Happy, Glorious...and the longest to reign over us: A tribute to Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking 63 years on the throne, by Royal biographer SARAH BRADFORD

Elizabeth II became Queen of Great Britain, her Dominions and her possessions beyond the seas when her father George VI died at Sandringham in the early hours of February 6, 1952. 

Thousands of miles away in Kenya, the news was brought by her husband Philip. She was just 25. 

Martin Charteris, her Private Secretary, had found the new Queen 'very composed, absolute master of her fate'. 'What are you going to call yourself?' he had asked. 'My own name, of course,' she replied. 'What else?' 

Charteris later said: 'I never imagined that anyone could grasp their destiny with such safe hands.' 

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The Queen on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after her Coronation. On one side are her maids of honour and on the other are (left to right) Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother

The Queen on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after her Coronation. On one side are her maids of honour and on the other are (left to right) Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother

Safe hands indeed. On September 9, Queen Elizabeth II will have overtaken her greatgreat- grandmother Queen Victoria as Britain's longest reigning monarch, having been on the throne for more than 63 years seven months two days. 

Duty and patriotism had been the themes of the new Queen's early life, brought up as she had been in a happy close family – 'Us Four' as George VI had liked to call them – at Buckingham Palace and Windsor during the Second World War. 

Her father, who put on naval uniform at the beginning of the war, had become the symbol of the nation and Elizabeth was intensely patriotic; she had been taught the principles of the British constitution in her early teens, become Colonel of Grenadier Guards on her 18th birthday and in February 1945 towards the end of the war, had joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and learned to be a mechanic and a driver, skills of which she was proud. 

In November 1947 she married Prince Philip of Greece, the handsome blond naval officer with whom she had been in love since she first saw him at Dartmouth Royal Naval College in the summer of 1939. 

Their marriage at Westminster Abbey in the post-war age of austerity had been, in the words of Winston Churchill, 'a flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel'. The glamorous couple were stars of the post-war world as they travelled Empire and Commonwealth. In Washington on their 1951 North American tour, President Truman had been 'like an uncle and loved her' according to Charteris. 

The young Elizabeth at Windsor with her father, mother and sister Margaret - 'Us Four', as George IV called them

The young Elizabeth at Windsor with her father, mother and sister Margaret - 'Us Four', as George IV called them

The Queen pictured at the Mandarin Oriental in London in April 2011

The Queen pictured at the Mandarin Oriental in London in April 2011

Truman told George VI how the couple 'went to the hearts of all the citizens of the United States'. 

She has maintained historic relations with America through its presidents, regarding them as friends, riding in Windsor Great Park with Ronald Reagan, entertaining them and their wives at Buckingham Palace. 

In 1995, President Nelson Mandela welcomed the Queen back to South Africa, which she had not visited since her tour there with her parents in 1947. 'Welcome home,' was his message. 

Now, nearly 90, the Queen has had huge experience of world and foreign affairs. 

Her first Prime Minister was Churchill. 'She is a mere child,' he had complained on her accession, but it soon became a close friendship, talking during their weekly meetings as much about racing as politics.

There was a rather more unlikely friendship with Harold Wilson. He came from a different social planet; provincial lower middle class, with a Yorkshire accent and a passion for Huddersfield Town football club. He neither rode nor shot and never went racing. But they bonded. He provided her with a window into a side of English life of which she had no experience. He made her feel in touch with her people in a way his aristocratic predecessors could not. Wilson found in her a confidante whom he could trust. For British politicians from Churchill onwards, and perhaps for the monarchy itself, this apolitical confidentiality has been crucial. 

From Elizabeth's early childhood, her father had liked to point out the similarities between his elder daughter and her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, telling the writer Osbert Sitwell how 'from the first moment of talking, she [Elizabeth] showed so much character that it was impossible not to wonder that history would not repeat itself'. 

One vital difference stands out – Victoria's reign saw the huge expansion of the British Empire; Elizabeth's its dissolution and transformation into her beloved concept, the Commonwealth. 

When Victoria came to the throne in 1837 her domain covered one-sixth of the world's surface. When her son Edward VII succeeded her in 1901 it had expanded to nearly one quarter and the British imperial spirit was all-pervasive and apparently all-conquering. 

In his book Empire, Jeremy Paxman quotes a young Churchill on England's civilising mission: 'To give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains from the slave, to draw the richness from the soil... What more beautiful idea or more valuable reward can inspire human effort?' Imperialism had not yet become a dirty word. 

