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Queen Elizabeth II passed numerous milestones throughout her historic 70-year reign. They have included milestones as a mother and wife and as a monarch. And for many of them, she found herself on a parallel path to her great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria.
On 20 December 2007, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest living monarch in British history. Her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, previously held the record at 81 years and 243 days. Victoria passed her grandfather, King George III, by four days, as he also died at 81.
While The Queen’s Jubilees are often celebrated with great fanfare and public events, she did not do anything particular to celebrate the day in 2007 and completed her red boxes as usual.
In September 2015, Elizabeth also overtook her great-great-grandmother on another momentous milestone, that of the longest-reigning British monarch. On September 9th, the record fell to her and although she held no specific celebration to mark the moment, thousands turned out to see her as she visited Scotland on that day.
The Queen was always very aware of the parallels her reign drew with that of Queen Victoria. In 2012, for her Diamond Jubilee, she chose to have the Victoria Memorial in the backdrop of her official portrait. The photo was framed so that the Memorial remained slightly higher than Elizabeth II in the image, a nod to her predecessor still having reigned longer at that point. All would change in the years to come as Victoria was overtaken, time and again, by Queen Elizabeth II.
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