Lady Elizabeth Angela Bowes-Lyon Born: 4 AUG 1900 Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, St. Paul's Waldenbury, London, ENGLAND Sex: F Baptized: 23 SEP 1900 Died: 30 MAR 2002 Royal Lodge, Windsor, ENGLAND Cause: died in her sleep Buried: 9 APR 2002 Occupation: Queen of England
Relationship: 19. cousin, etc.
Accession: 12 MAY 1937 Westminster Abbey, London, England
Ancestors:
Marriage(s) and Relationships: Married to: King of Great Britain+Ireland George VI 26 APR 1923, Westminster Abbey, London, ENGLAND
Child:Queen of Great Britain+No.Ireland Elizabeth II Child:Pss of Great Britain+No.Ireland Margaret RoseNotes: Source: Paul Thereoff, Leo van de Pas.
CNN:
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons, the pick of the
debutantes in the early 1920s, only accepted the future king of England's
proposal when it was made for a third time. Despite being the daughter
of an earl she was a commoner and hesitant about being drawn
into the protocol-driven world of the court, although at that stage there
was no hint that her husband-to-be, the Duke of York, would one day be
king. The ninth of 10 children, she had spent a carefree childhood often
getting into harmless scrapes with her brothers and sisters at the family
seat, Glamis Castle in Scotland.
Some mystery surrounds her birth on August 4, 1900, as her father failed
to register it for six weeks. When he did, he said she had been born at
the family home in St Paul's Walden Bury, in Hertfordshire, despite it
now being accepted that the birth took place in London -- although there
is no record of exactly where. Her education, conducted almost entirely
at home by governesses, was cut short by World War I, when Glamis Castle
became a hospital and she was drafted to run errands for wounded troops.
This experience has been seen as contributing to the common touch the
Queen Mother became famous for. But the war also brought tragedy with the
death of her brother Fergus during the Battle of Loos in 1915. Another
brother, Michael, was held prisoner for two years. Despite the lack of
formal education she was able to speak fluent French by age 10 and was a
much sought-after debutante, with Prince Paul of Serbia said to have been
among her suitors. The Bowes-Lyons family had long socialised in royal
circles, and it is said that Prince Albert, the man who would become King
George VI, first met his bride-to-be at a birthday party when she was 5.
But it was when they met as adults 15 years later that Albert, a shy man
with a stammer, became determined to marry her -- despite her initial
reluctance. She is believed to have accepted his third proposal when
walking in woods near the family home in St Paul's Walden Bury, and the
engagement was announced in January 1923. They were married in
Westminster Abbey on April 26, 1923.
A film of the festivities shown throughout the country proved popular,
but a radio broadcast was forbidden during the actual service as church
authorities feared that "disrespectful people wearing hats might listen
in public houses." Their wedding represented a break from the past, says
historian DavidStarkey, in that it was presented for the first time as a
royal romance. Previous royal marriages had been seen as alliances among
European royal families. The new duchess' popular touch foreshadowed that
of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was also the daughter of an earl.
But, says Starkey, as a royal "outsider" upon marriage the Queen Mother
was to prove more successful at moving to the very heart of the
Establishment.
Biography: Life as Queen Consort
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Queen Mother's efforts as Queen Consort did
much to restore respect for an institution tarnished by Edward VIII's
decision in 1936 to give up the throne rather than be without the
American divorcee he loved. Author Lady Elizabeth Longford said that
after the old fashioned, even aloof, reign of George V and Mary, the
Queen Mother's reign alongside George VI proved "exactly the opposite."
"The Queen Mother demonstrated that the monarchy was in touch with
ordinary people and in fact loved them -- and they loved her back," she
said in an interview before the Queen Mother's death. "She brought fun, a
sense of humour, a sense of enjoyment and an added charm which is quite
out of the ordinary. She can really talk to people, with none of the
usual intervention in such communication. She goes directly to people."
Historian David Starkey sees it as a more calculated popularisation, with
the creation of the image of the royal family as an ordinary but ideal
family leading the nation -- a move that may have sowed the seeds for
future trouble by bringing much greater attention to the royals' personal
lives.
At the time of the abdication crisis, the Queen Mother worried about the
effect the full glare of public life would have on her shy, stammering
husband after their 14 years of relatively quiet domesticity together.
