How and when did Queen Elizabeth II come to the throne? How old was she?

A look at the 70-year reign of Elizabeth II 4:01

(CNN Spanish) --

The arrival of Elizabeth II to the throne 70 years ago, when she was just 25, was the result of an event that marked, in addition to her personal career, the history of the British royal family: the voluntary abdication of the king Edward VIII, his uncle, which ushered in his father's coronation as monarch.

Edward VII, reports the Encyclopedia Britannica, assumed the throne in 1936. By then he was a very popular figure, who after his service in World War I had toured the empire.

Six years earlier an event had happened that would mark his destiny: he met Wallis Simpson and her husband.

Eduardo VII fell in love with Simpson and, faced with a general refusal against his plan to marry her, voluntarily abdicated in December of the same year in which he acceded to the throne.

Then her brother George VI took over, and Edward VII married Simpson a year later.

Elizabeth attended the coronation of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, becoming the first woman to see her parents crowned as heir presumptive.

advertising

wallis simpson

Why "alleged"?

Elizabeth became the heir presumptive to the throne in 1936.

However, at that time she was not designated her natural heir because there was the possibility that the king and her wife would have a son and, according to current laws, in that case he would become her heir. .

(This situation was modified in 2011, when changes were introduced in the succession laws that ensure an equal situation for men and women. That is the reason why in the current line of succession Prince Louis, the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, is in fifth place behind his sister, Princess Charlotte, who is fourth).

Elizabeth's accession to the throne

Isabel ascends to the throne in February 1952, after the death of her father.

AFP/Getty Images

King George VI's health began to seriously fail in the summer of 1951, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, so Elizabeth represented him at various official events, including the Trooping the Color parade.

By this time she was already married to Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh.

The following year, she and her husband left for a trip to Australia and New Zealand in January, and while en route to Kenya they received the news that King George VI had died of lung cancer.

It was January 6, 1952, the date Elizabeth became queen.

However, her coronation at Wastminster Abbey took place more than a year later, on June 2, 1953. The first months of her reign, after the death of her father, were spent in relative isolation until, already installed in Buckingham Palace, assumed the daily duties corresponding to the throne.

The queen had already announced by then that she and her heirs would bear the surname Windsor, which was first adopted by the royal family during World War I.

Queen Elizabeth was the sixth woman to ascend the British throne and the longest-reigning monarch.

In September 2015, he broke the record set by his great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, after 63 years and 216 days on the throne.

Queen Victoria (1837-1901) reigned for 63 years and seven months.

Queen Isabel