She is the
world´s oldest reigning monarch as well as Britain´s longest-lived. In
2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother,
Victoria, and became the longest-reigning
British head of state and the longest-reigning queen
regnant in history.
Times of personal significance have included the births and
marriages of her children and grandchildren, her coronation in 1953,
and the celebration of milestones such as her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in
1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. Moments of sorrow for her
include the death of her father, aged 56; the assassination of
Prince Philip´s uncle, Lord
Mountbatten; the breakdown of her children´s marriages in 1992
(her annus horribilis); the death in
1997 of her son´s former wife, Diana, Princess of Wales; and the
deaths of her mother and sister in 2002.
Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican
sentiments and severe press criticism of the royal family, but support for the
monarchy and her personal popularity remain high.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
CI GCVO GCStJ (Margaret
Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002), was the younger
daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and
the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
Margaret spent much of her childhood years in the company of her
older sister and parents. Her life changed dramatically in 1936,
when her paternal uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry the twice divorced American
Wallis Simpson. Margaret´s father became King,
and her older sister became heir presumptive with Margaret second in
line to the throne. During World War II, the two sisters stayed at Windsor Castle, despite suggestions to
evacuate them to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was
considered too young to perform any official duties, and instead
continued her education.
After the war, Margaret fell in love with Group Captain Peter Townsend. In 1952,
Margaret´s father died, her sister became sovereign, and Townsend
divorced his first wife. Early the following year, he proposed to
Margaret. Many in the government felt that he would be an
unsuitable husband for the Queen´s 22-year-old sister and the
Church of England refused to countenance a
marriage to a divorced man.[2]
Margaret eventually abandoned her plans and, in 1960, accepted the
proposal of the photographer Antony
Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon by the Queen. The couple had
two children and divorced in 1978.
Margaret was often viewed as a controversial member of the
royal family. Her divorce earned her
negative publicity and she was romantically linked with several
men. Her health gradually deteriorated in the final two decades of
her life; a heavy smoker all her adult life, she had a lung
operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993, and at least three strokes
between 1998 and 2001. She died at King Edward VII
Hospital on 9 February 2002.
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14
December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United
Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December
1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth.
As the second son of King George
V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his
early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He served in the Royal
Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War, and afterwards took on the usual
round of public engagements. He married Lady Elizabeth
Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
George´s elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon
the death of their father in 1936. However, later that year Edward
revealed his desire to marry the divorced American socialite
Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister
Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for
political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman
and remain king. Edward abdicated in order
to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of
the House of Windsor.
During George´s reign the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the
Commonwealth of Nations
accelerated. The parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct
mention of the monarch from the country´s
constitution on the day of his accession. From 1939, the Empire
and Commonwealth, except the Irish Free State, was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941,
respectively. Though Britain and its allies were ultimately
victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world
powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and
Pakistan in 1947, George remained as king of both countries,
but the title Emperor of India was abandoned in June 1948.
Ireland formally declared itself a
republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, and India became a
republic within the Commonwealth the following year. George adopted
the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by health
problems in the later years of his reign. His elder daughter,
Elizabeth, succeeded him.
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August
1900 – 30 March 2002) was the wife of King
George
VI and the mother of Queen
Elizabeth II and
Princess Margaret,
Countess of Snowdon. She was
Queen consort of the United Kingdom
and the
Dominions from her husband´s accession in 1936 until
his death in 1952, after which she was known as
Queen
Elizabeth The Queen Mother,
[2]
to avoid confusion with her daughter. She was the last
Empress consort of India.
Born into a family of British nobility as The Honourable
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, she became Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
when her
father inherited the Scottish Earldom of Strathmore and
Kinghorne in 1904. She came to prominence in 1923 when she
married Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King
George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters
embodied traditional ideas of family and public service.[3]
She undertook a variety of public engagements and became known as
the "Smiling Duchess" because of her consistent public
expression.[4]
In 1936, her husband unexpectedly became King when his brother,
Edward VIII, abdicated in order to
marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth became Queen. She
accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North
America before the start of World War II. During the war, her
seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British
public. In recognition of her role as an asset to British
interests, Adolf Hitler described her as "the most
dangerous woman in Europe".[5]
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 Queen.
On the death of Queen Mary in 1953 and with the former King
Edward VIII living abroad, Elizabeth became the senior member of
the British Royal Family and assumed a
position as family matriarch. In her later years, she was a
consistently popular member of the family, even when other members
were suffering from low levels of public approval.[6]
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.
