Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in June 1953 in Westminster Abbey when she was 27 years old. Clive Irving, author of new biography ‘The Last Queen’, suggested Her Majesty’s first 10 years on the throne brought her “enormous stress”.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Mr Irving spoke about the period.
The magazine asked the royal author whether he would have anticipated her successful reign at her coronation.
Mr Irving responded: “I think very few people would have, and she was very peculiarly lacking in that confidence herself.
“The first 10 years of her reign she had to endure enormous stress, not only learning how to be the Queen, but also enduring a campaign that [Prince] Philip and Dickie Mountbatten waged to get the family name changed.”
Her Majesty’s coronation was the first British coronation to be televised and 27 million people in the UK tuned in to watch the event live.
Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with more than 8000 guests, watched the coronation inside Westminster Abbey.
The then-Princess Elizabeth became Queen following the death of her father, King George VI, in February 1952.
In February, Her Majesty will mark her 69th year on the throne.
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“Here you have this paradox: One of the most famous people in the world, yet you still know so little about her, and that’s deliberate.”
They royal author said Her Majesty thought it was important for the public not to know her opinions on politics.
He said: “She always felt it was important that we should know nothing about how she feels about political things, like how she really felt about the loss of the empire, about various prime ministers, in particular Margaret Thatcher, or about Brexit, to bring it up to date.
“We don’t know, and if anybody tells you they do know, they don’t really know.”
Prince Charles is first in line to the throne followed by his son Prince William.
Mr Irving previously said the Queen was “more modern” than the Prince of Wales.
Speaking to Australia’s Today Extra, Mr Irving said: “The Queen seems more modern than Charles.
“She’s very much timeless, whereas Charles is an 18th-century figure.”
Mr Irving likened the Prince of Wales’ future rule of the monarchy to “driving over a cliff”.
