Although she may not care to be reminded of it, the Queen passed another
milestone of her long reign yesterday when she became the oldest monarch to
sit on the English throne.
Buckingham Palace calculated that it was about 5pm yesterday that Elizabeth II
overtook the record of her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, whose
reign ended with her death in 1901 at the age of 81 years and 243 days.
That calculation took into account the time when the two monarchs were born
and the vagaries of the calendar.
Last Sunday the Queen overtook George III, the longest-lived English King.
There were no ceremonies yesterday to mark that Elizabeth is now the
longest-lived monarch. The Queen, who is winding down to her Christmas
holiday at Sandringham, had no public engagements and busied herself with
office work. She will next appear in public on Tuesday when she and other
members of the Royal Family attend their regular Christmas Day church
service on her Norfolk estate.
Mere age should not be confused with length of reign. The Queen will have to
remain in office until September 9, 2015 – when she is 88 – to exceed
Victoria’s record 64 years. She is currently the fourth-longest reigning
monarch, beaten only by Victoria, George III, who lasted a few months short
of 60 years on the throne, and Henry III who reigned for 56 years.
Henry, who acceded to the throne at the age of 9, descended into senility and
died aged 65. George III made it to 81 before senile decay claimed him in
1820.
Only three monarchs have made it into their eighties, and only a further three
have survived to become septuagenarians. George II was doing well until a
heart attack felled him at 76, William IV fell victim to pneumonia at 71,
and George V, refusing to convalesce at Bognor Regis, was taken by
bronchitis – and a little euthanasia administered by his doctor – at the age
of 70.
Earlier monarchs fell prey at relatively young ages to surfeits of lampreys,
burst appendixes or simple overindulgence. Edward Longshanks, Hammer of the
Scots, was stricken by a fatal bout of dysentery while passing through
Carlisle – but in 1307, 68 was a good age.
Some monarchs died especially young. Edward V was only 13 when he and his
brother, Richard, were imprisoned in the Tower of London, never to be seen
again. Edward VI, the small, pale, only son of Henry VIII, inherited
congenital syphilis from his father and was 15 when he died from
tuberculosis.
His immediate successor, Lady Jane Grey, was 16 when she was dragged
unwillingly to London to safeguard the Protestant throne; she was deposed
after only nine days in favour of Henry’s daughter Mary.
Women are generally the stronger sex; Elizabeth I was 69 when she died in
1603, a relatively long life for the times. She greatly enhanced her chances
of surviving by not having children.
Victoria became Queen at the age of 18 when her uncle, William IV, died in
1837. Elizabeth II was a little more mature, at 25, when her father George
VI succumbed to a lifetime of heavy smoking aged 56 in 1952.
The Queen was only third in line to the throne when she was born in 1926, at a
long-demolished house at 26 Bruton Street, Mayfair, in Central London.
Her grandfather, George V, was the king and his eldest son, David, the future
Edward VIII, was expected to have a long reign and to marry and have
children. It was also thought that her own parents would have a boy in due
course, which would push her further down the order of precedence.
But David never had children and gave up his throne in the Abdication Crisis
of 1936, while the Queen’s parents had one other child, Margaret.
81 Facts about the monarchy
1 The Queen is the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror.
2 Before invading England, William I (1066-87) was known as William the
Bastard because his parents were unmarried.
3 The Queen is a patron of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.
4 One of her birds is called Sandringham Lightning.
5 The oldest person to ascend the throne was William IV, at 64.
6 Prince Charles would become the oldest if he were crowned after 2013.
7 The Queen has received gifts including jaguars, sloths, beavers, an
elephant and 7kg of prawns.
8 She introduced a breed of dog known as “dorgi”, when one of her
corgis mated with a dachshund.
9 Banknotes have carried the monarch’s portrait only since 1960.
10 Queen Elizabeth I owned the world’s first flushing lavatory,
presented to her by her godson, the inventor Sir John Harrington.
11 On the South Pacific island of Tanna, the Duke of Edinburgh is
worshipped as a living god.
