This year Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her  Diamond Jubilee, marking  the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne. Although she ascended the throne on February 6th, 1952, her coronation did not take place until June 2, 1953, allowing for a suitable mourning period for George VI.
The Queen is the second longest serving monarch in British History, the longest being  Queen Victoria who reigned for 63 years and 7 months. Queen Victoria is the only other British monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee.

Here are some genealogical facts about the Queen that you might not know.

• She is the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror took the English throne, in 1066. William the Conqueror also happens to be her 22nd Great-Grandfather.
• Queen Victoria is the Great Great Grandmother of the Queen. Through Queen Victoria, Elizabeth is directly descended from a number of British royal families, including the House of Stuart; Mary, Queen of Scots;  Robert the Bruce; the House of Tudor and the House of Wessex.
• The following royals are also descended from Queen Victoria – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Margrethe II of Denmark; King Juan Carlos I of Spain; Queen Sofia of Spain and former King Constantine II of Greece.
• Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are second cousins once removed.Through her Great Great Grandfather Prince Albert,  the Queen is a patrilineal descendant of Albert’s family, the German House of Wettin.  Her male line ancestry can be traced back to Conrad the Great of Meissen.
• The Queen’s lineage ethnicities include Arab, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.

Further reading

Our Queen Robert Hardman

Historical dictionary of the British monarchy Kenneth J. Panton.

Britain’s royal families: the complete genealogy Alison Weir.

Some interesting websites

• Access a detailed, up to date family tree for the British Monarchs.
• View the descent of Elizabeth from William I.
• Look at the official British Monarchy websites which include information on the history of the royal family,  photographs, videos etc.
• View two films charting the Queen’s Accession and Coronation on The British Monarchy website.
• To mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, The National Archives has digitised and displayed a collection of congratulatory addresses presented to Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee in 1887, and Diamond Jubilee in 1897. View the online exhibition here.

And finally….

In February 1954 the  newly-crowned Queen became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. This was the first royal visit in over 20 years and it’s estimated that over 75 percent of the population turned out to catch a glimpse  of the new queen.
Here are a few royal tour photos from our collection.

Crowds lining the street in Melbourne during the Royal Tour of 1954

View of the  State Library of Victoria. Lettering on facade in honour of the coronation

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on the verandah of O’Shannessy Lodge, Warburton.