Victoria Arbiter - Queen Elizabeth II: Monarch

Acknowledgement

Thank you to Rosemary Arbiter, Tony Burton, Marlene Koenig, and William Rycroft for your ever-present brilliance. My thanks to Tony Morris for delivering deadlines, critiques, and notes in such a positive and encouraging fashion. Its been a delight. Profound gratitude to my father, Dickie Arbiter, for parking my six-year-old self atop the LBC News van for Trooping the Colour ... where it all began. And finally, my thanks to Ryan and Raff Brown, with whom all things really are possible.

Published in 2017 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

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2017, Victoria Arbiter

First published 2016 as Pocket Giant Queen Elizabeth II by the History Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Arbiter, Victoria, author.

Title: Queen Elizabeth II : monarch / Victoria Arbiter.

Description: New York : Cavendish Square Publishing, 2017. | Series: History makers | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016025941 (print) | LCCN 2016026195 (ebook) | ISBN 9781502624437 (library bound) | ISBN 9781502624444 (E-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926- | Queens--Great Britain--Biography.

Classification: LCC DA590 .A83 2017 (print) | LCC DA590 (ebook) | DDC 941.085092 [B] --dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025941

Editorial Director: David McNamara

Editor: Liz Krajnik

Copy Editor: Rebecca Rohan

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Printed in the United States of America

Princess Elizabeth embarks on 1952 Commonwealth Tour to Kenya, Ceylon, Australia, and New Zealand.

The New Elizabethan Era

I have to be seen to be believed.

Elizabeth II, tour to New Zealand,

March 1970

D escending the stairs of the royal plane at London Airport on February 7, 1952, the former Princess Elizabeth took her first steps on British soil as queen. She was twenty-five. Only days earlier, her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, along with her sister, Princess Margaret, had joined a crowd three thousand-strong to bid farewell to their eldest daughter and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, as they prepared to depart for a five-month tour of Australia and New Zealand. Due to her fathers declining health, Elizabeth had already represented him at a number of public engagements, and had only recently returned from a tour to Canada on his behalf. In early 1952, the young princess was to embark on a tour that would see her travel 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers) across four continents.

After sharing a private goodbye on board the aircraft, the royal family returned to the tarmac. With a final wave from the king, the door closed and the plane began its taxi. It was the last time Elizabeth saw her father. Six days later, during the couples stay in Kenya, the first stop on the tour, the Reuters news service alerted the accompanying media that the king had died in his sleep at Sandringham early that morning. He was fifty-six.

At 2:45 p.m. local time, once the princess private secretary, Martin Charteris, had confirmed the news, Prince Philip informed Elizabeth of her fathers death. Following a nineteen-hour flight, the royal plane landed back at London Airport where a small group of Elizabeths ministers, led by her uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, waited to greet her. The royal couple drove to Clarence House in a car bearing the Sovereigns Arms, and the next day, February 8, 1952, the accession of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was proclaimed.

At the time of her birth, Princess Elizabeth was never expected to ascend the throne. Were it not for the 1936 abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, the monarchy as it exists today would be very different indeed. Edward was never crowned and his reign lasted a mere 325 days. Had he fulfilled his kingly duties, he would have been required to marry and provide an heir and a spare, but his infatuation with twice-divorced American socialite, Wallis Simpson, and his subsequent abdication led to an unprecedented and dramatic shift within the House of Windsor. As his brothers successor, King George VI renewed the general populaces faith in the centuries-old institution, which had been badly shaken as a result of Edwards actions. In turn, he proved himself to be far better suited to the role of king than his elder brother. Reestablishing a sense of national unity, he led his country through the war years, and his popularity in life gave way to public affection for Elizabeth upon his death.