Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II meeting NASA staff at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, in 2007.

Queen Elizabeth II riding with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library.

Elizabeth II (born 21st April 1926) is the current Head of State and monarch of the United Kingdom and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

She is also Head of State of 16 Commonwealth countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, serving over 129 million people in these 'Commonwealth realms' as their sovereign and serving as titular Head of the Commonwealth for 37 other countries . In none of these offices does she hold any real political power: as Head of State, the monarch's role is largely ceremonial as in all constitutional monarchies. Nevertheless, some republicans are perturbed about specific residual discretions and crown prerogatives, such as choosing a prime minister, which are not necessarily constrained by precedent or constitutional limitations.

The Queen married Philip Mountbatten, now Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947. Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952 while she was in Kenya and following the death of George VI, her father. Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest of the Queen's four children, is expected to succeed her. Elizabeth's hobbies include watching horse racing and breeding thoroughbreds, dog walking and country dancing.

Early life

Elizabeth, then a princess, with U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

Further reading

• Ben Pimlott. The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II (1998) online search and excerpt from amazon.com
• Robert Lacey. Monarch: The Life and Reign of Elizabeth II (2003) online search and excerpt from amazon.com
• William Shawcross. Queen and Country: The Fifty-Year Reign of Elizabeth II (2002) online search and excerpt from amazon.com

See also

• Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh