Word: queen
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...surging tide of the Renaissance to guide England to its golden age of literature and discovery. The beachheads of the future Empire were won by Bess's indomitable sea hawks, "singeing the Spanish King's beard" in continental harbors and on the Spanish Main. Even Queen Anne, lonely, dullwitted, and forever conniving with her disreputable friend Sarah Churchill, had labeled an age with her name and marked some imperial milestones. After Anne, England's next Queen was a demure little German Princess of 18, who stepped out of a life circumscribed by a domineering and jealous mother...
...appearances Princess Elizabeth is exactly the daughter that plain, conscientious King George and matronly Queen Elizabeth deserve. That is precisely what her future subjects want her to be. Transplanted by some magic into almost any upper-middle-class suburb in the U.S., Mr. & Mrs. George Windsor would undoubtedly be among the solidest section of the community. With her mind never quite detached from the children, well-read, talented Mrs. Windsor would find time to be popular and businesslike at meetings of the Altar Guild and the Garden Club...
...Buckingham Palace, just as she might have in some U.S. Middletown, the heiress to the throne had her own troop of Girl Guides, the 7th Westminster Company, organized by children of Palace staffers. The Queen gave the girls a company flag, and in time Elizabeth worked her way up to be patrol leader-"a distinction," her official biographers carefully point out, "achieved only through merit." At Windsor Elizabeth was the Bosun of the Kingfisher Patrol of the Sea Rangers (seagoing Guides), and woe betide any Ranger who came aboard the flagship (a whaleboat presented by King George) like a landlubber...
...potential subjects and fond grandfather were determined to make Lilibet aware of her importance, there were others equally determined to make her aware of her responsibilities. Statuesque Queen Mary, still the greatest influence in Elizabeth's life, was never one to tolerate arrogant nonsense as she shepherded her small relative through London's museums and theaters. Once when Lilibet tugged at her impatiently because there were crowds outside "waiting to see me," Granny Queen whisked the proud Princess home via the back door. One day when furious Lilibet was demanding a favor of her governess with the words...
...student, Elizabeth was always systematic rather than brilliant. She learned to play Schumann, Chopin and Beethoven capably and accurately on the piano, though she preferred Bing Crosby recordings. Her drawings, like the horse she executed on linoleum for Granny Queen's Christmas, were painstaking and thorough. Very different were Sister Margaret's drawings of an imagined character called the Pinkle-Ponkle, who hovered vaguely over towns. "If he were to come down," Margaret replied to all critics, "he'd find worm sandwiches and caterpillar jam-green jam." Like her father, Elizabeth worries a good deal over Margaret...