Elizabeth II Celebrates Her 88th Birthday

Elizabeth II celebrated her 88th birthday on April 21. To mark the occasion, David Bailey released a new portrait of The Queen, which showed her smiling in black and white. A gun salute also took place today.

The then Princess Elizabeth of York was born on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London, in England. She is the eldest daughter and child of the then Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) and his wife, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later the Duchess of York, Queen Elizabeth and The Queen Mother). Elizabeth had a sister, Princess Margaret Rose (born in 1930), who passed away in 2002.

The little Princess was christened by the Archbishop of York on 29 May 1926 in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace. Her godparents were King George V, Queen Mary, Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, the Duke of Connaught, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Lady Elphinstone. Her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary and as a child, her family called her ‘Lilibet’, as she couldn’t pronounce her name properly for the first time.

On November 20, 1947, Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten (formally known as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), who was granted the title of Duke of Edinburgh at the time of their wedding. The couple have four children: Charles, Prince of Wales (born in 1948), Anne, Princess Royal (born in 1950), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (born in 1960) and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (born in 1964).

The Queen also has eight grandchildren: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (son of Prince Charles; born in 1982), Prince Harry of Wales (son of Prince Charles; born in 1984), Peter Phillips (son of Princess Anne; born in 1977), Zara Phillips (daughter of Princess Anne; born in 1981), Princess Beatrice of York (daughter of Prince Andrew; born in 1988), Princess Eugenie of York (daughter of Princes Andrew; born in 1990), Lady Louise Windsor (daughter of Prince Edward; born in 2003) and James, Viscount Severn (son of Prince Edward, born in 2007). And four great-grandchildren: Savannah Phillips (daughter of Peter Phillips; born in 2010), Isla Phillips (daughter of Peter Phillips; born in 2012), Prince George of Cambridge (son of Prince William; born in 2013) and Mia Tindall (daughter of Zara Phillips; born in 2014).

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Birthday, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Portraits.

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