document_title: Elizabeth II

question_text: when did the queen of england get married

question_tokens: when did the queen of england get married

text: Elizabeth II

text: Early life

text: Elizabeth was born at 02:40 (GMT) on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. Her father, the Duke of York (later King George VI), was the second son of the King. Her mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth), was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.[2] She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May,[3][b] and named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V's mother, who had died six months earlier, and Mary after her paternal grandmother.[5] Called "Lilibet" by her close family,[6] based on what she called herself at first,[7] she was cherished by her grandfather George V, and during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by later biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery.[8]

text: Elizabeth's only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford.[9] Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music.[10] Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family.[11] The book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility.[12] Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant."[13] Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved".[14]

text: Heir presumptive

text: During her grandfather's reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as the Prince of Wales was still young. Many people believed he would marry and have children of his own.[15] When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, after her father. Later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis.[16] Consequently, Elizabeth's father became king, and she became heir presumptive. If her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession.[17]

text: Elizabeth received private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, Vice-Provost of Eton College,[18] and learned French from a succession of native-speaking governesses.[19] A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, was formed specifically so she could socialise with girls her own age.[20] Later, she was enrolled as a Sea Ranger.[19]

text: In 1939, Elizabeth's parents toured Canada and the United States. As in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain, since her father thought her too young to undertake public tours.[21] Elizabeth "looked tearful" as her parents departed.[22] They corresponded regularly,[22] and she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call on 18 May.[21]

text: Second World War

text: In September 1939, Britain entered the Second World War, which lasted until 1945. During the war, many of London's children were evacuated to avoid the frequent aerial bombing. The suggestion by senior politician Lord Hailsham[23] that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada was rejected by Elizabeth's mother, who declared, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave without the King. And the King will never leave."[24] Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret stayed at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, until Christmas 1939, when they moved to Sandringham House, Norfolk.[25] From February to May 1940, they lived at Royal Lodge, Windsor, until moving to Windsor Castle, where they lived for most of the next five years.[26] At Windsor, the princesses staged pantomimes at Christmas in aid of the Queen's Wool Fund, which bought yarn to knit into military garments.[27] In 1940, the 14-year-old Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast during the BBC's Children's Hour, addressing other children who had been evacuated from the cities.[28] She stated: "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well."[28]

text: In 1943, Elizabeth undertook her first solo public appearance on a visit to the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been appointed colonel the previous year.[29] As she approached her 18th birthday, parliament changed the law so she could act as one of five Counsellors of State in the event of her father's incapacity or absence abroad, such as his visit to Italy in July 1944.[30] In February 1945, she was appointed as an honorary second subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service with the service number of 230873.[31] She trained as a driver and mechanic and was given the rank of honorary junior commander five months later.[32][33]

text: At the end of the war in Europe, on Victory in Europe Day, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret mingled anonymously with the celebratory crowds in the streets of London. Elizabeth later said in a rare interview, "We asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised ... I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief."[34]

text: During the war, plans were drawn up to quell Welsh nationalism by affiliating Elizabeth more closely with Wales. Proposals, such as appointing her Constable of Caernarfon Castle or a patron of Urdd Gobaith Cymru (the Welsh League of Youth), were abandoned for several reasons, including fear of associating Elizabeth with conscientious objectors in the Urdd at a time when Britain was at war.[35] Welsh politicians suggested she be made Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday. Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison supported the idea, but the King rejected it because he felt such a title belonged solely to the wife of a Prince of Wales and the Prince of Wales had always been the heir apparent.[36] In 1946, she was inducted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.[37]

text: Princess Elizabeth went in 1947 on her first overseas tour, accompanying her parents through southern Africa. During the tour, in a broadcast to the British Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, she made the following pledge: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."[38]

text: Marriage

text: Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937.[39] They are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth – though only 13 years old – said she fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters.[40] She was 21 when their engagement was officially announced on 9 July 1947.[41]

text: The engagement was not without controversy; Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject who had served in the Royal Navy throughout the Second World War), and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links.[42] Marion Crawford wrote, "Some of the King's advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom. Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip's foreign origin."[43] Later biographies reported Elizabeth's mother initially opposed the union, dubbing Philip "The Hun".[44] In later life, however, the Queen Mother told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was "an English gentleman".[45]

text: Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, officially converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the surname of his mother's British family.[46] Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style His Royal Highness.[47]

