Although George V had a reputation for severity toward his children, he doted on his granddaughter and she enjoyed a close relationship with all her grandparents.
Despite these periodic absences for royal duties, Elizabeth, her parents, and her younger sister, Princess Margaret Rose (1930–2002), were a close family In the United Kingdom in the care of her grandparents as was customary for royal tours at the time. Although the Duchess of York wrote in her diary that she was "very miserable at leaving the baby," the young Elizabeth remained
When Elizabeth was only eight months old her parents embarked on a six-month world tour, visiting Australia and New Zealand. Her godparents included a former Governor General of Canada, her great-grand-uncle Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Nevertheless, there was public interest in the birth of King George V`s first granddaughter.Įlizabeth was christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace on. The succession laws of the period dictated that any sons born to the Duke and Duchess of York would precede Elizabeth in the line of succession. Her uncle, the future Edward VIII, was unmarried at the time but the public assumed that he would eventually marry and have children Son of the reigning King George V, and the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.Īt the time of her birth, she was third in line to the throne but it seemed unlikely that she would ever become Queen. Her parents were Prince Albert, Duke of York (the future George VI), second Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926 at the London home of her maternal grandparents, Claude and Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.