42 Family Photos That Capture The Queen As Mum And Monarch

The Queen’s devotion to a life of service was only rivalled by her devotion to her family and children, a group that has certainly seen its fair share of drama through the years.

The Queen once pointed out that her family is like every other if you look beyond the royal titles. “Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters, and of family disagreements,” she said, according to the Telegraph.

But the queen’s handling of those “wayward youngsters” wasn’t one-size-fits-all. As many a royal biographer will tell you, how Elizabeth (and to a lesser extent, Philip) parented their first two children – Charles, born in 1948, and Anne, born in 1950 – was quite different from how they raised their youngest children – Andrew, born in 1960, and Edward, born in 1964.

Sally Bedell Smith, a royal biographer and author of Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, writes that the queen “depended on the nannies to supervise the daily lives” of her kids during Charles and Anne’s early years. 

That said, Princess Anne herself has dismissed the reputation the queen has in the press as being a somewhat cold, emotionally distant mother.

“We as children may have not been too demanding in the sense that we understand what the limitations were in time and the responsibilities placed on her as monarch in the things she had to do and the travels she had to make,” she told the BBC in 2002.

Still, many royal historians hold that Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, who were born a decade after their older siblings, had notably different experiences with their mother. It makes sense, given the circumstance: Elizabeth was only 25 and a relatively new mother when she acceded to the throne in the wake of her father’s 1952 death. Personally and professionally, there was much to balance and much to learn.  

By 1960, when Andrew was born, the queen had had ample time to settle into a life of royal duties. As royal historian Robert Lacey told Town & Country, the queen was finally able to take a step back and prioritise family time – and as a result, became “warmer and more flexible” as a mother.

Below, we take a look back at what Queen Elizabeth II was like as a mum.