Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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==Early life==

[[File:Elizabeth Bowes Lyon in costume (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Elizabeth in 1909]]

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of [[Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne|Claude Bowes-Lyon]], [[Lord Glamis]] (later the 14th [[Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne]] in the [[Peerage of Scotland]]), and his wife, [[Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck]]. Her mother was descended from British prime minister [[William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland]], and Governor-General of India [[Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley]], who was the elder brother of another prime minister, [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]].{{efn|name=campbell|[[Lady Colin Campbell]] claims Elizabeth's biological mother was the family cook, Marguerite Rodiere, by means of a surrogacy arrangement that was not uncommon in aristocratic families at the time. This theory is dismissed by royal biographers such as Michael Thornton and [[Hugo Vickers]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/9177647/Queen-Mother-was-daughter-of-French-cook-biography-claims.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/9177647/Queen-Mother-was-daughter-of-French-cook-biography-claims.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|newspaper=The Telegraph|title=Queen Mother was daughter of French cook, biography claims|date=31 March 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In an earlier allegation, published by [[Kitty Kelley]] in 1997, Elizabeth's mother is said to have been a Welsh maid.<ref>{{citation|last1=Beck|first1=Joan|title=Royal Muck: $27 Down The Drain|url=httphttps://articleswww.chicagotribune.com/1997-/10-/05/news/9710050469_1_kittyroyal-kelleymuck-queen27-motherdown-princethe-philipdrain/|access-date=16 February 2017|work=Chicago Tribune|date=5 October 1997}}</ref>}}

The location of Elizabeth's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' [[Westminster]] home at [[Belgrave Mansions]], [[Grosvenor Gardens]], or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital.<ref>{{citation|first=Alison|last=Weir|author-link=Alison Weir (historian)|title=Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Revised edition|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|year=1996|isbn=978-0-7126-7448-5|page=330}}</ref> Other possible locations include Forbes House in [[Ham, London]], the home of her maternal grandmother, [[Louisa Cavendish-Bentinck|Louisa Scott]].<ref>Shawcross, p. 15</ref> Her birth was registered at [[Hitchin]], Hertfordshire,<ref>Civil Registration Indexes: Births, General Register Office, England and Wales. Jul–Sep 1900 Hitchin, vol. 3a, p. 667</ref> near the Strathmores' [[English country house]], [[St Paul's Walden Bury]], which was also given as her birthplace in the [[United Kingdom Census 1901|1901]] and [[United Kingdom Census 1911|1911]] censuses.<ref>1901 England Census, Class RG13, piece 1300, folio 170, p. 5; 1911 England Census, RG14/7611, no. 84</ref> She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the local parish church, All Saints.