René Jules Gustave Coty (
French pronunciation: [ʁəne kɔti]; 20 March 1882 – 22 November 1962) was
President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president of the
Fourth French Republic.
René Coty, né le 20 mars 1882 au Havre et mort le 22 novembre 1962 dans la même ville, est un homme d'État français, président de la République française de 1954 à 1959.
Député de la Seine-Inférieure de 1923 à 1935 puis de 1945 à 1948, sénateur de la Seine-Inférieure de 1936 à 1944 puis de 1948 à 1953, il occupa les fonctions de ministre de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme, de 1947 à 1948 dans le cabinet de Robert Schuman puis d'André Marie, il devient ensuite vice-président du Conseil de la République jusqu'en décembre 1953, date à laquelle il est élu à la présidence de la République, au 13e tour de scrutin.
Son mandat est marqué par le gouvernement de Pierre Mendès France, la fin de la guerre d'Indochine, le début de la guerre d'Algérie et le retour du général de Gaulle au pouvoir, qui entraîna la fondation de la Ve République et son départ volontaire, en janvier 1959 de la présidence de la République pour laisser place à de Gaulle, « le plus illustre des Français », comme l'appelait le président Coty.
René Coty est le second et dernier président de la IVe République.
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926
[a]) is, and has been since her accession in 1952, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and
Head of the Commonwealth. She is also Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession:
Jamaica,
Barbados,
the Bahamas,
Grenada,
Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands,
Tuvalu,
Saint Lucia,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Belize,
Antigua and Barbuda, and
Saint Kitts and Nevis.
[b]
Elizabeth was born in London to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and was the elder of their two daughters. She was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during World War II, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
Elizabeth´s many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and reciprocal visits to and from the Pope. She has seen major constitutional changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation, and the decolonisation of Africa. She has also reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms. She is the world´s oldest reigning monarch as well as Britain´s longest-lived. In 2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-reigning British head of state and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world history.
Times of personal significance have included the births and marriages of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, her coronation in 1953, and the celebration of milestones such as her Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. Moments of sadness for her include the death of her father, aged 56; the assassination of Prince Philip´s uncle, Lord Mountbatten; the breakdown of her children´s marriages in 1992 (her annus horribilis); the death in 1997 of her son´s former wife, Diana, Princess of Wales; and the deaths of her mother and sister in 2002. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and severe press criticism of the royal family, but support for the monarchy and her personal popularity remain high.
Elizabeth was born at 02:40 (GMT) on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. Her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth), was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfather´s London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.[2] She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May,[3][c] and named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V´s mother, who had died six months earlier, and Mary after her paternal grandmother.[5] Called "Lilibet" by her close family,[6] based on what she called herself at first,[7] she was cherished by her grandfather George V, and during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by later biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery.[8]
Elizabeth´s only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as "Crawfie".[9] Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music.[10] Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret´s childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family.[11] The book describes Elizabeth´s love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility.[12] Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant."[13] Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved".
Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937.[39] They are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth—though only 13 years old—said she fell in love with Philip and they began to exchange letters.[40] Their engagement was officially announced on 9 July 1947.[41]
The engagement was not without controversy: Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject who had served in the Royal Navy throughout the Second World War), and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links.[42] Marion Crawford wrote, "Some of the King´s advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom. Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip´s foreign origin."[43] Elizabeth´s mother was reported, in later biographies, to have opposed the union initially, even dubbing Philip "The Hun".[44] In later life, however, she told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was "an English gentleman".[45]
Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the surname of his mother´s British family.[46] Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style His Royal Highness.[47]
Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2500 wedding gifts from around the world.[48] Because Britain had not yet completely recovered from the devastation of the war, Elizabeth required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, which was designed by Norman Hartnell.[49] In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh´s German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding.[50] The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited either.[51]
Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948. One month earlier, the King had issued letters patent allowing her children to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess, to which they otherwise would not have been entitled as their father was no longer a royal prince.[52] A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.[53]
Following their wedding, the couple leased Windlesham Moor, near Windsor Castle, until 4 July 1949,[48] when they took up residence at Clarence House in London. At various times between 1949 and 1951, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in the British Crown Colony of Malta as a serving Royal Navy officer. He and Elizabeth lived intermittently, for several months at a time, in the hamlet of Gwardamanġa, at Villa Guardamangia, the rented home of Philip´s uncle, Lord Mountbatten. The children remained in Britain.
During 1951, George VI´s health declined and Elizabeth frequently stood in for him at public events. When she toured Canada and visited President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C., in October 1951, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration in case the King died while she was on tour.[55] In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On 6 February 1952, they had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of the King and consequently Elizabeth´s immediate accession to the throne. Philip broke the news to the new Queen.[56] Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, "of course".[57] She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom.[58] She and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.[59]
With Elizabeth´s accession, it seemed probable that the royal house would bear her husband´s name, becoming the House of Mountbatten, in line with the custom of a wife taking her husband´s surname on marriage. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Elizabeth´s grandmother, Queen Mary, favoured the retention of the House of Windsor, and so on 9 April 1952 Elizabeth issued a declaration that Windsor would continue to be the name of the royal house. The Duke complained, "I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children."[60] In 1960, after the death of Queen Mary in 1953 and the resignation of Churchill in 1955, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor was adopted for Philip and Elizabeth´s male-line descendants who do not carry royal titles.[61]
Coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, June 1953
Amid preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret informed her sister that she wished to marry Peter Townsend, a divorcé‚ 16 years Margaret´s senior, with two sons from his previous marriage. The Queen asked them to wait for a year; in the words of Martin Charteris, "the Queen was naturally sympathetic towards the Princess, but I think she thought—she hoped—given time, the affair would peter out."[62] Senior politicians were against the match and the Church of England did not permit remarriage after divorce. If Margaret had contracted a civil marriage, she would have been expected to renounce her right of succession.[63] Eventually, she decided to abandon her plans with Townsend.[64] In 1960, she married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon the following year. They divorced in 1978; she did not remarry.[65]
Despite the death of Queen Mary on 24 March, the coronation on 2 June 1953 went ahead as planned, as Mary had asked before she died.[66] The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with the exception of the anointing and communion, was televised for the first time.[67][d]Elizabeth´s coronation gown was embroidered on her instructions with the floral emblems of Commonwealth countries:[71] English Tudor rose; Scots thistle; Welsh leek; Irish shamrock; Australian wattle; Canadian maple leaf; New Zealand silver fern; South African protea; lotus flowers for India and Ceylon; and Pakistan´s wheat, cotton, and jute.
Ancestry
