Her Majesty the Queen: A Remarkable Life

I am going to wind down the documentaries on Queen Elizabeth II in light of her death.  Her Majesty the Queen: A Remarkable Life an older documentary on Queen Elizabeth II.  The run time for this documentary is 49:30.

In 1953 Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II.  Over the years, her family took second place as she did her job.  Royal weddings came and went.  Royal homes went up in flames.  Marriages were dissolved.  Tragedy happened.  She traveled around the world several times.  She had duties to perform.  A new woman appeared on the scene.  This is the story of Queen Elizabeth II.

After September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in America, the Queen was seen attending a memorial service in honor of the victims.  It was not all that long ago that they were celebrating Princess Margaret’s and the Queen Mother’s birthdays.  Flashback to their growing-up years.  Princess Margaret was cheeky and naughty.  While Princess Elizabeth was trained by her grandmother Queen Mary.  Then flash forward to post-war England.  Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were traveling with their parents on a state visit to South Africa.  Scenes of them were recorded on a ship.  Fifty years later, the Queen would return to South Africa.  She visited with President Nelson Mandela.

After the original trip, Princess Elizabeth would marry a dashing naval lieutenant: Philip Mountbatten.  He was given the title Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.  It gave the nation a chance to rejoice and celebrate a royal marriage.  This is the one point of the documentary, where the historians point out that Prince Philip was a good-looking young man, and that he was a Greek god back in the day.

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip went to Malta.  Malta was where he was stationed.  Malta was happy for Princess Elizabeth because there she was a naval officer’s wife.  A few days before their first anniversary, Prince Charles was born.  Two years Princess Anne was born.  The two had different personalities: Prince Charles was sweet and Princess Anne was naughty.  When Princess Elizabeth’s father suddenly died, she found herself, Queen.  She would have official duties and these duties would take her away from the children.

Prince Charles was sent off to school and was sent to a place that was supposed to toughen him up.  Prince Philip was the boss in the home and the boys would be sent off to the place he went to school.  Prince Charles would be deeply unhappy at school.  Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip would have two more children ten years after the birth of Prince Andrew.  Like any marriage, the marriage of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth had their up and downs.  Do not get in the way of her while she watches Prince Philip’s carriage driving competitions.

In 1977, Queen Elizabeth celebrated her silver jubilee.  It drew parallels to the Silver Jubilee of her grandfather. There was one difference in the celebrations.  Queen Elizabeth would do a royal walkabout and acknowledge the people’s feelings.  She is the custodian of the Royal Collection.  She could be considered as immensely rich, however, she is deeply frugal.  She loves horses and breeds her own for racing.  It is at the races, you can see the Queen turn into a gleeful girl.  To learn more about Queen Elizabeth, continue to watch this documentary.

Some of the stories are repeated through other documentaries, although I appreciated the tidbit about her getting her training to be queen from Queen Mary.  I also appreciated the bit that she is the steward of the Duchy of Lancaster.  This would be a good documentary for research purposes.