But, duty to the fore, she is credited with making her "Bertie," as he was
known, into the King he became, getting the help of a voice coach for his
stammer and often taking the lead at social occasions.
The pair were crowned George VI and Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey in
May 1937, with Elizabeth becoming the first Scottish Queen for around 800
years.
After Edward and his love of America, cocktails and desire for
institutional change, the new King and Queen saw a return to intense
conservatism, says Starkey, with the traditions and trappings of the
monarchy retained. Raised to believe in duty, the Queen Mother never
forgave Edward VIII's paramour, Wallis Simpson, for her part in making
him shirk his role.
Longford says it was the Queen Mother, demonstrating a vein of steel, who
ensured that Simpson never received the title Her Royal Highness that
Edward sought for her. Longford says George VI, who had always admired
his older brother, may have given in, but she believes the Queen Mother's
action was "absolutely right," as it may have led to the establishment of
rival courts.
The Queen Mother's mettle, often hidden beneath a triple string of pearls
and a winsome smile, was also to the fore during World War II, when the
royal standard flew steadfastly over Buckingham Palace in defiance of
persistent German air raids.
After the war, the King and Queen undertook a major tour of South Africa
in 1947 accompanied by Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth -- the first
time a sovereign had been accompanied by family on a state visit. But the
King's health prevented further travels to see first-hand a rapidly
changing world.
Many of the countries in the British Empire were struggling to
independence, with George VI ceasing to be Emperor of India in 1947 as
the subcontinent was divided to form India and Pakistan. Internationally
the British monarch's role was now as head of the Commonwealth, a loosely
defined group of nations with previous colonial ties. At home, amid
continuing post-war hardship, Britain got its first Labour government and
saw the birth of the welfare state, while internationally the superpowers
jockeyed as the Cold War began. The turmoil took its toll on the King,
and weakened by lung operations he died at just 56.
Despite being a reluctant monarch at first, he had proved a popular one,
with more than 300,000 people paying their respects as his body lay at
Westminster Hall. His Queen for 16 years was now left, amid the grief of
early widowhood, to find a new role.
Biography: UK's favourite grandmother
LONDON, England (CNN) -- It is as the Queen Mother that two generations
knew Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
In her "uniform" floaty pastel dresses and coats, shell-shaped hats and
pearls, she became "the nation's favourite grandmother" -- and a
great-grandmother to nine herself.
After the death of King George VI in 1952, the Queen Mother wore black
for a year and beat a private retreat to renovate and refurnish a castle
she had bought in Scotland. But persuaded, it is said, by Prime Minister
Winston Churchill not to spend a life in mourning like Queen Victoria,
she returned to public life as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Historian David Starkey says the title, while unprecedented in Britain,
was
taken from the well-established French Reine Mere to distinguish her from
her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
Other widowed sovereigns' consorts had participated in public life, but
Starkey says the Queen Mother did "something very special" with the role,
capturing the national imagination. He said: "There are of course two
kinds of grandmother, the severe, domineering kind of which Queen Mary is
perhaps an example, and the one who sometimes gets a bit tiddly and has a
bet on the horses, which she has embodied." The Queen Mother was the
patron or president of about 350 organisations, including the Army and
Air Force Women's Services, Women in the Royal Navy and the
Nursing Division of the St John's Ambulance Brigade. After the King's
death, the Queen Mother made 40 official visits abroad, including one to
Canada in 1989 to mark the 50. anniversary of her first visit there.
To a large extent, the Queen Mother continued to lead the life of an
Edwardian lady. Drawing £643,000 a year from the public purse on the Civil
List, she reputedly had a £4 million overdraft to help finance her
multiple houses, cars and servants. In London she lived at Clarence House
near Buckingham Palace, weekending at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great
Park. In autumn, and in May for the fishing season, it was off to
Scotland for an almost continuous round of hunting weekends and guests at
Birkhall in the grounds of the Balmoral Estate and Caithness Castle of Mey
in the far northeast. As the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports she also
had use of Walmer Castle near Deal in southern England. Even late in
life, the Queen Mother was often the life and soul of the party. At her
98. birthday she sat down for a private dinner party at 11:45 p.m. after
a full day of walkabouts and celebrations. Her 100. birthday in 2000 was
marked by more than a month of parades and pageantry, including a 41-gun
salute outside Buckingham Palace as the Queen Mother waved to cheering
crowds from an open-topped carriage with grandson Prince Charles.
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