Queen Elizabeth ‘prayed’ for a baby brother.
According to a royal expert, Queen Elizabeth never wanted to inherit the British throne and ‘prayed’ for a baby brother as a young princess.
Royal biographer Ian Lloyd claims in his book The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Elizabeth II that the now-96-year-old monarch wished a sibling so that a male heir to the throne could follow her.
It was thought that not only Elizabeth, but also the Queen Mother, wished for a son.
“The Queen Mother hoped for a boy, and the young Elizabeth prayed for a brother – then she wouldn’t have to be Queen,” Lloyd writes.
“Margaret Rhodes (the Queen’s first cousin) recounted that following the 1936 abdication, which resulted in Elizabeth becoming heiress presumptive, Princess Elizabeth prayed earnestly for a brother to replace her in the line of succession,” the author wrote in his book. Of course, she’d never had one.”
Despite this, Elizabeth refused to compromise on the monarchy until she ascended to the throne and became Queen, and she is currently the British monarch with the longest reign.
At the age of 25, Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2, 1953, a year after her father, King George VI, died, and she took the throne on February 6, 1952.
