Since William the Conqueror became king, Britain has experienced 43 kings. Elizabeth II is the seventh queen after Mary I, Elizabeth I, Princess Grey, Mary Ⅱ, Anne and Queen Victoria.
Britain has a long history of constitutional monarchy. When Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne, the king had little power. The Queen is nominally the Head of State, the Commander-in-Chief of the United Kingdom Armed Forces and the secular leader of the Anglican Church. She has the power to appoint and remove the Prime Minister, ministers, senior judges and local governors, and to convene, stop and dissolve parliament. But in fact, she has neither real power nor authority. All she has is ostentation and extravagance, glory and status as a symbol of Britain.
Robert Lacey, a British writer, humorously wrote in the book Queen Elizabeth II: According to the constitution, if Parliament submits the Queen's own death sentence, she must sign it for approval. When exercising their rights, the Prime Minister and cabinet members can only "advise" the Queen, but never give orders. Under this peculiar system, the British Parliament and the king lived in peace for 300 years.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on April 2, 19261day. His mother came from a famous Scottish family, and his father was Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V of England. Frederick Arthur George. As a child, Elizabeth and her parents lived a quiet and comfortable life in the Wangs' mansion in Windsor. Their families live in peace with the world, and they like gardening activities, such as planting flowers and grass, pruning fruit trees and stocking bees.
Mother arranged educational content for her and her sister Margaret. Elizabeth studies hard and speaks fluent French, German and Spanish.
After the death of George V, Elizabeth's uncle Edward VIII succeeded to the throne. Edward VIII's insistence on marrying Mrs Simpson, an American who has been divorced twice, has caused many discussions in China, from parliament to ordinary people. After being criticized by the House of Commons and the Prime Minister, he was forced to abdicate and his younger brother Albert succeeded to the throne. According to English law, Elizabeth became the presumed heir to the throne, that is, assuming that she would not succeed before her brother was born.
Elizabethan people were unprepared for accidents. Elizabeth's father Albert succeeded her uncle Edward VIII to the throne. When King Edward VIII bowed to Elizabeth's father, George VI, who had just succeeded to the throne, exclaimed, "This is impossible. I hope nothing happened!" " At the beginning of World War II, the British Expeditionary Force was driven into the sea in Dunkirk, and the threat of German Hitler seemed imminent. Britain mobilized all over the country, and even George VI practiced shooting with his entourage, ready to carry a gun when necessary and be the leader of the resistance movement.
1June, 940, Princess Elizabeth, 14 years old, made a radio speech to the whole of Europe through the BBC. She said, "We are trying our best to help our brave sailors, army and air force, and at the same time we are trying our best to bear the war risks and cruel results that we should bear. We all know that everything will be fine in the end. "
On her 16 birthday, Elizabeth was appointed honorary head of the 1st Guard Infantry Regiment.
At the beginning of 1945, with her father's consent, she served in the auxiliary local service forces in Camberley, serving as the driver of the transport fleet with the rank of second lieutenant. When the Germans surrendered, Elizabeth and her sister Margaret sneaked out of the palace and went to the streets and squares of London to watch the carnival scene of the masses celebrating the victory of the anti-fascist war.
They crowded into the happy crowd, singing, dancing and shouting slogans with people, and forgot everything. At that time, there was no TV, and no one found that these two girls were noble princesses, and one of them was the future queen.
Elizabeth began to think about her marriage, and her lover was Prins Carl Philip, a Greek. Philip's father, Prince Andrew, was exiled for taking part in the coup. He didn't want his son to be involved in the whirlpool of political struggle again, so he put him in foster care with his British relative mountbatten. Philip's grandfather is the grandson of Queen Victoria, so he is also a distant relative of the British royal family.
From 65438 to 0939, Prins Carl Philip entered the Royal Naval Academy and served in the Royal Navy in wartime, with outstanding performance.
Prins Carl Philip and Elizabeth first met at the Royal Naval Academy. At that time, King George VI was accompanied by the princess to inspect the college, and the hospital arranged for Philip to meet him. They fell in love at first sight and have kept in touch ever since. The second meeting between Elizabeth and Philip was four years later, when Philip was already a frequent visitor to Windsor Castle where Elizabeth lived.
1947, the captain of the royal navy became a British citizen, and announced his engagement to Elizabeth on July 10. This year, Elizabeth was 2 1 year old and philip Mountbatten was 26 years old. Soon he was made Duke of Edinburgh.
George VI has been in poor health. 1952 On February 5th, he went hunting, but died suddenly in his sleep the next morning. Meanwhile, Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip are sitting side by side on the trunk of a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, Africa, overlooking elephants, rhinoceroses and antelopes. A few hours later, when Elizabeth learned of her father's death, she became the Queen of England.
