The Queen is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

The elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was born in 1926. She became Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned through more than five decades of enormous social change and development.

The Queen is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and has four children and eight grandchildren.

Her Majesty is 38th in direct line of descent from Egbert (c. 775-839), King of Wessex from 802 and of England 827 to 839.

She is the fortieth monarch since William I (William the Conqueror), and also the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.