Fifty Years the Queen. Arthur Bousfield
would never be officially the Heir Apparent. It was always possible that the King and Queen might have a son, who would take precedence over an elder sister. Princess Elizabeth, for over fifteen years, would remain the Heir Presumptive and, as such, the motto was not hers by right.
But the reality was that the likelihood of a brother was remote at best. The King was 41, the Queen 36. They were not looking to expand their family of two daughters. It was understood by all that Princess Elizabeth would succeed her father in the fullness of time.
Coronation picture of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. With her father's accession Elizabeth had become Heir Presumptive and her life changed.
Princess Elizabeth was ten years old when her father became King, She would become Queen at the age of 25. The fullness of time was in fact to be these short fifteen years. And, official or not, “I Serve” were the words that would define her perspective on life.
The reign of any monarch is framed by sadness, as the reign begins and ends in death. It starts with the death of the predecessor and ends with the death of the incumbent. For the heir to a throne it is the same. Elizabeth II's years as heir began with the death of her beloved grandfather, King George V, coupled with the abdication and estrangement eleven months later of her closest uncle, King Edward VIII, which brought her father to the Throne. It was, in a sense, a double death that began her years as heir. They would end with the death of a father who doted on her.
But if the beginning and ending were sad in the inevitable way for the Royal Family, the duration of Princess Elizabeth's years as heir were tragic in a larger sense. Most of the world, including the United Kingdom and Canada, was mired in the Great Depression in 1936. The Depression would only end when war came. From 1939 to 1945 her father's realms were then engaged in a life and death struggle with the unspeakable evil of Nazism. After six long years of bombings and fighting and death by the millions, the few years of peace that followed were years of austerity in Britain. People tried to reconstruct their lives amid deprivation and rubble.
Then, like another head of the mythical Hydra, the evil empire of Communism thrived, while its evil twin of Nazism died, and it brought down, in Churchill's memorable phrase, an “Iron Curtain” in Europe. The “Cold War” frosted the international scene. And, as the British Empire began its inexorable decline, starting in Asia, in 1950 another “hot” war began in Korea with the new evil threat. It would cloud the year-and-a-half before Elizabeth II's accession.
These were the years that provided the environment in which a princess grew to become a queen.
Elizabeth II has always had a profound religious underpinning to her life, ignoring the fallacy that modern political theorists present—that in a country, Commonwealth or world of religious diversity, religious tolerance means religion must only be practised in one's private life. One of the most truly tolerant world figures, Queen Elizabeth II has always publicly acknowledged the role of faith in guiding her actions.
The first great event the then Princess Elizabeth, Heir to the Throne, was to participate in was, appropriately therefore, one when Church and State meet for mutual support and strength —the Coronation of her father the King.
Princess Elizabeth was up early the day of the Coronation, awakening at 5:00 a.m. full of energy. She had studied the Coronation service and its significance was in no way lost on her. And she appreciated the beauty of the event. In keeping with the practice of the now King and Queen, from the time when they were Duke and Duchess of York, the two princesses were dressed the same for the ceremony. The only difference was that Princess Elizabeth's train was longer than that of Princess Margaret.
The Royal Family wave to their subjects from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Coronation Day. It is a scene that is repeated many times in the life of the Commonwealth.
The Coronation was also the first event at which the Princess played a central, albeit subordinate role, in which Canadians took part. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police came for the ceremony. Some British officials wondered if the bearskin headdresses of the guardsmen might not frighten the horses? “Tell them not to worry”, the Canadians replied, “We feed the horses bearskins for breakfast every morning”. The change in the Crown's role in the Commonwealth that was to dominate her reign had already begun. A new role had evolved for Canada and the other dominions at the Coronation since the Statute of Westminster of 1931 had established their equality with the United Kingdom. The King's Banner for each country was carried in the procession and Princess Elizabeth heard her father crowned as King of Canada, as each realm was named specifically in the Coronation Oath. The Queen would be crowned the same way at her coronation in 1953, by which time she would have also assumed the official title of Queen of Canada. The status of the Princess as Heir to the Throne in 1937 was also recognised around the Commonwealth in the manner in which they celebrated the Coronation. Places such as Princess Elizabeth Land in Australia were named after her, and in Newfoundland Princess Elizabeth's face appeared on a six-cent stamp.
When King George VI and his family moved from their relatively modest home at 145 Piccadilly Street to Buckingham Palace it was a significant moment in Elizabeth's life. The Palace has been her London home ever since—over sixty years—except for a couple of years after her marriage when she resided at Clarence House. And Windsor Castle became and has remained her country house, and true home, when she moved there from Royal Lodge.
A Girl Guide company was established at Buckingham Palace to provide the princesses more contact with other children.
The King introduced changes to his elder daughter's academic regime and saw to it that she was interested in statecraft, and trained for her future role as Queen, ensuring that her education was broader than his had been. The King arranged for her to be tutored by Sir Henry Marten, Provost of Eton College, an authority on British constitutional history. Elizabeth Longford described him as a “learned character with just the requisite degree of eccentricity”. He kept lumps of sugar in his pocket which he munched, never looked at Princess Elizabeth directly and occasionally addressed her as “gentlemen” as if he were addressing the boys at Eton. The Princess greatly respected him and from him acquired a new enthusiasm for history. She learned to love and admire Queen Victoria and understand how the Queen had influenced policy in a constitutionally correct way.
Queen Mary expanded her practice of taking Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret on cultural tours of London to various museums. It was also arranged that the princesses would mingle with other children. A girl guide company of thirty-four children was established at Buckingham Palace, for example, including a social mix of daughters of palace staff and chauffeurs as well as members of the household.
The King referred to the immediate Royal Family as “us four”. An informal photo in 1939 by Marcus Adam.
The King and Queen discuss their impending trip to Canada with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, tracing the route on a map.
In the spring of 1939 the King and Queen travelled to Canada, the first reigning monarchs to tour the Dominion of the North, in what became a memorable royal spring in Canadian history. Canadians had wished for the two princesses to accompany the royal couple but this was not possible. The Queen considered them too young for such a trip. But they were very much on the minds of Canadians that spring. In the messages of loyalty presented to the King, in presents entrusted to their royal parents, and in the wishes that on the next trip to Canada by the King he would bring them. One of the Canadian postage stamps commemorating the tour included pictures of the two young princesses.