SHE CONSISTENTLY DEFIED EXPECTATIONS

“My name is Elizabeth.” So goes the response from the Queen upon being asked what name she might take for the throne in Netflix’s dramatised version of her life, The Crown. The poignant scene, depicting the immediate aftermath of her father’s death in 1952, is typical of why the show’s popularity continued to soar through four seasons. The loss of her father, King George VI, was not only sorrowful but a drastic and irreparable transformation of her life: from being a mother, sister and wife – a woman, albeit an extremely privileged one – to becoming head of state. Yet, despite her inevitable vulnerability, Elizabeth was stoic from the off.

“There was an understanding that this wasn’t something she really wanted to do,” Borman says. “And I think there was probably a sense in the 50s that this was just a young woman, a 25-year-old, and an attitude of ‘What does she really know about being monarch?’” Unsurprising, perhaps, considering Elizabeth was one of few female monarchs to rule as empress regnant, in her own right. Like Queen Victoria before her and Elizabeth I before that, she would be subjected to the difficulties that go hand-in-hand with wielding female power in a man’s world.

“But she defied those pessimistic expectations with how she held herself and the institution,” says Borman. “She will always have critics, but she did create solidarity. Many who believe that the monarchy no longer has a place in British society still have respect for the Queen. And that’s quite remarkable.”

Long before her accession to the throne, however, Elizabeth had already begun to quietly resist protocol. In 1947, she softly defied her father to marry Prince Philip Mountbatten, and in a wedding dress paid for with ration coupons, just like every other bride in England at the time. If you believe the hype (and The Crown), Elizabeth was very much infatuated with Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece, from the moment they met when she was just 13. But Elizabeth’s affection for her distant cousin wasn’t exactly a cause for celebration within her family. Her father questioned Philip’s lack of wealth and reportedly criticised his “rough” personality at the time, which contrasted greatly with Elizabeth’s calm, fair nature.

All the same, she would go on to marry the man she loved, and together they had four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Philip was by her side throughout her seven decades on the throne. When news broke that he had died, aged 99, in April 2021, the royal family said he’d left a “huge void in her life”. But she was quick to thank the British public for their tributes and returned to royal duties just four days after the loss of a man she called her “strength and stay all these years”.

What did the Queen mean to the women of Britain?