The coronation ceremony is scheduled for June 2nd, 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. On the first day, the tree-lined area in London was crowded with people. More than 30,000 people slept on the roadside with blankets, raincoats and stools, just to see the Queen. The rain never stopped that spring, and these people were caught in the rain all night. The coronation ceremony began at 1 1, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who anointed the new queen and, by the grace of God, declared Elizabeth as "Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and other lands and territories, the head of the Commonwealth and the defender of faith".
After Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne, she took many measures. She linked the royal family with the people. She often walks in the crowd and meets her subjects as much as possible. At the same time, she comes into contact with radio, movies, television, newspapers and other propaganda tools, and is often subjected to all kinds of groundless and varied discussions.
The queen often expresses sincere admiration for the fictional skills of the press, and sometimes feels extremely indignant at the public opinion that exposes the private lives of members of the royal family. The queen knows that her status and lifestyle will cause people's dissatisfaction. According to English law, the royal family not only owns a large number of castles, rare treasures and large areas of land, but also receives huge annuities and is exempt from personal income tax. The Queen also owns many private planes, yachts and special trains. When the queen visited a foreign country, she even brought water to drink. And this huge expenditure is borne by every British taxpayer. In recent years, there has even been a discussion about the existence of the royal family, arguing that the end of the empire is inevitable.
Once, the queen's car was driving on a muddy road, and the mud spilled from the wheels splashed all over a woman. The woman shouted angrily at the car, and the queen reached out and smiled and replied, "Madam, you did the right thing." The husband around asked the woman what she said, and the queen calmly replied, "She said' asshole'!"
In the past, the British Empire, which was known as "the Mizi flag will never fall on earth", went from bad to worse. 1947, Elizabeth II's father is no longer the Indian emperor; 1948, Ceylon gained autonomy and was later renamed Sri Lanka; From 65438 to 0949, Myanmar became independent and Malaysia became an autonomous federation. In the following year 10, Egypt, Gold Coast and Zambia gained independence one after another. Faced with these circumstances, Elizabeth II realized that the royal family should also make appropriate changes in some aspects to conform to the trend of the times. The queen called on members of the royal family to blend in with ordinary people.
Nevertheless, the Queen has been criticized and discussed from all sides. A Lord wrote an article in the newspaper: "The way the Queen speaks in public is annoying. She used the pretentious tone of a middle school student. She has nothing to do with the modern world, and her advisers are also a group of playboys who know nothing about life outside the small circle of the ruling group behind the scenes. "
Obviously, the royal family is not sacred. The student * Queen visited university of stirling, and the Anti-Killing League repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with Princess Anne's hunting. The Queen's husband, Philip, was the chairman of the World Wildlife Fund, but he shot and killed a tiger in a hunting, which once fascinated the media.
What made Elizabeth most angry was that a waitress who had worked beside her betrayed the royal family's "secret" to the French newspaper Competitive Illustrated. The maid said that at a dinner party, in order to prevent a foreign VIP from mistaking rose perfume for soup and making a fool of himself, all members of the royal family made a mistake and drank the rose perfume in the washbasin. The maid also said that the Queen didn't like Prime Minister Thatcher, and even drove the visiting female Prime Minister from Balmoral Castle to a wilderness cabin. The queen was furious and ordered her spokesman to flatly deny it.
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip have deep feelings. Although they sometimes quarrel and even scold each other, they still laugh more when they are together. As they grow older, they can better understand, understand and respect each other. Husbands are often rude to people, and the queen doesn't care. One day, in front of the Queen, he was furious with the director of the film "The Royal Family" and shouted, "Please don't put your damn camera so close to the Queen!" The queen smiled and took her husband's arm and walked away. But Prince Philip also has an easy-going side. Once, he went to America to raise money for charity. A frivolous American businessman suggested that if the prince is willing to take a bath in his swimming pool, he will spend more than $65.438 billion on charity. Philip said nothing, took off his clothes and jumped into the water, then picked up the check.
Elizabeth gave birth to Prince Charles in 1948, Princess Anne in 1950, Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964. The queen's care for the children's daily life reflects her painstaking efforts to hope that they will grow up as much as possible. She made many rules for the children herself, such as: when drinking tea, you must eat bread and sandwiches before eating cake; Patch the elbows of clothes; Give only 2 to 6 pence pocket money every week; When children are young, servants can only call them by their Christian names, not "your highness" and so on.
Under the strict requirements of his parents, Charles can make his own bed and start eating breakfast on time every morning. Prince Philip often said that without these basic trainings, how can children live independently? Once, Charles lost a dog leash in Sandelin. The next day, his mother asked him to look for it. She said, "Dog chains are bought with money."
The queen likes riding horses since she was a child. After her father's death, she inherited the royal horse racing stables, so the racecourse became a place for her to indulge in joy.
The image of Queen Elizabeth II is inextricably linked with horse racing. She is always interested in the technical performance of jumping obstacles on horseback. 1956, she also lent her horse called "countryman" to the British Olympic team. She let all the riders in the team live in Windsor so that she could watch their training. When the Queen watched the race in Stockholm, people could see the Queen silently chanting horse racing jargon, because she was and is an international female rider.
