Elizabeth the Queen (82 page)

Queen Elizabeth II (
left
), nine days after her accession to the throne, with her grandmother, Queen Mary (
center
), and her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, at the funeral of King George VI at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, February 15, 1952.
Ron Case/Getty Images

Princess Margaret had a slightly glazed look and during the Queen’s investiture “never once did she lower her gaze from her sister’s calm face.”

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (
left
) with Prince Charles and Princess Margaret in the royal box at Westminster Abbey during the coronation ceremony, June 2, 1953.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Townsend was struck by Margaret’s “astonishing power of expression” that “could change in an instant from saintly, almost melancholic, composure, to hilarious uncontrollable joy.”

Margaret (
left
) and Elizabeth (
center
) with Group Captain Peter Townsend in the royal box at Ascot on June 13, 1951, four years before Margaret and Townsend declared their intention to marry.
Keystone/Getty Images

The Queen took a particular interest in frozen chicken pot pies, while Philip nibbled on sample crackers with cheese and exclaimed, “Good for mice!”

Elizabeth II making an unannounced visit to a supermarket in West Hyattsville, Maryland, after watching the University of Maryland-University of North Carolina football game, October 19, 1957.
Associated Press

Once while staying with some good friends, the Queen said, “I must go do my boxes. If I missed one once, I would never get it straight again.”

The Queen at her desk in Buckingham Palace reviewing confidential documents in her red leather dispatch boxes, January 25, 1959.
©TopFoto/The Image Works

When Margaret fell in love with Tony, it came as a relief to the Queen, who wanted above all for her sister to be happy
.

Princess Margaret and her husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones (later 1st Earl of Snowdon), paying homage to Queen Elizabeth II with a bow and curtsy after their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey, May 6, 1960.
©Bettmann/CORBIS

Jackie had complained about the pressures of being on tour in Canada, causing the Queen to throw her a conspiratorial glance and reply cryptically, “One gets crafty after a while and learns how to save oneself.”

The royal couple entertaining President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, at a Buckingham Palace banquet, June 15, 1961.
Popperfoto/Getty Images

The seventy-five-year-old duchess was heavily sedated, and the Queen “showed a motherly and nanny-like tenderness and kept putting her hand on the duchess’s arm and glove.”

The Queen with the Duchess of Windsor after the funeral of the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, June 5, 1972.
Reg Burkett/Getty Images

As military musicians play their tunes, the Queen and her family whirl through intricate reels and veletas with gamekeepers, ghillies, footmen, and maids—a montage of sights and sounds from an earlier century
.

Elizabeth II and Philip dancing at the annual Ghillies’ Ball at Balmoral, 1972.
Lichfield/Getty Images

The swarm of racegoers shouted “Vive la Reine,” and when the Queen went to see Highclere, she was nearly mobbed by the crowds, protected only by Porchester, Oswald, and some gendarmes
.

The Queen in prayerful pose as her racing manager, Henry Porchester (
left
), and her stud manager, Sir Michael Oswald (
right
), cheer her filly Highclere across the finish line to win the Prix de Diane at Chantilly, June 1974.
Private collection of Sir Michael Oswald