Through good times and bad
JUNE 2, 1953
Elizabeth was officially crowned at Westminster Abbey. The solemn coronation ceremony lasted three hours, with Her Majesty wearing the 2.25kg solid-gold St Edward’s Crown for much of that time. It was the first time a coronation had been televised, with 27 million British people (out of a population of 36 million) watching the 27-year-old become Queen.
JUNE 14, 1953
The Queen faced her first constitutional crisis when a newspaper wrote about a romance between her sister Margaret and her father’s former equerry, Group Captain Peter Townsend. The couple wanted to marry but needed Her Majesty’s permission thanks to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772.
The Queen wanted Margaret to be happy, but Peter, a divorced man, was considered unsuitable to marry the sister of the Head of the Church of England.
However, after two years of anguish, Margaret announced she would not marry Peter. Margaret later married and divorced society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.