Princess Anne, the daughter of Elizabeth II, is also famous for riding, thanks to her mother's influence. The queen rides a horse four or five times a week, sits firmly in the saddle and steers the horse with perseverance and composure. She has been learning riding skills and perfecting her riding skills scientifically. It is because of her professional style that she sets an example for her daughter. Stubborn, determined and fearless, Elizabeth II is qualified to win the championship in all these cross-country events. With the efforts of the Queen and Princess Anne, this competition has become noticeable.
When Elizabeth is with her horse, people see the real Elizabeth, not the queen. She will completely forget her position, make a hullabaloo about like other horse racing fans and leap forward. At this time, you will see her face with a naughty smile when she was a child again. The queen visited the racetrack as often as possible and enjoyed the most elusive excitement. She often talks to her animals and rubs them with her nose. She likes getting up at dawn very much and watching a fine horse run past her with dew. Then she walked around the stable, touched their shining ribs with her hands, and talked with the owner about raising horses.
Elizabeth II likes to keep horses as well as dogs. One of her pet dogs died, and the Queen built a small grave for it in Sandelin. The tombstone reads "Susan, the Queen's faithful friend". The queen takes care of her dogs, feeds them, catches fleas and scolds them loudly when they misbehave, just like her horse.
In 1950s, the Queen developed a Rabdeau breed dog farm in Sandelin. She personally raised and trained these animals, and cultivated a hound dog, which won a national prize among similar animals.
Strictly speaking, Elizabeth II's family should be rural. She is willing to admit that she is a "Xiang Kun" and a "horse lover". If it weren't for the queen, she would definitely settle down in the country and feed horses and dogs.
Perhaps a lot of time will also be spent on valuable local undertakings, such as women's associations and the Red Cross.
On many occasions, the queen's life is no different from that of ordinary British women. When people saw her cutting meat in the kitchen of a country house, they didn't know what to call her. The guests invited to Windsor Country Villa were moved by the simple lifestyle of the Queen's family as soon as they arrived. Friends of the royal family mingled with celebrities to watch the horse race. The queen's regular activity is to hold weekend family gatherings in the country. When the Queen reads documents or goes out riding in the morning, her guests either play tennis or shop in Windsor. The Queen also prepared games, Christie's detective stories and some records for the guests who intend to stay.
Most of Elizabeth II's daily activities are carefully arranged. At 9 o'clock in the morning, a Scottish bagpiper played bagpipes outside her window, indicating the beginning of a day's work. The flag flying over the palace shows that the queen lives in the palace; If the flag is not raised, it means that she is not in London. The queen's routine includes reading documents for hours in the office behind Buckingham Palace every day and meeting government officials and guests; Meet with the Prime Minister once a week and participate in various activities. Only 1983, she attended 337 official activities, including official meetings, opening ceremonies, receptions, awards, receptions, state banquets and so on.
The queen's hard work is sometimes exaggerated. Her schedule in London is always full. But she has a long rest time and can go to the country house for a holiday. Her favorite activity is taking her dog for a walk in the wild.
Elizabeth II has gained loyalty and respect, but she can't easily make people feel affectionate. She doesn't like hugging as her mother does. Once, a Jamaican jumped in front of her energetically and spread his raincoat on a puddle. The queen looked at it carefully and then walked around it on purpose. She once saw one baby after another being put on the weighing scale, and heard a photographer who was eager to take a calendar shouting, "Your Majesty, for God's sake, give me a hug!" Her Prince Charles may do it, and her husband may do it when he is in a good mood, but the Queen is not interested. To save face, she restrained her feelings.
Maintaining the mystery of kingship is a complex task. One of the Queen's staff explained this very well: "The royal family does not live to entertain people or change their beliefs. The royal family is the royal family. "
Elizabeth II is the most prestigious and richest woman in the world and the envy of millions of ordinary people in Qian Qian. However, she also has many troubles: Prince Charles and Princess Diana are at odds, quarreling from childhood to public separation; Her other children have similar problems. Abroad, Australia's newly elected prime minister openly advocated leaving the Commonwealth. At home, there are voices calling for the abolition of royal privileges from time to time. Elizabeth II is still the richest man in Britain, although she is not as good as her grandparents who used to have the power of politics and religion. According to the statistics of 1988, her wealth reached 3.3 billion pounds. Although the queen is an individual rather than a god, she still enjoys a high reputation among the people and is regarded as a symbol of British tradition and the embodiment of eternal national spirit. Whenever the national anthem is played, people, old and young, stand up and sing the well-known "God Save the Queen" in chorus:
God bless the queen,
I wish her a long life,
God bless the queen.
General Chang Sheng, Mu Rongguang;
The hope of the rich, the happy heart;
Governing the country, Wang Yunchang;
God bless the queen! ……