12 William IV (1830-1837) had ten illegimate children with his mistress.
13 King Stephen (1135-54) died in agony from a burst appendix.
14 Edward II (1307-27) apparently died in even greater agony, by the
insertion of a red-hot iron in his rectum. His assassins had been told not
to leave a mark on his body.
15 Edward VII was the first monarch to drive a car, in 1896, while
still Prince of Wales. It was a Daimler.
16 Whales, dolphins and sturgeon in British waters are known as “Fishes
Royal”. Under a 1324 statute, all of them are owned by the monarch.
17 The Queen also owns 88 cygnets on the Thames.
18 The first state visit took place in 1520, when the French king
François I met Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
19 The Queen has undertaken more than 256 official overseas visits to
129 countries.
20 But she has never visited the Republic of Ireland, Israel or Greece.
21 The Imperial State Crown is 31.5cm high, weighs 0.91kg and is set
with more than 3,000 precious stones, including the 317 carat Cullinan II
diamond
22 Edward III pawned the Crown Jewels to pay his troops during an
overseas campaign. Charles I’s queen pawned them in Holland at the beginning
of the Civil War.
23 On VE Day the Queen and her sister slipped into the crowd to
celebrate.
24 Horse Guards Arch in Whitehall is regarded as the official entrance
to Buckingham Palace.
25 George II (1727-60) was the last king to lead his troops into
battle, in 1743.
26 The Queen is the only British monarch to have been properly trained
to change a spark plug.
27 The queen on a pack of playing cards is Elizabeth of York, mother of
Henry VIII.
28 Queen Anne had the most pregnancies — 17. Only one child lived more
than a year, and he died aged 11.
29 Mary Queen of Scots’ executioner missed her with the first blow of
the axe. After he finally killed her he had the task of picking up the
severed head and showing it to the crowds. Unfortunately nobody told him
that she wore a wig, and her head fell down and bounced across the hall.
30 The Maundy Service, commemorating Christ’s rising from the table of
the Last Supper, is named after the Latin mandatum “love one another”.
31 King Harold II, who ruled from January to October 1066 may have won
the throne through misinterpretation. Edward the Confessor pointed to him on
his deathbed and it was taken as a sign.
32 The Queen was in a remote part of Kenya when she received the news
of her father’s death and her own accession to the throne.
33 She has given out about 78,000 Christmas puddings to staff.
34 Charles II (1630-85) recognised 14 illegitimate children as his own,
but had no legitimate heir.
35 Spectators at the execution of Charles I paid to dip handkerchiefs
in his blood as it was felt that the blood of a king would cure illness.
36 The Prince of Wales and his sons fly in separate aircraft to avoid
the possibility of all of them being killed at the same time.
37 The Queen has launched 23 ships.
38 She does not have, or need, a passport or a driving licence.
39 She visited a mosque in Britain for the first time in Scunthorpe,
Lincolnshire, in July 2002.
40 The monarch does not say “Arise, Sir . . .” to knights.
41 Queen Anne inaugurated Royal Ascot’s four-day meeting in 1711.
42 Garden parties at Buckingham Palace were started by Queen Victoria
in 1868.
43 Aged 13, the Queen had tennis and tea with an 18-year-old naval
cadet, Prince Philip of Greece.
44 James I made churchgoing on Sundays compulsory.
45 Queen Victoria is thought to have survived eight assassination
attempts in England and Scotland.
46 Since 1952, the Queen has conferred more than 387,700 honours and
awards.
47 At her birth she was only third in line to the throne.
48 She has made private visits to the United States to see stallion
stations and stud farms in Kentucky.
49 The ugliest queen of England was probably Caroline of Brunswick. In
1794 the Earl of Malmesbury called her “stocky, jutting and malodorous”.
50 George III (1760-1820) had a passion for farming and sold sheep in
front of the pagoda at Kew.
51 He was declared insane in 1810.
52 But he is still the longest-serving king in British history.
53 The Queen exercised her Royal prerogative in 1963 when appointing
Lord Home Prime Minister.
54 In 1965, she made the first visit by a monarch to Germany for 52
years.
55 She formally acknowledged Prince Charles as her heir in 1969.
56 In 2001 the Queen’s household spent £71,000 on stationery, £84,000
on computer maintenance, and £61,000 on laundry.
