Authors: Sally Bedell Smith

Elizabeth the Queen

The Queen leaving the Belgian Embassy in London, 1963.
Reginald Davis MBE (London)

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Sally Bedell.
Elizabeth the Queen : inside the life of a modern monarch / Sally Bedell Smith.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64393-7
1. Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926– 2. Great Britain—History—Elizabeth II, 1952– 3. Queens—Great Britain—Biography. I. Title.
DA490.S55 2011
941.084092—dc23
[B]
2011023661

Front-jacket photograph: © Yousuf Karsh
Back-jacket photographs: © Hugo Burnand/AFP/Getty Images (top), © Tim Graham/Getty Images (bottom left), © Central Press/Getty Images (bottom right)

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From “The Opening of Parliament,”
M
ARY
W
ILSON
,
wife of Harold Wilson,
Prime Minister, 1964–70 and 1974–76

They love her for her wisdom and her pride
,

Her friendship and her quiet majesty;

And soon the streets of Britain will be thronged

With crowds rejoicing in her Jubilee

But as the cool unfaltering voice reads on
,

A different picture forms upon the air—

A small quick figure, walking all alone

Across a glen studded with standing deer …

She notes a crumbling wall, an open gate
,

With countrywoman’s eyes she views the scene;

Yet, walking free upon her own estate

Still, in her solitude, she is the Queen

“She sort of expands when she laughs
.
She laughs with her whole face.”

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in New Brunswick, Canada, during her Golden Jubilee celebrations, October 2002.
Norm Betts/Rex USA

CONTENTS

ONE
A Royal Education

TWO
Love Match

THREE
Destiny Calls

FOUR
“Ready, Girls?”

FIVE
Affairs of State

SIX
Made for Television

SEVEN
New Beginnings