Queen Elizabeth Made History By “Normalizing” One Crucial Aspect of Royal Life, Says Biographer

Queen Elizabeth would have turned 100 on Tuesday, April 21, and as the Royal Family carries out events to mark her life and reign, a new biography of the late Queen is revealing one of the “most important” lessons she left for her heirs.

In Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story, author and royal journalist Robert Hardman explores the intricacies of the late Queen’s public and private personas, and he wrote that she differed from the Kings and Queens before her in one major way.

“One of the most important of all of the lessons to be learned from Elizabeth II is that she ‘normalized’ being monarch without sacrificing her majesty,” Hardman wrote. “History shows an almost unbroken line of sovereigns quarrelling with their predecessors or their successors (sometimes both). Unlike those who came before her, Elizabeth II loved—and was loved by—her father and her son.”

In turn, King Charles has carried that philosophy down to his own heirs, Prince William and Prince George. In a recent interview with Hello!, royal author and journalist Robert Jobson said that Prince George, 12, will change his relationship with his grandfather, The King, in one key way.

"George will be spending more time with his grandfather over the next few years, as William did with the late Queen,” Jobson noted. "He used to meet his grandmother for tea regularly at Windsor Castle when he was a pupil at Eton down the road. Now, it's Charles who has experience of being King.”

King Charles might differ from his late mother in a number of ways, but he was able to take lessons from her leadership over the course of her historic 70-year-reign. Reflecting on her own preparation, Queen Elizabeth told Eddie Mirzoeff in 1991, “You can do a lot if you’re properly trained. And I hope I have been.”