Queen Elizabeth II is the queen regnant of the United Kingdom. (Queen Regnant is a queen with all the royal authority ascribed to the ruler instead of being queen just by virtue of being the wife of a king.) This caricature-cartoon of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom is about those many crowns that she wears!
After the caricature is a short biography of the Queen (Find the long one here.)
Uneasy?
Queen Elizabeth’s shortest biography on the web:
She was born on April 21, 1926. Her father George VI was the last Emperor of India. When he died in 1952, Elizabeth ascended the throne. About 5 years before her coronation she married Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburg, with whom she had fallen in love when she was only thirteen. They had four children. The Queen went through a lot of public criticism over the Charles-Diana debacle and later her response to Diana’s death. After Queen Victoria and King George III, she’s the longest reigning monarch of the British Empire, who has been the queen for 58 years now.
(Source: The Official Website of the British Monarchy.)
The Queen’s Annus Horribilis:
The Queen called 1992 her annus horribilis, which included the Topless Sarah Ferguson’s toe being kissed by John Bryan scandal, the fire at the palace, and Prince Charles’ and Princess Diana’s divorce…among other things! Phew! What an year…even for a queen with all the support systems in place!
(Source: Annus Horribilis – 1992 )
The Queen’s Gutsy Admirer – Michael Fagan
Of course, you can read the details of the Queen’s biography all over the web. So, let me talk about Michael Fagan, a 32-year-old man who broke into the Buckingham Palace and got into the Queen’s bedroom. This young man sat in the Queen’s bedroom and had about 8 minutes of uninterrupted conversation with her. Fascinating…right? The underside of it all was that he was accused of stealing half-a-bottle of wine…and then had to spend about six months in a mental asylum! There are two ways of looking at this punishment.
- It was a small price to pay for a one-to-one conversation with the Queen.
- Something was mentally wrong with those who put him into the mental asylum instead of the prison. By this philosophy, the thieves who ransacked our office last year and partied on all that was available in the pantry, should be sent to the mental assylum, instead of being put behind bars!
(Source: The Michael Fagan Incident)
Here are some interesting links:
- A Queen’s life
- The Coronation Dress
- Queen Elizabeth’s pictures
- The British Monarchy Site
- The Crown Jewels
- The Queen’s Personal Wealth
- Annus Horribilis – 1992
Queen Elizabeth II – Glossary:
Queen Regnant: The queen who is vested with all the royal authority (at par with the King.)
Queen Consort: The queen who’s a queen by virtue of being the wife of a king.
Annus Horibilis: A truly bad year where nothing works out and everybody is out to get you. (2009 for me, 1992 for the Queen!)
Drawing the Caricature of Queen Elizabeth II:
(A Window into my Thoughts, for those who want to learn how to draw the Queen’s caricature.)
- When you draw a queen, caricature or otherwise, you draw a queen. So it was important that the caricature highlighted her queenly attributes/features. Thus, the crown became important.
- Next, because the caricature was of Queen Elizabeth II, it had to have a likeness. As you’d note from her pictures, the Queen’s chin is slightly drawn in and she’s got a nice nose and a smile. These were important too.
- So the crown, the chin, and the smile got exaggerated. The dress and the ribbons were drawn to build additional likeness.
- The joke…well:-) Queen Elizabeth II is a strong woman who seems to have been born with a crown – and so she hardly notices it:-)
Shafali's Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons 