Born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair to the Duke and Duchess of York, Elizabeth was not expected to become queen until her uncle Edward VIII's abdication in 1936 thrust her father onto the throne. She ascended in 1952 upon her father's death and reigned until her own death in 2022, becoming Britain's longest-reigning monarch.
Elizabeth's birth by cesarean section drew a modest crowd outside the townhouse of her grandfather, but no one anticipated she would become queen; her uncle David, the dashing Prince of Wales, stood to inherit the throne and seemed likely to have children of his own. Her early childhood was spent largely out of the spotlight, doted on by her parents and grandparents, nicknamed "Lilibet" for her own toddler mispronunciation of her name.
Everything changed in December 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee unacceptable to the church and government. Elizabeth's father became George VI, and ten-year-old Elizabeth became heir presumptive, a role she trained for with tutors in constitutional history and languages.
She would go on to witness and steer the British monarchy through the loss of empire, the rise of television, the Cold War, and the tabloid tumult of her own family, all while cultivating an image of steady, unshowy duty. By her death seven decades later, she had met more than a dozen U.S. presidents and outlasted fifteen British prime ministers.