Queen Elizabeth II records her Christmas Day message in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace in 2004

Queen Elizabeth II records her Christmas Day message in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace in 2004

The Queen pictured with Prince Philip at the Braemar Highland Gathering in Scotland yesterday

The Queen pictured with Prince Philip at the Braemar Highland Gathering in Scotland yesterday

LONGEST SERVING BRITISH MONARCHS

1. Queen Elizabeth II

February 6, 1952 – present

After September 9, 2015

63 years, 7 months, 3 days

2. Victoria

June 20, 1837 – January 22, 1901

63 years, 7 months, 2 days

3. King George III

October 25, 1760 – January 29, 1820

59 years, 3 months, 2 days

4. King Henry III

October 18, 1216 – November 16, 1272

56 years, 29 days

5. King Edward III

January 25, 1327 – June 21, 1377

50 years, 4 months, 25 days

6. Queen Elizabeth I

November 17, 1558 – March 24, 1603

44 years, 4 months, 5 days

7. King Henry VI

September 1, 1422 – March 4, 1461

Restored Oct 3, 1470, Died: May 21, 1471

39 years, 1 month, 18 days

8. King Aethelred II The Unready

March 18, 978 – April 23, 1016

38 years, 1 month, 5 days

9. King Henry VIII

April 21, 1509 – January 28, 1547

37 years, 9 months, 7 days

10. King Henry I

August 3, 1100 – December 2, 1135

35 years, 3 months, 28 days

In 1947, George VI had gloomily surveyed a plantation of trees in Windsor Great Park, each representing a colony of his Empire: 'This is Singapore,' he said, pointing to one. 'There is Malaya…the time may soon come when we shall have to cut out the Indian tree… and I wonder how many more.' On August 15, with the independence of India presided over by Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, the King lost the jewel in his imperial crown. Earlier that year his daughter Princess Elizabeth, on a triumphal tour of South Africa with her family, was in Cape Town on her 21st birthday and had broadcast a speech of dedication 'to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire'. 'I declare before you all that my whole life... shall be dedicated to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.' 

She meant it, although by the time of her Coronation in June 1953 the 'great imperial family' as such no longer existed. Prime Minister Anthony Eden's failed Suez adventure in 1956 dealt the final blow to Britain's prestige as a world power and indeed to the British view of itself as a nation. 

The Coronation itself, broadcast live, was a huge visual spectacle, which still has the power to move people who see it. It was the culmination of months of anticipation, a matter of national pride. Yet within just a few years, the institution had seemed to be on the wane, notably criticised by Malcolm Muggeridge as out of touch and socially divisive. 

The Queen herself he described as 'dowdy, frumpish and banal'. The Court reacted by abolishing the annual debutante presentation parties, an initiative of Prince Philip's, and embarked on a campaign to present her as a happy mother and busy executive in the television film The Royal Family (1969), a joint BBC/ITV production. 

At first it was a popular success, but as the critics had warned, by bringing the television cameras into the Queen's private family life, they not only let daylight in on the magic but whetted the public appetite for more intimate detail. From being allowed into the drawing room they would soon be expecting to be let into the bedroom as well. 

The media appetite grew through the 1970s and beyond, feeding on Royal scandals; and as the Queen's children became adults, they provided the fodder. 

The Queen herself largely escaped the tarnishing of the image; 1977, the year of the Silver Jubilee marking her 25 years on the throne, was an unexpected high point. 

Queen Elizabeth II rides side-saddle as she returns to Buckingham Palace, London, after attending the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Horse Guards Parade

Queen Elizabeth II rides side-saddle as she returns to Buckingham Palace, London, after attending the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Horse Guards Parade

FREE ROYAL MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS WEEKEND’S MAIL ON SUNDAY

The Greatest Reign is a 76-page ultra-glossy souvenir magazine celebrating the Queen’s record-breaking reign. It’s packed with more than 200 stunning pictures and unique tributes – and is FREE inside today's Mail on Sunday

There were street parties, bonfires and flag-waving. People recognised she was decent, honourable and dedicated to her job, feeling a common sense of gratitude to have someone like her to represent Britain. 

Touring with the Queen, Charteris said: 'The Queen had a love affair with the country.' But it was only a brief respite. As the 1980s unrolled, family scandals worsened, culminating in 1992, the 'annus horribilis'. 

