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Born on 21 April 1926 to the Duke and Duchess of York, Queen Elizabeth was crowned Queen on 2 June 1953.
On February 6, 1952, 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth was watching baboons while taking photographs of the Kenyan sunrise from a hotel set in the branches of a giant fig tree when she became Queen. It was Prince Philip who told her that her father had died and she was now Queen. All these happened at Treetops Hotel.
The Treetops Hotel is located in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park, 17 miles outside of Nyeri. The construction of the structure erected around the old tree in the stilts building is far from unimportant. In addition, the structure has ties to the British monarchy and especially Queen Elizabeth II.
The news of her father’s passing was sent to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, in this location, thousands of miles from London. Her husband, Prince Philip, informed her that the couple was on a diplomatic mission when they were in Kenya.
‘Princess’ Elizabeth’s father; King George VI had just gently passed away while sleeping at the tender age of 56 after reigning for barely 15 years. Thus, the king’s daughter was practically experiencing her coronation in Africa, in Kenya. Despite not being crowned until June 1953 and going by the name Elizabeth II.
Therefore, one may consider Elizabeth II’s reign to have begun at The Treetops Hotel. According to some, the Mau Mau, Kenyan freedom fighters who were opposing colonial rule in their country, set fire to the original hotel. A few years later, a new hotel was constructed on the same property.
Kenyan independence from British colonial power was not achieved for another ten years following an emergency period characterized by murders, torture, and mistreatment. The COVID-19 epidemic forced the ancient hotel to close seven decades after the Queen’s reign began.
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The Queen reportedly allowed herself a private period of reflection at the now-closed hotel in Kenya following the news of her father’s passing. Perhaps a contemplation of her new job and the future she held.
The Reign of Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth went on to become the longest-reigning monarch ever in Britain, Beating Queen Victoria (her great-great-grandma!). As a queen, she witnessed; 8 catholic popes ascending to the papacy, and 14 different US presidents reigning the United States and she was served by 14 UK Prime Ministers, Including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.
The Queen invented (Introduced) a new breed of dog when her corgi mated with a dachshund belonging to her sister, Princess Margaret, creating the “dorgi”, besides owning an elephant, two giant turtles, a jaguar and a pair of sloths which she acquired as presents from other countries and all of which live in London Zoo.
In her sunset, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee became a party without its guest of honor. Her absence was a metaphor for the twilight of Britain’s second Elizabethan Age, an awkward limbo in which the 96-year-old queen was still reigning but had, in many ways, been replaced by her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles.
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On 8 September 2022, at 15:10 BST, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, and the longest-reigning British monarch, died at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, at the age of 96.
Her death was publicly announced at 18:30. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.
The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, took place on 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.
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