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This is a story of three British monarchs, three very long-lived and very long-reining monarchs.

Each of them has had in the nearly 200 years of history they've ruled a very particular and very different relationship

with the world beyond the shores of Britain. I'm David Canardine and I'm a

historian and this program is the story of how King George the third ruled America and lost it, and how

Queen Victoria made India the jewel in the crown of empire.

But I begin with a monarch whose reign came upon her suddenly, unexpectedly, on a February night in

1952.

Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, was in Kenya, enjoying a brief holiday with her young husband, Prince Philip,

when news arrived from London.

An agency flash at that moment been received, saying that the King was dead.

The Duke went to the princess and broke it to her.

In the words of a member of the household,

she bore it like a queen. And the British Prime Minister

have been the reigns of our Queen's.

Some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their septor.

And the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

was quick to pay tribute to the young Queen

who had so suddenly been called to serve.

And tomorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty

of her native land and of all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire.

I whose youth... the British Commonwealth and Empire.

...