Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953

Queen Elizabeth II was officially crowned during a coronation ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Elizabeth, who was only 27 years old at the time, was accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She married Philip Mountbatten in 1947. He became the Duke of Edinburgh on the eve of their wedding.

Her coronation ceremony was attended by a thousand guests, and hundreds of millions listened to the radio and watched it live.

The ceremony consisted of thousand-year-old traditions. In the climactic moment, Elizabeth takes the coronation oath, promising to devote herself entirely to serving the people of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. Then, Elizabeth and her husband were taken by horse and carriage on a processional route through the streets of London to Buckingham Palace, where she and her family stood on the balcony and waved to a crowd of supporters.

Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, died on February 6, 1952 – and she was immediately declared Britain’s new monarch.

Elizabeth ruled 70 years before her death on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96. She was the longest reigning monarch in British history at the time of her death.