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QUEEN ELIZABETH II — THE DIAMOND JUBILEE Travel is people. You may go abroad to see the famous sites, but what you remember best are the people you meet. Among them, like unex-pected treasure, are a few memorable contacts that will make your travels unique, special, and delightful. "People" is devoted to some of those you may come in contact with during your Home At First travels. This article appeared in Spring 2012. |
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THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT QUEEN ELIZABETH II |
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ELIZABETH ALEXANDRA MARY WINDSOR HAS BEEN MONARCH OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND 15 MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH FOR 60 YEARS. AS WE CELEBRATE HER DIAMOND JUBILEE THIS SPRING, WE MAY BELIEVE WE KNOW HER LIFE STORY WELL. TIME FOR A FEW SURPRISES FOR THE PARTY! |
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The girl who would become Queen Elizabeth II was born in a plain city house – albeit a house in Mayfair, LONDON’s poshest neighborhood – on April 21, 1926. Her parents, The Duke and Duchess of York led a relatively quiet life. Her likeable father was a shy man who, as second son to his father, King George V, did not expect to become King of England. The Duke and Duchess decided to name their firstborn daughter Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, after three successive generations of women in her family: her mother Elizabeth, her great-grandmother Alexandra, and her grandmother Mary. Great-grandmother Alexandra was the wife of King Edward VII. Grandmother Mary was the wife of King George V. Mother Elizabeth was the wife of the Duke of York, who unexpectedly would become King George VI when his older brother, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in so he could marry an American divorcée — a person-status ineligible and unacceptable to become the queen consort |
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wife of a king of England. Baby Elizabeth was named for three successive Queens of ENGLAND, who together served as queens consort to reigning kings for 51 years: 1901-1952. The child Elizabeth would herself become Queen of England at age 25, and reign as monarch now into her 61st year. The only British monarch who reigned longer than Queen Elizabeth II is her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, whose reign of 63.6 years appears quite reachable by Elizabeth. Longevity may be a feature of these five Queens of England: Victoria died at age 81, Alexandra at nearly 81, Mary at 85, and Elizabeth the Queen Mother four months shy of 102. For a brief time during 1952 there were three living queens in Britain: the widows of George V and George VI (Mary and Elizabeth the Queen Mother), and the newly-ascended Queen Elizabeth II, |
— QUEEN VICTORIA — |
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the current monarch, who sixty years later appears active and in fine health at age 86. Long live the queens. |
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Elizabeth II’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, was christened Alexandrina Victoria, named after her godfather Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, and her mother, Victoria, the German Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saafeld. Like Queen Elizabeth I, whose reign ended the Welsh TUDOR Dynasty, and Queen Anne, whose reign ended the Scottish Stuart Dynasty, Queen Victoria was the last of her line: the German Hanover Dynasty of Britain. Her husband, Albert, was German-German: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Although Albert could not be King of England (he was made Prince Consort), his name became the new dynastic bloodline of Britain’s royalty: Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Victoria & Albert’s son (Edward VII), grandson (George V), and great-grandsons (Edward VIII and George VI) continued the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty. When, during World War I, things German became very unpopular in Britain, King George V changed his family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to a made-up English name, Windsor, after the hereditary castle home of British monarchs for 900 years. (Remarkably, George V’s decree was retroactive to all Saxe-Coburg-Gotha descendants of Victoria and Albert, including his father King Edward VII.) Queen Elizabeth II is an English “Windsor”, therefore, by decree, but one with a lot of German blood in her |
— 3 QUEENS & A KING? — |
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veins. And some other foreign blood, as well. Great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII, was born and raised in Copenhagen Denmark, and known as Alexandra of Denmark, daughter of Christian IX, King of Denmark (of the dynastic line of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the Danish royal house with connections — again — to German royalty) and his queen consort, Louise of Hesse-Kassel (who grew up in Denmark, but was descended from and titled by the Landgraves of Hesse, yet another noble German family). Alexandra’s blood relatives included her nephew German Kaiser Wilhelm II (leader of Germany, the enemy of Britain during World War I), her brother King George I of Greece (who was assassinated in 1913), and her sister, Dagmar, who became Empress consort of All the Russias (wife of Tsar Alexander III and mother of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, who, along with his wife and children, were murdered by Bolshevik assassins in 1918). |
