Queen Elizabeth Set To Become Britain's Longest Ruling Monarch

On September 9th Queen Elizabeth will break the record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and become Britain’s longest-ruling monarch.

Via Yahoo News:

Elizabeth only became queen due to a quirk of history after her uncle Edward VIII abdicated because of his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson and the crown passed to her father George VI when she was 10 years old. She was just 25 when she became Queen Elizabeth II on Feb. 6, 1952 on the death of her father.

At the time she was on tour in Kenya with her husband Prince Philip, who has been by her side throughout her reign. “In a way I didn’t have an apprenticeship. My father died much too young and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can,” she said 40 years later.

She was crowned queen of Britain and other realms, including Australia and Canada, on June 2, 1953, in a televised ceremony in Westminster Abbey. She became the 40th monarch in a royal line that goes back to William the Conqueror, who took the throne in 1066 after winning the Battle of Hastings.

I saw the fascinating play The Audience starring the brilliant Helen Mirren as "Queen Elizabeth" in the West End. The drama chronicles the relationships Elizabeth has had with the many prime ministers during her reign.

What an interesting life Elizabeth has led.

(h/t JMG)