Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Elizabeth the Second – the longest-reigning British monarch. She was born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London on 21 April 1926. Nowadays, unfortunately, this house does not exist anymore. Her childhood was mostly spent in Windsor and Buckingham Palace. When Elizabeth was a child, she couldn’t pronounce her name properly, thus she was saying “Lilibet”. She received home education. Parents taught her how to read and right. Lessons were focused mainly on Geography, Latin, French, Economics, and Music. During her childhood years she showed how well she did horse-riding and dancing. Moreover, she participated in swimming competitions.

Later when she has grown up and become a young lady, for the first time she gave a speech on radio, in a troubled times on Earth, during the WWII. Despite Elizabeth’s title, during the war she was helping the army by knitting socks and growing vegetables. She also learnt how to drive a car. In 1947 a significant change happened in the life of the future Queen, she married Prince Philip in 1947. Year later, couple presented their new-born child Prince Charles.

Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, however coronation took place a year later because it was not appropriate to hold such festival during the year of mourning. Queen Elizabeth II made her speech for Christmas for the first time in 1957. Now, it is a traditional speech.

Today, despite the false opinions of people around the world that Queen Elizabeth plays an important role, her role is largely ceremonial with a few duties, the right to be consulted by the Prime Minister, to encourage certain courses of action, to warn against others. The Queen have visited vast majority of countries, in 21st century Her Majesty visited 18 countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Vatican City, Latvia and so on. Once in the last century, in 1994 she even visited Russian Federation. She has four children one of them was mentioned earlier Prince Charles, apart from him Princess Anna, Princes Andrew and Edward. In her free time she likes to take photos, read books and watch horse races.

The official residence of Queen is Buckingham Palace, but who knew that there are five more Royal residences where Queen spends time – Windsor Castle, Holyrood Castle, where she spends first week of summer, In Scotland, Balmoral Castle, which serves as a residence during the end of the Summer, Sandringham Estate, which is used for entertainment during holidays and a Hillsborough Castle that is where Queen stays while visiting Ireland.