Interesting Facts About Queen Elizabeth II
There is probably nobody more excessively British than Queen Elizabeth II. Currently she is the second longest serving British monarch in history. Queen Victoria rules for 63 years. James the 1st of England rule 58 years and King George III ruled 59 years. The British Monarchy definitely has longevity in the line.
The Queen has also been married a long time. She married Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh on November 20 in 1947. Both are great great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. The queen is a direct descendent of Queen Victoria’s oldest son Edward VII and the Duke of Edinburgh is a direct descendent of Victorias’ third child Princess Alice.
For the last 56 years the Queen has been visiting the Prime Minister every Tuesday evening. The prime ministers she has met with regularly like this over the years include Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
Every year the Queen sends a telegram to couples celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary and every year she sends telegrams to people who have reached 100 years old. To date, during her reign she has sent over 100,000 telegrams to individuals who have lived a whole century.
Like the royalty that preceded her the Queen celebrates two birthdays. She celebrates her real birthday on April 21st and she celebrates her public birthday in June with a ceremony called the Trooping of the Colors.
The Queen has also opened parliament every year since she was inaugurated except in the years 1959 and 1963 when she was pregnant with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
The Queen has also had more than 30 Corgis starting with Susan who was a present given to her for her 18th birthday in 1944. Her current five dogs – Will, Holly, Emma, Monty and Linnet are ales descendents of Susan.
Queen Elizabeth also did a lot of things that no monarch before her ever did. She was first to send her children to boarding school and the first to actually serve in the armed forces. She was also the first British monarch to actually be out of the country at the moment of succession; she was in Kenya at the time. She is also the first monarch to visit China and the first to ever open Buckingham palace to the public. She was also the first to visit Australia, Fifi and New Zealand during a round-the-world tour in 1953.