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Grandmother Queen Mary, wife of Britain’s King George V, was a Princess of Teck, daughter of the Duke of Teck, a noble of the German House of Württemberg with ancestral connection to the powerful Habsburgs, the emperors of greater Austro-Hungary. Queen Mary’s mother, also named Mary, was titled Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, England. However, she was the granddaughter of England’s King George III, and was born in and spent her early years in Hanover, Germany. Despite her English title, most of her relatives were Germans or of German descent. When her husband, King George V, ordered the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family name retroactively changed to “Windsor”, Mary’s English-Germanic relatives living in England similarly changed their family name to “Cambridge”. Mother Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, queen consort of King George VI, appears impeccably English, having been born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon in London or in one of England’s nearby Home Counties. However, her father, it turns out, is a titled Scot, the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. His ancestral home is fabled Glamis Castle in Angus, eastern CENTRAL SCOTLAND. The Queen Mother spent her childhood at home there and a second home in England. Her relatives on both sides do appear to be primarily of British (English, Scottish, or Welsh) |
— 2 QUEENS & A PRINCESS
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descent. Queen Elizabeth II, therefore, is primarily Germanic on her royal father’s side. Her genealogical other half — that from the Queen Mum — is rooted in Britain, although the British nobility she descends from on her mother’s side is from Scotland. By the way, the next generation of British monarchs will be more Germanic, not less, than their mother Queen Elizabeth II. Their father, the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, descends from a familiar |
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source: the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg family (see Queen Alexandra, above), of which he was a member of Greek royalty, which became exiled when Philip was very young. The current Prince Consort of the United Kingdom was educated in Germany, Scotland, and England. When he became a naturalized British citizen, Philip changed his family name to an anglicized version of his mother’s Germanic title name: “Mountbatten” (from the German, “Battenberg”). Thus his royal descendants — including Crown Prince Charles — may choose to carry a new dynastic family name that sounds deceptively English, but decidedly is not: “Mountbatten-Windsor”. |
— 2 QUEENS, A PRINCE,
AND A PRINCESS
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III. ELIZABETH’S SKILL SET EXTENDS BEYOND THAT SIGNATURE ROYAL WAVE. |
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Many know the Queen is an
accomplished horsewoman, but did you know that |
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• Knows how to change the oil of her Rolls-Royce. • Has won prizes for her swimming abilities. • Speaks French fluently – useful for talking with the neighbors and when visiting certain independent-minded parts of Canada. • Was a Girl Guide at 11 (Americans call these cookies “Girl Scouts”) and a Sea Ranger (where she learned to mess about in boats) when 17 years old. • Breeds thoroughbred horses and Labrador dogs. Some of her royal horses have won races at the annual Royal Ascot meeting. Her Labradors learn to work her estates as hunting dogs and compete in field trials. She directs them — sometimes at great distance — with whistles and hand signals. • Knows the ins and outs of Scottish country dancing, useful for the Ghillies’ Balls she holds during her annual family holidays at Balmoral Castle in the mountains west of Aberdeen, Scotland. |
PRINCESS
ELIZABETH IN HER MILITARY |
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IV. THE QUEEN’S DIAMOND
JUBILEE HAS ALREADY STARTED! |
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Elizabeth’s Silver and Golden Jubilees have come and gone, and now her Diamond Jubilee — marking 60 years of her reign — is underway. Commemorations shipborne, solemn, silly, ceremonial, civil, and clerical are being celebrated country- and Commonwealth-wide. Already, her ascension anniversary to the Throne of England has been saluted February 6 in London, Portsmouth, York, and Edinburgh by cannonade. Medals and special edition coins are being struck at British possessions and Commonwealth nations around the globe. Royal Family members have dispersed worldwide to accept the honors of the former British Empire on behalf of The Queen. The heir presumptive to the throne, Prince Charles, and his latest wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will tour NEW ZEALAND as the Queen’s representatives in November, 2012. (Lesser royals presumably will visit |
