Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96.
Queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926 and experienced world events such as World War II, the Cold War and Brexit.
During the British rule of Hong Kong, she was even the "grandmother" of Hong Kong, witnessing the return of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997.
Her passing marks the end of an era.
The picture shows the young Queen Elizabeth II (left) and Princess Margaret in July 1940.
(AP)
Queen Elizabeth II was born in London, England in April 1926, the eldest daughter of George VI.
Since George VI was the second son of King George V (George V), Queen Elizabeth is the third in line to the British throne after her father.
The upheaval of Edward VIII's abdication
Although she was born in an era when "upper-class women did not need special education" and had little chance of inheriting the throne, under the influence of her grandmother, Queen Mary (Mary of Teck), Elizabeth still received a formal education at the palace and studied history. , literature, language, etc. basic knowledge.
However, in 1936 the British royal family changed dramatically.
George V died and the throne was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.
However, the king who "does not love the country and the beauty" did not hesitate to give up the throne in order to marry the American woman Wallis Simpson, and the throne passed to King George VI.
Elizabeth immediately became the first heir to the throne, and the family moved to live in Buckingham Palace.
The picture shows in January 1943, Queen Elizabeth II, who was learning military knowledge.
(AP)
The outbreak of World War II passes through the youth
When World War II broke out in 1939, Nazi Germany bombed the British mainland.
At the insistence of Queen Elizabeth's mother, Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, did not seek refuge in Canada as suggested, but stayed in the UK to fight the war.
In the same year, the royal family visited the Royal Naval Academy, where Elizabeth met Prince Philip, who came to assist her guide and would become her husband.
The two became friends after only meeting for the first time, and began to exchange letters when Elizabeth was only 13 years old.
In 1943, Elizabeth began to attend public events alone, visiting the military.
In February 1945, Elizabeth successfully persuaded her father to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a logistics driver and mechanical engineer.
At that time, all members of the royal family had military ranks but no real jobs. Elizabeth broke the routine and became the first member of the royal family to receive military training and perform duties.
The picture shows the wedding of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II in November 1947.
Philip gave up her original identity and became a naturalized British royal family.
(Getty)
The picture shows the Queen of England and Prince Philip's family, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, spending a leisure holiday in London in August 1951.
(AP)
Marrying Philip and becoming Queen of England
After the war, Elizabeth and Philip secretly dated, and the two established a romantic relationship.
In 1947, after Elizabeth was 21 years old, the royal family officially made public their relationship and entered into a marriage contract.
However, since Philip was actually a Greek prince, and most of his relatives were related to the German royal family, Philip had to give up his identity and borrowed from the United Kingdom to marry Elizabeth.
In November 1947, their wedding was grandly held at Westminster Abbey and broadcast live by the BBC worldwide.
More than 2,500 celebratory gifts were sent to the UK to bless the two.
Just two years after their marriage, Elizabeth gave birth to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Princess Anne.
When King George VI died in February 1952, Elizabeth and Philip were visiting Kenya in Africa.
Elizabeth inherited the throne after returning home, and was officially crowned in 1953 as Queen Elizabeth II.
Traveling abroad and the decline of empires
During Queen Elizabeth's reign, the United Kingdom experienced a period from prosperity to decline. After World War II, the British national strength declined and the British Empire gradually disintegrated.
The Queen traveled the world in the two years following her accession, visiting countries including Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in an attempt to maintain relations with the colonies.
But the trend of decolonization accelerated in the 1960s, and the rise of nascent nationalism raised voices against colonization, and a large number of British-colonized African and Caribbean regions became independent.
In order to prevent the influence of Soviet communism, the United Kingdom adopted a series of planned processes of self-government transformation, allowing some independent countries to retain more or less special relations with the United Kingdom and become members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The picture shows that in October 1986, the Queen of England visited Hong Kong and talked with the person in charge of the honor guard of Nepal's Khaka soldiers.
(AP)
The picture shows that in May 1991, the Queen of England visited the United States and was greeted by then Speaker of the House of Representatives Tom Foley.
(AP)
Hong Kong was also separated from colonialism. China and Britain signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1985, returning Hong Kong, which was ceded to China during the Qing Dynasty.
Hong Kong also returned to China on July 1, 1997, ending more than 150 years of colonialism.
Royal Scandal and Diana's Death
In the 1980s, the British royal family was in the spotlight over the affair of Princess Diana.
Prince Charles and Diana were married in 1981, but they hit the rocks after only five years of marriage and both fell into extramarital affairs.
Since the mid-1980s, this incident has made the British royal family a topic of leisure for British nationals almost every day, and the Queen herself has become the object of public irony.
Public dissatisfaction with members of the royal family continued to simmer in the 1990s, with the Queen describing it as a "horrible year" (Annus horribilis) in her 40th anniversary speech in 1992.
In March of that year, the second son Prince Andrew (The Prince Andrew) announced his divorce from his wife Sarah (Sarah, Duchess of York); Called "Diana: Her True Story", the book focusing on Diana's extramarital affairs was published that year; Windsor Castle was on fire in November, and various royal scandals and misfortunes shrouded the British royal family.
The picture shows Diana's death in a car accident in September 1997, and members of the royal family attended Diana's funeral.
(AP)
In 1997, Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris, France, and public distrust of the royal family and the Queen reached a peak.
Since the Queen of England was not in London at the time, and Buckingham Palace did not fly the flag at half-mast for Diana's death, public opinion criticized the Queen for being cold-blooded, and the conspiracy theory that the royal family created a car accident to assassinate Diana was also rampant.
All this until the Queen of England attended Diana's funeral in September, when she delivered a national speech praising and affirming Diana, and public dissatisfaction was gradually quelled.
Stepping into 2000, the Queen of England is gradually getting older. In 2003, the Queen of England underwent three operations, which made people worry about her health.
But the Queen insisted on continuing to perform official duties, only slightly reducing the number of foreign visits.
In 2013, the Queen was absent from the Commonwealth summit for the first time in 40 years, and was attended by Charles.
By 2019, the British media began to report that the Queen of England would abdicate within two years and be regented by Charles, but the news has not been confirmed by Buckingham Palace.
The picture shows the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in the UK in April 2020.
A poster showing the Queen's thanks to NHS staff is displayed on a display panel in London.
(Getty)
The picture shows the Queen and Prince Andrew attending the funeral of Prince Philip in April 2021.
(Getty)
2021 and 2022 will be choppy days for the Queen.
The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) in the United Kingdom. The Queen of England was infected with new coronary pneumonia in February 2022. Fortunately, the symptoms were mild, but the epidemic caused more than 2 million infections in the United Kingdom and more than 160,000 deaths.
The death of Prince Philip in April 2021 will undoubtedly deal a blow to the Queen.
The Queen has not publicly delivered a eulogy for Prince Philip, but has said in private that the death of her husband has left a huge hole in her life.
Prince Philip stated that he did not want a grand state funeral, and chose a military funeral instead.
Due to epidemic prevention restrictions, the number of people attending the funeral is limited to 30 people.
The Queen attended the funeral in black.
In the same year, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle decided to leave the royal family due to their relationship with the royal family.
There are growing concerns that the Queen's health will deteriorate due to a series of sad events.