The day Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor became Queen was the worst and saddest of her young life to date.
It is a service anniversary as for eternity. On February 6, Queen Elizabeth II (95) has been on the throne for 70 years – an all-time record in the more than 1000-year chronicle of the English monarchy.
In the entire history of the world only three other monarchs reached this magical number: The Persian Great King Shapur II (309-379) “made” 70 years, but was ruler from birth; Bhumibol Rama IX. (1927-2016) was King of Thailand for 70 years and 126 days; the Sun King Louis XIV (1638-1715) even ruled over France for 72 years and 110 days, but he was enthroned at the age of four and his mother, Anna of Austria (1601-1666), was the official regent until he was 13 years old . From a purely statistical point of view, the Queen is a historical uniqueness.
Difficult times lie behind her
The day Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was the worst and saddest of her young life to date. On that February 6, 1952 she was 25, married to Philip (1921-2021), the Duke of Edinburgh, since 1947 and mother of two children (Prince Charles, then 3 and Princess Anne, then 1).
Elizabeth was not only on a bed of roses at this point. The young woman would have preferred to become a veterinarian or a farmer who lives somewhere in the country with her family, horses and dogs and is happy there. She was never keen on the English throne, it was a duty, more than that: a heavy burden which fate inherited and which she could not choose.
Already as a child she had witnessed how her uncle Edward VIII (1894-1972) abdicated after only eleven months as king (and head of the Anglican Church) in 1936 because he was not allowed to marry the (divorced) woman he loved. Instead, her father George (1895-1952) was crowned, which he did not choose. Elizabeth was suddenly heir to the throne.
It was a difficult time when George VI. had to rule: England was against Germany in World War II, London was regularly exposed to German air raids, and the royal family also had to make do with the food rations they were allotted. At 14, Elizabeth gave her first radio address, addressing the children who were being evacuated from the cities.
She took over the duties of the sick king
On her 21st birthday, the Crown Princess pledged on the radio that she would devote her entire life, “long or short”, to the service of the people and the British Empire. They were serious words from a very young woman who knew that she didn’t have a fairytale future ahead of her.
This is the situation before that February 6, 1952. The King, a forgiving and loving father to Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret (1930-2002), has been terminally ill for a long time. The chain smoker suffers from lung cancer, Elizabeth has to perform representational tasks for him, for example she flies to Canada and meets President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) in the USA. The next trip is to go to Australia, Fiji and New Zealand, but first to Kenya.
The princess flies with Philip, the children stayed at home. Elizabeth’s friend Pamela Mountbatten (92), a cousin of her husband, reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “We left London on January 31, 1952. A tired king said goodbye to us at the airport. He was supposed to make the trip, but because he didn’t feel well, he had sent his eldest daughter. It was the last time that we witnessed George VI. We – that was Princess Elizabeth, Prince Philip, a valet, a cloakroom attendant and Commander Mike Parker, Philip’s aide Elizabeth had written to me asking me to accompany her and promising we’d have fun and too would giggle with each other.”
In Nairobi, Elizabeth visits a hospital named after her and keeps other official appointments. Then the British delegation drove to the Sagana Lodge at the foot of Mount Kenya, which Elizabeth and Philip had received as a wedding present. Lady Pamela relates: “They were wonderfully relaxing days, part together, part apart: Philip and Mike sometimes went fishing, while Elizabeth and I borrowed police horses and we went horseback riding.”
The group drives to the Treetops Hotel, which is located in the midst of the overwhelming nature of the Aberdare National Park, a highlight of the trip: You stay in a tree house, Elizabeth films forest elephants, experiences a fantastic sunset and watches wild animals half the night in the pale moonlight. Lady Pamela: “She was over the moon with joy.”
It was only later that she found out about her father’s death
On the morning of February 6th, as the British historian Hugo Vickers describes it in the newspaper “The Telegraph”, the princess and her companion drive back to the Sagana Lodge.
At the same time, servants in England want to wake up their monarch in the royal residence of Sandringham for breakfast – and find the 56-year-old dead in bed. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) is informed, and at 10:45 local time the people are told over the radio: “The King, who retired last night in his usual state of health, died peacefully in his sleep this morning.”
It’s 1:45 p.m. in Kenya, and Elizabeth has no idea of the dramatic events in England. Lunch is served to the heir to the throne in the Sagana Lodge, after which Elizabeth’s private secretary, Martin Charteris, and the hotel manager Norman Jarman are sitting together over a sherry when they get a call from the editor of the newspaper “Nairobi Standard”. The man tells them that news of the king’s death has arrived via telex and whether the princess can confirm it.
When another journalist finally got in touch and also asked for confirmation of the news of the death, the hotel manager called Buckingham Palace. There one is shocked that the heir to the throne has still not been informed about the death of the father.
Buckingham Palace had previously sent an encrypted message to the British governor in Nairobi, but he was away and took the encryption key with him.
Meanwhile, Philip’s aide Mike Parker has turned on a radio and is listening to funeral music on the BBC. That says it all. Parker goes to his boss, who has retired for lunch. “When Philip found out from Mike he went pale. He dropped the newspaper on his face and stayed like that for about 15 minutes,” says Pamela Mountbatten.
Elizabeth becomes queen at the age of 21
Finally Philip goes to his wife, takes her in his arms and leads her into the garden. They walk up and down for a long time and talk to each other. Elizabeth finally knows that her beloved father has died, and she is burdened with an overwhelming burden: she also knows that under the Act of Settlement, 1701, she is queen immediately. When her private secretary, Charteris, asks what name she would choose as queen, she replies, “My own, of course!”
When Elizabeth stands in front of Pamela, she spontaneously hugs her neck. Afterwards she asks her friend: “What am I doing? I wasn’t allowed to hug the queen! I apologized and made a bow. She didn’t comment.”
A hectic departure follows. The group is driven over bumpy tracks to the airport in Nyeri. On the way, people in countless villages wave to the new queen. The news had spread like wildfire across the African continent.
The flight goes first to Entebbe in Uganda, where the weather is bad, the flight captain refuses to take off: “I now have a queen on board, so I’m not risking anything!” Finally, the machine takes off for London, Elizabeth retires to her cabin. “I hope she cried there,” says her friend Pamela.
In mourning on the throne
The next day, February 7, Elizabeth sets foot on English soil for the first time as Queen at London Airport. Wearing black mourning clothes provided for her by the servant in Africa, she now approaches Prime Minister Churchill, who is waiting down the gangway, along with envoys from the Accession Council.
The following day she is officially proclaimed as Queen at St. James Palace. Out of respect for her father’s grief, her coronation in Westminster Abbey will take place over a year later on June 2, 1953.
70 years later, the now 95-year-old queen is in mourning as before her coronation: her husband Prince Philip died last spring after more than 73 years of marriage. Probably the most serious death in her long life. But she still has some time before the public celebrations for her jubilee. These will take place from June 2nd to 5th, i.e. after the year of mourning.