On her wedding day Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became Duchess of York and from that day undertook the royal duties that she carried out until her final years. Much of the couple's time was taken up representing the Windsors on visits to the imperial royal households of Europe - alliances created as a result of the marriages Queen Victoria had arranged for her many children. The royal newly-weds attended the christenings and family functions of, among others, the Balkan house of Karageorgevitch.
In 1926 the duchess gave birth to Elizabeth, who was to become the future queen. Nine months later she accompanied her husband on a royal tour of New Zealand and Australia. Then, in 1928, she gave birth to a second daughter, Margaret.
Prince Albert's father, King George V, died in 1936 and the throne passed to his eldest son Edward. By the time he became king, Edward had married neither a British aristocrat nor a European royal. Instead he fell for the American actress and divorcee Wallis Simpson. As a result of this "unsuitable" relationship, the new king came under enormous pressure to renounce the throne. The Duchess of York's role in the abdication crisis is uncertain (papers which are thought to throw more light on her involvement have been suppressed until 2037) but it is widely known that Elizabeth did not like the glamorous American. Neither did the Anglican clergy, who considered it improper that a woman should join the King of England on the throne when she had been married to another man.
Edward's affair was kept out of the British press, despite the fact that American and continental papers ran stories announcing that the couple were to wed. Censors took their scissors to all mention of Mrs Simpson in publications that reached British shores, but in private the government, opposition and civil service had come to the conclusion that the king must choose between his lover and the throne. Before the news became public, Edward had decided. The crown passed to his younger brother, Albert, who became King George V1, and the duchess became Queen.
Now plain Mr Edward Windsor, the former king left the country. He was later made HRH the Duke of Windsor but his wife was forbidden to take the royal title. The couple were ostracised from family life. As her sister-in-law lay dying in the early 1970s, Elizabeth, by then the Queen Mother, made the conciliatory gesture of sending a representative to visit her in Paris every six months.