Major events in Queen Elizabeth 2 life

Elizabeth II inherited a monarchy whose political power had been progressively eroding since the 18th century, but whose role in the public life of the nation appeared to have grown ever more vital.

Monarchs in the twentieth century were expected to undertake ceremonial tasks with appropriate gravitas but yet lighten up sufficiently to share and appreciate the preferences and interests of common people.

The Queen’s magnificent coronation in 1953 struck a balance between these two responsibilities.

The historic ceremony could be traced to the monarchy’s Saxon origins, but her choice to allow it to be televised brought it into the living rooms of ordinary people with the newest modern technology.

The royal ceremonial was to be widely visible from then on, ironically becoming far better choreographed and more formal than it had ever been.

The Queen went on to change public conceptions of the monarchy when she agreed to the 1969 BBC film Royal Family at the request of Lord Mountbatten and his son-in-law, television producer Lord Brabourne.

It was a surprisingly intimate picture of her home life, with scenes of her eating breakfast, barbecuing at Balmoral, and going to the local stores.

Major events in Queen Elizabeth 2 life

On July 29, 1981, an estimated 750 million people worldwide watched Prince Charles, Elizabeth’s eldest son, married Lady Diana Spencer in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The relationship between the British heir and the young “Shy Di” had captivated the world, and their elaborate weddings were dubbed the “wedding of the century.” While Diana was adored by the public, her marriage to Charles (and her relationship with the royal family) was fraught from the start.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government agreed in late 1984 to relinquish sovereignty over Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997.

Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit the Chinese mainland in 1986, touring the terracotta warriors in Xi’an, the Great Wall in Beijing, and other attractions.

The diplomatic significance of the queen’s visit was overshadowed by her husband’s trademark (and sometimes racist) gaffes: Philip referred to Beijing as “ghastly” and informed a group of British students that if they stayed in China too long, they would get “slitty eyes.”

Charles and Diana’s marriage deteriorated further, and they announced their separation in 1992. The queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, divorced as well, while Anne divorced her husband, Mark Phillips.

A fire broke out in Windsor Castle late that year, damaging more than 100 rooms. Queen Elizabeth stated in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of her ascension that 1992 “has turned out to be an ‘Annus Horribilis'”: Latin for “an awful year.”

After Charles and Diana’s divorce in 1996, and especially after Diana’s death in a car collision in Paris the following summer, public criticism of the royal family increased.

The queen originally remained at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, refusing to allow the flag to fly at half-mast over Buckingham Palace or address the nation in mourning.

She quickly changed her mind about the flag, returned to London to greet hundreds of mourners, and delivered a rare televised statement to a nation heartbroken by the loss of the “People’s Princess.”

The queen’s celebration of her 50th year on the throne was tarnished by a double bereavement, when her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and their mother died within weeks of each other. As the first British monarch to commemorate a Golden Jubilee since Queen Victoria, Elizabeth traveled more than 40,000 miles that year, including visits to the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. She also traveled to 70 cities and towns in 50 counties around the United Kingdom.

In comparison to the turbulent 1990s, the beginning of Elizabeth’s second half-century as queen coincided with the beginning of more positive relations between Britain and its royal family: in 2005, a majority of the British public supported Charles’ marriage to his longtime love, Camilla Parker-Bowles.