57 She has eight grandchildren, the youngest of whom left hospital with
the Earl and Countess of Wessex yesterday, right.
58 Tony Blair was the first prime minister to be born during her reign.
59 Helen Mirren has played the Queen three times.
60 Charles II, nicknamed the Merry Monarch, fathered 13 children by his
mistresses and none by his wife.
61 Henry VI (1422-61, 1470-1) founded Eton College and King’s College,
Cambridge, the latter initially reserved for Eton graduates.
62 Peggy was the Queen’s first horse, a gift from her grandfather,
George V, when she was 4.
63 The Queen gave special permission for the American National Anthem
to be played during the Changing the Guard on September 14, 2001.
64 She is apparently an Arsenal fan, as was her mother before her.
65 Pubs called the Royal Oak are named after the tree in which Charles
II hid from the Parliamentary army.
66 The Queen keeps her cornflakes in Tupperware boxes.
67 She demoted a footman for feeding her corgis whisky.
68 A. G. Carrick is the pseudonym used by the Prince of Wales to sign
his paintings.
69 Mary I (1553-58) earned her name “Bloody Mary” for her enthusiastic
burning of at least 300 Protestants.
70 The Queen has addressed the nation at Christmas every year except
1969. A documentary, Royal Family. was broadcast earlier that year.
71 Her bloodline dates back to AD 827 and Egbert of Wessex, the first
recognised king of England.
72 She has been sent more than three million letters.
73 1.1 million people have attended her garden parties.
74 She has visited the sets of EastEnders, Coronation Street and
Emmerdale.
75 She has met five astronauts at Buckingham Palace.
76 She first used the Underground in May 1939, when she travelled with
her governess, Marion Crawford, and Princess Margaret.
77 Queen Victoria’s first name was actually Alexandrina.
78 Before the Norman Conquest, the king was chosen by the Witan, an
assembly of bishops and earls.
79 George I (1714-27) could barely speak English when he ascended the
throne. He came to England from Germany, where he left his wife behind —
imprisoned in a castle.
80 He and his mistress were known as the Elephant and Castle, because
he was so fat and she was so tall.
81 The Queen is the first monarch to have been awarded a gold disc from
the recording industry.
Truly a magnificent achievement - but how long will it last? And what fill follow this long reign of our monarch? I was at primary school when HM The Queen ascended the throne in 1953. And she is still on the throne now that I have retired. In the intervening period, the world has experienced the biggest political revolution in history. A "big bang" indeed!
The next coronation is going to be very different from the last one. It seems to me that British subjects - woopsie! "UK citizens" - are steadily acquiring a republican political outlook. Am I mistaken in feeling that we are witnessing the growth of a transatlantic, English-speaking community on the internet, which is more orientated towards the American Constitution than our constitutional monarchy? When Prince Charles is crowned king, will he have the same vast, cheering crowds lining the streets as his mother did? What are we doing to prepare for this fundamental "update" of our political life?
Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England
"71 Her bloodline dates back to AD 827 and Egbert of Wessex, the first recognised king of England."
So, where did Egbert get his blood from?
And he was only king of Wessex, not England - let along Great Britain or the United Kingdom.
Eric , London, England
Calamico is incorrect. Victoria died on 22nd January 1901. It is also depressing to note the continual reference to the "Queen of England." She is no more Queen of England than she is Queen of Scotland. Please refer to the British Throne! The Times should know better.
Adam, Belfast, Ireland
Queen Victoria died on the 22nd December 1901 on the Isle of Wight. Which means Queen Elizabeth will have to wait until the 23rd December to claim the record.
calamico, Bournemouth, UK
Its is not the ENGLISH throne it is BRITISH. She is not an ENGLISH monarch she is BRITISH. England has not existed for 300 years. Get over it.
Calum Iain, Steòrnabhagh, Albainn
i for one will never forget her coronation as an 11year old . she is the last in line she is highly respected . ,but this coul be the nemesis of royalty
in england we dont need them and if you lok at there appaling record over the last 1000years then we richly deserve the name barbarians
john. blythe, nong khai eastern thailand , thailand43000