“It is very simple,” a 21-year-old Princess Elizabeth said in a speech broadcast around the world on the BBC. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.” Five years later, following the death of her beloved father King George VI in 1952, she became Queen Elizabeth II. As the nation mourns its longest-serving monarch, who celebrated 70 years on the throne earlier this year, Vogue retraces the remarkable life of the history-making royal at the link in bio. Queen Elizabeth II, photographed in 1953.