Records broken by Queen Elizabeth II

Records Broken By Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth ruled for more time than any other monarch in British history—she did so for nearly four months and 70 years.

Her great-great-grandmother queen Victoria, who ruled for 63 years, seven months, and two days until 1901, previously held the record.

Elizabeth was the oldest living monarch and head of state until her passing on Thursday at the age of 96.

Only two monarchs have governed for longer: Thailand’s Bhumibol Adulyadej, who ruled for 70 years and four months until his death in October 2016, and France’s Louis XIV, who ruled for more than 72 years between 1643 and 1715.

Globetrotter

The queen has visited the Commonwealth countries more than 150 times since 1952, breaking another British monarchy travel record.

She visited Canada 22 times – more than any other country. She traveled to France the most in Europe (13 times), where she also spoke up the language.

Before ceasing international travel in November 2015 at the age of 89, she had reportedly traveled the equivalent of 42 times around the globe, according to The Daily Telegraph.

From November 1953 to May 1954, she traveled a longest foreign trip for 168 days, during which she visited 13 different countries.

Busy

Princess Elizabeth, at the age of 21, vowed to dedicate her life to serving the Commonwealth.
As queen, she oversaw 21,000 engagements, gave royal assent to 4,000 pieces of legislation, and hosted 112 foreign heads of state on official visits.

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1954), Japanese Emperor Hirohito (1971), Polish President Lech Walesa (1991), and US President Barack Obama (2011) were among the dignitaries she hosted.

More than 1.5 million people have attended and more than 180 garden parties were hosted at Buckingham Palace.

Religion and politics

The Queen had a total of 15 British prime ministers who served under her. Her first was Winston Churchill (1952–1955) and last was Liz Truss, who was only appointed on Tuesday.

She had regular private meetings with her prime minister of the day, typically at Buckingham Palace.

Elizabeth II met with 13 of the previous 14 US presidents, with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson. And Joe Biden was her last White House guest in 2021.

Since the establishment of the church in the 16th century under Henry VIII, the queen has served as its supreme governor.

On official travels, she had met with four popes: John XXIII (1961), John Paul II (1980, 1982, and 2000), Benedict XVI (2010), and Francis I (2014).

Cards

The queen sent more than 900,000 congratulation cards to couples celebrating 60 years of marriage and over 300,000 cards to centenarians.

She was married for 73 years, which is a British monarchy record. In April of last year, her husband, Prince Philip, passed away at age 99.

Portraits

Since she was seven years old, the queen has posed for more than 200 portraits. Most of them had traditional painting techniques.

However, Lucien Freud’s in 2001 proved controversial. In the opinion of one critic, “it made Her Majesty resemble one of her corgi dogs.

Pioneer

The queen traveled to mainland China for the first time in 1996. She was the first speaker at the Washington, D.C., House of Representatives.
On March 26, 1976, while visiting a Ministry of Defence research center, she wrote her first email.

She started the Buckingham Palace website in 1997, and in 2014, she tweeted for the first time. Three years ago, she made her debut on Instagram.