Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, the London home of her maternal grandparents, the eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was third in line to the throne and not expected to inherit it. That changed in December 1936 when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated and her father became George VI, making the ten-year-old princess heir presumptive, according to Wikipedia.

Educated privately, Elizabeth studied constitutional history with the vice-provost of Eton and learned French from a succession of governesses. In 1945, aged eighteen, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a driver and mechanic, the only female member of the royal family to have served in the armed forces. She married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in November 1947, and their first child, Charles, was born the following year.

She was in Kenya, staying at the Treetops lodge on a royal tour, when George VI died on 6 February 1952. She acceded to the throne at twenty-five. The coronation followed on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey and was the first to be televised, a decision she is said to have supported against the advice of her prime minister, and one that set the terms of the modern monarchy’s relationship with broadcasting.

Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years and 214 days, longer than any other British monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria’s record in 2015 and marking a Platinum Jubilee in 2022 that no British sovereign had reached before. She worked with fifteen British prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, whom she appointed at Balmoral two days before her death, and served as Head of the Commonwealth across its expansion from eight members to more than fifty.

Her image appeared on the currency and stamps of dozens of countries and she was, by any reasonable measure, among the most recognised people who has ever lived. Her Christmas broadcast, first televised in 1957, became a fixture of the British year. She also displayed an unexpected comic instinct, appearing with James Bond in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony film and with Paddington Bear for her Platinum Jubilee.

The Queen endorsed nothing commercially, but the royal warrant system she presided over remains one of the most valuable brand associations in Britain, granted to suppliers to the royal household and worth a great deal to the firms that hold it. Her horses won well over a thousand races, and the bloodstock operation at Sandringham was a genuine commercial concern rather than a hobby.

The sovereign does not run businesses in the ordinary sense, but the Crown’s landed interests are substantial and were managed throughout her reign as commercial enterprises. The Duchy of Lancaster provided her private income, and the Crown Estate, though not personally owned, generated surpluses that funded the monarchy through the Sovereign Grant. Her personal investments, in shares and in a celebrated racing and breeding operation, were managed privately.

A crucial distinction applies to royal wealth, and it is set out in public record rather than left to estimation. Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, the Crown Jewels and the Royal Collection are held by the sovereign in trust for the nation and cannot be sold, so they form no part of any personal fortune. The Crown Estate is not the monarch’s personal property either: its profits go to the Treasury, which returns a proportion as the Sovereign Grant, per the House of Commons Library and the Royal Household’s own published accounts. The Duchy of Lancaster is likewise held in trust for the sovereign in that role rather than owned outright (the Institute for Government). What she did own personally were Balmoral and Sandringham, both inherited from her father, along with a private art and jewellery collection, a share portfolio and the racing bloodstock.