On This Day in History: February 6

Elizabeth II becomes queen

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She only became queen because her uncle, Edward VIII, wanted to marry a divorced American woman so he abdicated in favor of his younger brother, Albert, who took the name George VI upon becoming king. When George died, his daughter Elizabeth became queen; she was the second-longest-reigning monarch in world history.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: February 6, 1952--

Louis XIV of France holds the crown—heh—as all-time champ for longest serving head of a shitty system of governance at 72 years 110 days. Born in 1926, Liz was #2 at 70 years 214 days. Except she didn’t govern. She never came close to Louis in terms of ability to wield power, because he reigned when people believed in that “divine right of kings” bullshit. Elizabeth’s was largely a ceremonial role, one that still has a surprising amount of support in Britain.

Elizabeth was married in 1947 and wasted no time creating an heir, with Charles being born six days shy of her first wedding anniversary. Her dad’s sickness had her standing in for him at public events and tours. Her private secretary knew her father was not far from the Great Kingly Beyond and carried a draft accession declaration with him while Elizabeth was on tour. Good thing too, because Liz was in the middle of nowhere in Kenya when her father died at age 56 on February 6, 1952.

Elizabeth and her husband, Philip Mountbatten, were in the Treetops Hotel in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park when her daddy King George VI died. They didn’t have cell phones back then, and considering the romantic surroundings she probably would have had it on “do not disturb” anyway, so she did not immediately learn that she had ascended to reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms while playing hide the royal sausage with her third cousin, who is also her second cousin once removed. I don’t know if we can blame Charles’s massive ears on that or not.

It wasn’t until they returned to Sagana Lodge about 15 miles away that Elizabeth learned her father died and she was queen. Her coronation took place June of the following year, and to her husband’s patriarchal chagrin the decision was made to have Elizabeth’s family name used, retaining the House of Windsor rather than changing it to House of Mountbatten. Feeling emasculated, Elizabeth’s husband visited a dreary place known as Crimea River, proclaiming, “I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.” 

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