QUEEN OF hearts

As Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 70 years on the throne, we look back at her incredible life

- ARIANA LONGSON

JUBILEE SPECIAL

A QUEEN IS BORN

21 April 1926

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, the adorable first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, was born at her maternal grandfather’s house in Mayfair, London.

HEAVY IS THE HEAD

12 May 1937

Following her uncle Edward’s shock abdication the previous December, when Elizabeth’s life was changed forever aged ten, her father has crowned King George VI. There’s no doubt that young Lilibet knew the true weight of the crown from a young age…

FINDING HER PRINCE CHARMING

20 November 1947

He was the dashing European prince who’d swept her off her feet, and four months after announcing their engagement, wedding bells rang out from Westminster Abbey as a 21-year-old Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten.

WHO RUNS THE WORLD?

2 June 1953

Coronation day! Aged 25, just months after losing her father to lung cancer, Her Majesty has officially crowned Queen Elizabeth II.

THE QUEEN ONSCREEN

1957