text: Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2,500 wedding gifts from around the world.[48] Because Britain had not yet completely recovered from the devastation of the war, Elizabeth required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, which was designed by Norman Hartnell.[49] In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding.[50] The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited either.[51]

text: Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948. One month earlier, the King had issued letters patent allowing her children to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess, to which they otherwise would not have been entitled as their father was no longer a royal prince.[52] A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.[53]

text: Following their wedding, the couple leased Windlesham Moor, near Windsor Castle, until July 1949,[48] when they took up residence at Clarence House in London. At various times between 1949 and 1951, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in the British Crown Colony of Malta as a serving Royal Navy officer. He and Elizabeth lived intermittently in Malta for several months at a time in the hamlet of Gwardamanġa, at Villa Guardamangia, the rented home of Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten. The children remained in Britain.[54]

text: Reign

text: Accession and coronation

text: During 1951, George VI's health declined, and Elizabeth frequently stood in for him at public events. When she toured Canada and visited President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C., in October 1951, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration in case the King died while she was on tour.[55] In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On 6 February 1952, they had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of the King and consequently Elizabeth's immediate accession to the throne. Philip broke the news to the new queen.[56] Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, "of course".[57] She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom.[58] She and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.[59]

text: With Elizabeth's accession, it seemed probable the royal house would bear her husband's name, becoming the House of Mountbatten, in line with the custom of a wife taking her husband's surname on marriage. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Elizabeth's grandmother, Queen Mary, favoured the retention of the House of Windsor, and so on 9 April 1952 Elizabeth issued a declaration that Windsor would continue to be the name of the royal house. The Duke complained, "I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children."[60] In 1960, after the death of Queen Mary in 1953 and the resignation of Churchill in 1955, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor was adopted for Philip and Elizabeth's male-line descendants who do not carry royal titles.[61]

text: Amid preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret told her sister she wished to marry Peter Townsend, a divorcé‚ 16 years Margaret's senior, with two sons from his previous marriage. The Queen asked them to wait for a year; in the words of Martin Charteris, "the Queen was naturally sympathetic towards the Princess, but I think she thought – she hoped – given time, the affair would peter out."[62] Senior politicians were against the match and the Church of England did not permit remarriage after divorce. If Margaret had contracted a civil marriage, she would have been expected to renounce her right of succession.[63] Eventually, she decided to abandon her plans with Townsend.[64] In 1960, she married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon the following year. They divorced in 1978; she did not remarry.[65]

text: Despite the death of Queen Mary on 24 March, the coronation on 2 June 1953 went ahead as planned, as Mary had asked before she died.[66] The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with the exception of the anointing and communion, was televised for the first time.[67][c] Elizabeth's coronation gown was embroidered on her instructions with the floral emblems of Commonwealth countries:[71] English Tudor rose; Scots thistle; Welsh leek; Irish shamrock; Australian wattle; Canadian maple leaf; New Zealand silver fern; South African protea; lotus flowers for India and Ceylon; and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.[72]

text: Continuing evolution of the Commonwealth

text: From Elizabeth's birth onwards, the British Empire continued its transformation into the Commonwealth of Nations.[73] By the time of her accession in 1952, her role as head of multiple independent states was already established.[74] In 1953, the Queen and her husband embarked on a seven-month round-the-world tour, visiting 13 countries and covering more than 40,000 miles by land, sea and air.[75] She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations.[76] During the tour, crowds were immense; three-quarters of the population of Australia were estimated to have seen her.[77] Throughout her reign, the Queen has made hundreds of state visits to other countries and tours of the Commonwealth; she is the most widely travelled head of state.[78]

text: In 1956, the British and French prime ministers, Sir Anthony Eden and Guy Mollet, discussed the possibility of France joining the Commonwealth. The proposal was never accepted and the following year France signed the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union.[79] In November 1956, Britain and France invaded Egypt in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to capture the Suez Canal. Lord Mountbatten claimed the Queen was opposed to the invasion, though Eden denied it. Eden resigned two months later.[80]

text: The absence of a formal mechanism within the Conservative Party for choosing a leader meant that, following Eden's resignation, it fell to the Queen to decide whom to commission to form a government. Eden recommended she consult Lord Salisbury, the Lord President of the Council. Lord Salisbury and Lord Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, consulted the British Cabinet, Winston Churchill, and the Chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, resulting in the Queen appointing their recommended candidate: Harold Macmillan.[81]