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lesser destinations.) While hundreds of lesser commemorations will occur in British-tied locations throughout the world, the Big Weekend for the Diamond Jubilee begins Saturday, June 2, and continues through Tuesday, June 5. National holidays have been declared throughout the United Kingdom for Monday and Tuesday June 4-5, making the Jubilee a 4-day weekend celebration. Among the events planned for the Jubilee Weekend are: • Saturday June 2: The Queen plays the ponies at the Epsom Derby, Epsom Downs, in Surrey, SW of London. • Sunday, June 3: The Queen makes like ANNE BOLEYN by boarding a sumptuous new royal river barge for an afternoon cruise along a 7-mile stretch of the River Thames from Battersea east past Westminster |
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and The City to ST. KATHARINE’S MARINA, escorted by an expected thousand-boat flotilla. One million Union Jack-waving landlubbers are expected to line the route of the Thames River Pageant. |
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• Monday, June 4: The Queen will be joined by 10,000 ballot-winning fans for an outdoor evening Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. Performers will be a mixture of artists from across the decades, including Elton John, Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard, Stevie Wonder, and Annie Lennox among many. Following the concert some 2,600 bonfires will be set ablaze across the UK and at British places around the world, following a tradition marking important events in British history, this one called The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons. • Tuesday, June 5: The Queen and Royal Family members gather today at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, for a special Diamond Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving beginning at 10:30AM. A children’s choir of forty UK kids 10-13 years old will perform a commemorative song at the service. Later in the day after lunch at Westminster, a Ceremonial Carriage Procession carrying The Queen (plus all the primary royals: husband Prince Philip, son Charles the Prince of Wales and wife Camilla, grandson Prince William and his wife Kate Duchess of Cambridge, and grandson Prince Henry of Wales) will make its way past military honor guards and throngs of well-wishers, tourists, and the otherwise curious. The opulent, antique, horse-drawn carriages will wind their way past St. James’s Park to Buckingham Palace. A 60-gun salute will occur along the way. A military guard in its finest ceremonial regalia will welcome the royal procession when it arrives at the palace. The Royal Family will reappear on the famed front balcony at Buckingham Palace to recognize the anticipated thousands of onlookers as aircraft of the Royal Air Force fly over and another gun salute fires. |
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V. THE QUEEN’S OFFICIAL
BIRTHDAY HAPPENS JUNE 16 WITH |
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Another grand
procession with numerous royals, opulent carriages, legions of
elaborately uniformed guards, and throngs of flag-waving well-wishers
occurs annually at the Queen's official birthday, called The Trooping of
the Colour. Queen Elizabeth rode the parade on horseback until 1981,
when a troubled 17-year-old from Kent shot |
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— QUEEN ELIZABETH COMPLETES
HER MOST DARING RIDE
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Buckingham Palace that day (we were there — see the photograph above), an era ended. Since that day, The Queen has traveled the route between Horseguards Parade and Buckingham Palace by grand royal coach (see title photo of this article), perhaps not as visible, but certainly no longer as vulnerable. Such precautions probably help Elizabeth and her subjects celebrate birthday and jubilee milestones very few British monarchs have reached. |
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VISITING ROYAL BRITAIN: Many locations in Greater London and throughout Britain have associations with Queen Elizabeth and British Royalty and may be visited. Here's a partial list, which includes current and former royal residences:
Greater
LONDON:
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THE
BANQUETING HOUSE
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BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Elsewhere in
ENGLAND:
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HIGHGROVE, COTSWOLDS
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LEEDS CASTLE, KENT
SCOTLAND:
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BALMORAL CASTLE, ABERDEENSHIRE
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THE CASTLE OF
MEY, CAITHNESS |
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– HOME AT FIRST – |
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