Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
 * name=Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
 * image=BowesLyon.jpg
 * nationality=Britain
 * race=Scottish
 * religion=Anglicanism
 * birth=1900
 * death=2002
 * cause of death=Cold
 * occupation=Member of the Royal Family of the United Kindgom
 * spouse=George VI of Britain
 * children=Elizabeth II
 * affiliations =House of Windsor, by marriage}}Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, styled Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, also Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the wife of King George VI of Britain. She married Prince Albert, Duke of York in 1923 after turning down repeated marriage proposals.  In 1936 she unexpectedly found her husband on the throne following the abdication of King Edward.  She was Queen-Consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions until her husband's death in 1952, and was also the final Empress-Consort of India until that nation became a republic in 1947.  From 1952 until her death, she was Queen Mother during the first fifty years of her elder daughter's long reign.  She died of a cold in 2002.

During World War II, Elizabeth made a number of highly visible attempts to keep up morale. She risked her life by remaining in London during the Battle of Britain and sharing in the city's fate, rather than evacuate as the Cabinet advised her to do. Largely because of such gestures, she remained an immensely popular figure for the rest of her life, even as public perception of the Royal Family in general suffered in the 1980s and 90s.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in The War That Came Early
Queen Elizabeth deeply disapproved of the Hess Agreement signed by Neville Chamberlain and especially of Chamberlain's authoritarian successor, Horace Wilson. Following her husband's lead, she made no effort to interfere in the political process that legitimated Wilson's government; however, when she learned that Wilson had been overthrown in a military coup led by Archibald Wavell, she was so relieved that she kissed Wavell on the cheek.