In London 1926, on 21st April was born the first child of The Dukes and Duchess of York. The Princess was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace.
Princess Elizabeth was educated at home with Princess Margaret, her younger sister. She started to study constitutional history and law as preparation for her future role, after her father succeeded to the throne in 1936. She received tuition from her father and she was also instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The princess also learned French, studied art and music, learned to ride, and became a strong swimmer. She won the Children's Challenge Shield at London's Bath Club when she was thirteen.
She began to take part in public life with her parents, and she made her first public speech in October 1940, when she was 14 in a live broadcast, she sent a message during the BBC's children's programme to all the children of Britain and the Commonwealth.
From that time onwards, her official duties increased. She was involved with organisations connected with young people. She was President of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in Hackney and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. From March 1944 onwards, she also began to accompany the King and Queen on many of their tours within Britain.
In 1945 the Princess was made a Subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). By the end of the war she had reached the rank of Junior Commander, having completed her course at No. 1 Mechanical Training Centre of the ATS and passed out as a fully qualified driver.
The Queen takes a keen and highly knowledgeable interest in horses, and as an owner and breeder, she often visits other race meetings to watch her horses run, and also frequently attends equestrian events. Other interests include walking in the countryside and working her Labradors.
Another and important part of the work of The Queen and The Royal Family is to support and encourage public and voluntary service that existed since the eighteenth century and began with George II. Her Majesty has over 600 patronages including charities and organizations.
The area of the charity and voluntary sector is about preservation of wildlife and the environment, and the target is young people.
On 20 November 1947 she was married to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey, they have four children and after these, she got involved more with Crown subjects.
About five years later, on 6 February 1952, while The Princess was visiting a remote part of Kenya, she received the news of her father’s death. And on 2 June 1953, the Coronation happened in Westminster Abbey, conducted by Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Family life remained an essential support during official duties. As well as being Sovereign, The Queen was a mother with two young children to care for, Prince Charles, now The Prince of Wales and Princess Anne.
After Princess Elizabeth became Queen, their third child, Prince Andrew, arrived and the fourth, Prince Edward. Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were the first children to be born to a reigning monarch.
The Queen and the monarchy in the United Kingdom
The oldest form of government in the United Kingdom is monarchy and The Queen is Head of State, Her Majesty has many important ceremonial and formal roles with respect to Government, Justice, Armed Forces and has important relationships with the established Churches of England and Scotland.
The origins of constitutional monarchy in Britain began until the end of the seventeenth century, and with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 the leading noblemen of England changed something about the throne and in the same century the Stuart kings propagated the theory of the divine right of kings, claiming that the Sovereign was subject only to God and not to the law.
From this time onwards many things have been changed, and started the constitutional monarchy, that it is a form of government in which a king or queen acts as Head of State, but the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament, not with the Monarch, and the constitutional monarchy separates the Head of State’s ceremonial and official duties from party politics.
The constitutional monarchy we know today really developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and one of the most important writers on the subject of constitutional monarchy was a Victorian economist and writer called Walter Bagehot (1826-77), he established power to be exercised by Ministers in Cabinet, and by Parliaments elected.
The Queen, having studied constitutional monarchy, knows well how to behave when needed. For example: Her Majesty is also Fount of Justice, Head of the Armed Forces and has important relationships with the established Churches of England and Scotland, so, these chores is important to know about law and rules to do anything in the reign, and Her Queen Elizabeth is able to control.
BY Vanessa Klassen - published in 2008.
