The Queen: from glamorous princess to the country's oldest ever monarch
Activer le mode zenStephen Bates
At the precise moment she ascended to the throne, 60 years ago this morning, the Queen was perched in a tree, watching a rhinoceros rooting around in a watering hole in Kenya. The Duke of Edinburgh was beside her.
It was the start of a tour that was supposed to take the royal couple on to Australia and New Zealand after their African safari, but at the same time, 7.30am back in England, James MacDonald, valet to George VI, was taking the king his morning cup of tea at Sandringham and discovering that he had died during the night from a heart attack.
The coded news - "Hyde Park Corner" - flashed to London was broken to the prime minister, Winston Churchill, still in bed in Downing Street, who promptly burst into tears.
Pour citer cette ressource :
The Queen: from glamorous princess to the country's oldest ever monarch, La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), juin 2012. Consulté le 10/05/2025. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/archives/archives-revue-de-presse/the-queen-from-glamorous-princess-to-the-country-s-oldest-ever-monarch