The Queen was determined to put an end to the War of the Waleses, ordered Charles and Diana to divorce. Sex tapes, toe-sucking photographs and Charles and Diana's television PR battles had made her decide that enough was enough. 

But things were to get worse: Diana's death in August 1997 while the Queen was on her annual family holiday at Balmoral turned the spotlight of public criticism on the Queen herself. 'Where is the Queen when her country needs her?' ran one headline. 

The Queen's response was exactly the right one. Flying down to London on the eve of Diana's funeral, she gave a televised broadcast. Dressed in black, she sat at a window through which the grieving crowds outside Buckingham Palace could be seen. 

Speaking 'as your Queen and as a grandmother', she paid tribute to Diana as 'an exceptional and gifted human being', concluding there were lessons to be drawn from her life and from the 'extraordinary and moving reaction to her death'. She meant it sincerely. 

And over the following years she showed that she meant it, making personal contact with ordinary people as never before, taking tea in a Glasgow council house, pulling a pint in a pub. 

And as a grandmother, with Prince Philip she established a close relationship with her grandchildren, and especially with the motherless princes William and Harry. Her reward came with the marriage of William and Kate Middleton, the perfect union of Royalty with 'ordinary' people, confirming the future for the monarchy with the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte. 

The Queen in a white petal hat smiles as she leaves a wedding in 1967

The Queen in a white petal hat smiles as she leaves a wedding in 1967

The last monarch with such a wealth of descendants was Victoria. Of course there are contrasts in the personalities of the two Queens as well as similarities in their circumstances. 

Victoria was a far more passionate and tactile personality. It would be hard to imagine the present Queen encouraging the painting of a sensual portrait of herself for her husband – head thrown back, hair flowing, lips parted – as Victoria did with Winterhalter for Albert. 

Victoria was a prolific writer: her letters ran to millions of words, she also published a volume of memoirs, Leaves From The Journal Of Our Life In The Highlands, and a further volume dedicated to 'her faithful servant' John Brown which her desperate courtiers managed to suppress unpublished. 

Elizabeth's correspondence is primarily official and her absolute discretion meant it would never be published in her lifetime without her authorisation. It would equally be hard to imagine Elizabeth enjoying outings as Victoria did with Brown at Balmoral – out in a carriage with a bottle of whisky under the seat, or infuriating courtiers over her indulgence of her Indian servants. 

But both were and are a great success as monarchs – interested in affairs of state and politics worldwide and, in Elizabeth's case particularly, maintaining good relations with her Prime Ministers. 

You do wonder what Victoria would have made of Mrs Thatcher. Elizabeth would never have behaved as badly to her as Victoria did to Gladstone, whom she liked to call (not to his face) 'wicked' and 'mad'. 

While Victoria had made Albert her partner and adviser in public affairs, Elizabeth took the reins of state into her own hands, delegating ultimate responsibility for family matters to Philip, not always successfully as Prince Charles's unhappy school days at Gordonstoun, Philip's choice of school for his son, testified. 

The fatherless Victoria enjoyed particularly close relations with a chosen few of her politicians, first Melbourne and then Disraeli, while Elizabeth, self-sufficient and self-controlled, had never felt the need to open up to outsiders. 

Yet the similarities between Elizabeth and Victoria are real, and many are important. Both were short but with a dignity and an aura that more than compensated. 

Both came to the throne young, particularly Victoria who was only just 18. Both were interested in affairs of state, which they regarded as their responsibility. 

Both were devoted to their husbands, with Elizabeth notably calling Philip 'my strength and stay all these years'. Both also had problems in their relations with their heirs. 

Victoria's eldest son 'Bertie', later King Edward VII, was so frightened of his mother that he used to hide behind pillars. 

Prince Charles confessed to his official biographer that he too was scared of his mother. Both experienced periods of unpopularity: Victoria in the 1860s when she retreated from public view after the death of Albert and her relationship with her adored Scottish servant led to her being dubbed 'Mrs Brown', Elizabeth in the 1990s during the family scandals. 

Victoria and Elizabeth are united by longevity and – to a certain extent – by a sense of duty, although Victoria failed to live up to this in the years following Albert's early death, when she stepped back from public life. 

Elizabeth, in contrast, continues to devote tireless attention to her public duties even at the age of 89, touring the country, meeting her people and earning their deep affection. For most of her subjects life without her as monarch would be hard to imagine. 

 

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