British queen consort born in Glamis, known as the Queen Mother. Ninth of ten children of Scottish aristocrat and landowner Claude George Bowes-Lyon, or Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, lord of a castle in Scotland that had belonged to the family since the 14th century and which, according to legend, housed the dynasty Macbeth.
There is controversy about her origins, as her father only registered her about six weeks after her birth. Some say that her birth delivery would have taken place, urgently, in an ambulance wagon and that her mother was not Lady Glamis but an Irish maid in the service of the family. She was educated at home by housekeepers throughout her childhood and at age twelve she entered the Birtwistle Academy, but shortly thereafter, with the onset of World War I, she returned to Glamis.
His family home, Castle Glamis, Scotland, had been turned into a hospital for British soldiers wounded in battle. Her family also suffered other tragedies: her older brother Fergus died during the Battle of Loos (1915) and another, Michael, was imprisoned for two years. After the end of the war, through her boyfriend James Stuart, an employee of the English Royal House, she met an acquaintance of childhood, Prince Albert, Bertie, Duke of York, son of King George V and second in line to the crown throne British.
The family decided to marry the prince, five years older, after two requests from him, and she thus became the first commoner to be part of the royal family since the reign of Henry. VIII. They were married on April 26 (1923), at Westminster Abbey, she acquired the title of Duchess of York, and three years later (1926), their first child, Elizabeth, was born, and then Margaret, the second child. (1930). With the death (1936) of King George V, his brother-in-law Edward VIII assumed the throne, but abdicated in the same year to marry the commoner Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.
Her husband was then crowned in Westminster Abbey (1937) with the name of George VI, she became Queen and the family then moved to Buckingham Palace. The new king was stupidly shy, perhaps because of his acute stutter, incapable and unmotivated for his duties as monarch, the which led the queen, even against her will, to command her husband's obligations, helping him to overcome the first years of power.
It was she who held the family together, working hard to preserve his reputation and popularity. The successful partnership between the two became, at the time, a living example of the family values that prevailed in the 1950s. Her prestige among her subjects grew when World War II began. Although the royal advisers insisted that she leave London with her daughters and seek refuge in Canada, the queen remained adamant and remained in the Buckingham Palace, and she made it a habit, with the King, to visit the places hit by the air raids, the destroyed houses and hospitals, to offer comfort to the injured.
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With the death of George VI (1952) and the occupation of the throne, which rightfully belonged to her, by Elizabeth II, she she left Buckingham Palace, where she lived, and left for Clarence House, where she lived the rest of her life. life. She, however, did not disappear into the anonymity so common to mothers or wives of important figures, nor did she try to steal the show from her daughter, now half a century on the British throne. After a year of mourning, she adopted the title of Her Majesty Queen Mother, and returned to active duty, but she always remained aloof from the affairs of state.
In recent years, she has been a godmother or honorary president of more than 350 organizations and has made more than 40 official visits abroad. She took a leading role in preparing the brides for the ill-fated weddings of her eldest grandchildren: both Diana Spencer and Sarah Ferguson. Closely linked to her eldest grandson, the prince and heir to the throne Charles, she was his lifelong confidant, even supporting him in his romance with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
She was at the forefront of restoring the credibility of the royal family, beset by crises and doubts about the future of the House of Windsor, but after the sadness of seeing her youngest daughter, the Princess Margaret, dying at age 71 (2002), her health began to decline irreversibly, until she unfortunately died at Windsor Castle, due to pneumonia and infection. pulmonary.
Her funeral was held at Westminster Abbey, from where the coffin was taken to Windsor Castle, on the outskirts of London, and buried with her husband in Saint George's Chapel. She died as popular as she was half a century ago after World War II. She was the first person in the British royal family to surpass the age of 100, she turned 100 years old, with physical vigor and lucidity.
The British called her the most beloved grandmother in the country, Adolph Hitler defined her as the most dangerous woman in Europe and it is said that she drank a few doses of gin every day. When she celebrated 100 years (2000), from the balcony of Buckingham Palace she waved to a crowd estimated at 40,000 people.
Figure copied from the GLOBO NEWS website (03/30/2002):
http://globonews.globo.com/
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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