text: The Suez crisis and the choice of Eden's successor led in 1957 to the first major personal criticism of the Queen. In a magazine, which he owned and edited,[82] Lord Altrincham accused her of being "out of touch".[83] Altrincham was denounced by public figures and slapped by a member of the public appalled by his comments.[84] Six years later, in 1963, Macmillan resigned and advised the Queen to appoint the Earl of Home as prime minister, advice she followed.[85] The Queen again came under criticism for appointing the prime minister on the advice of a small number of ministers or a single minister.[85] In 1965, the Conservatives adopted a formal mechanism for electing a leader, thus relieving her of involvement.[86]

text:
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Queen Elizabeth II's Address to the United Nations General Assembly

text: In 1957, she made a state visit to the United States, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Commonwealth. On the same tour, she opened the 23rd Canadian Parliament, becoming the first monarch of Canada to open a parliamentary session.[87] Two years later, solely in her capacity as Queen of Canada, she revisited the United States and toured Canada.[87][88] In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran.[89] On a visit to Ghana the same year, she dismissed fears for her safety, even though her host, President Kwame Nkrumah, who had replaced her as head of state, was a target for assassins.[90] Harold Macmillan wrote, "The Queen has been absolutely determined all through ... She is impatient of the attitude towards her to treat her as ... a film star ... She has indeed 'the heart and stomach of a man' ... She loves her duty and means to be a Queen."[90] Before her tour through parts of Quebec in 1964, the press reported extremists within the Quebec separatist movement were plotting Elizabeth's assassination.[91][92] No attempt was made, but a riot did break out while she was in Montreal; the Queen's "calmness and courage in the face of the violence" was noted.[93]

text: Elizabeth's pregnancies with Princes Andrew and Edward, in 1959 and 1963, mark the only times she has not performed the State Opening of the British parliament during her reign.[94] In addition to performing traditional ceremonies, she also instituted new practices. Her first royal walkabout, meeting ordinary members of the public, took place during a tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1970.[95]

text: Acceleration of decolonisation

text: The 1960s and 1970s saw an acceleration in the decolonisation of Africa and the Caribbean. Over 20 countries gained independence from Britain as part of a planned transition to self-government. In 1965, however, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith, in opposition to moves towards majority rule, declared unilateral independence from Britain while still expressing "loyalty and devotion" to Elizabeth. Although the Queen dismissed him in a formal declaration, and the international community applied sanctions against Rhodesia, his regime survived for over a decade.[96] As Britain's ties to its former empire weakened, the British government sought entry to the European Community, a goal it achieved in 1973.[97]

text: In February 1974, the British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, advised the Queen to call a general election in the middle of her tour of the Austronesian Pacific Rim, requiring her to fly back to Britain.[98] The election resulted in a hung parliament; Heath's Conservatives were not the largest party, but could stay in office if they formed a coalition with the Liberals. Heath only resigned when discussions on forming a coalition foundered, after which the Queen asked the Leader of the Opposition, Labour's Harold Wilson, to form a government.[99]

text: A year later, at the height of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was dismissed from his post by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, after the Opposition-controlled Senate rejected Whitlam's budget proposals.[100] As Whitlam had a majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Gordon Scholes appealed to the Queen to reverse Kerr's decision. She declined, saying she would not interfere in decisions reserved by the Constitution of Australia for the governor-general.[101] The crisis fuelled Australian republicanism.[100]

text: Silver Jubilee

text: In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. Parties and events took place throughout the Commonwealth, many coinciding with her associated national and Commonwealth tours. The celebrations re-affirmed the Queen's popularity, despite virtually coincident negative press coverage of Princess Margaret's separation from her husband.[102] In 1978, the Queen endured a state visit to the United Kingdom by Romania's communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, and his wife, Elena,[103] though privately she thought they had "blood on their hands".[104] The following year brought two blows: one was the unmasking of Anthony Blunt, former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, as a communist spy; the other was the assassination of her relative and in-law Lord Mountbatten by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.[105]

text: According to Paul Martin, Sr., by the end of the 1970s the Queen was worried the Crown "had little meaning for" Pierre Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister.[106] Tony Benn said the Queen found Trudeau "rather disappointing".[106] Trudeau's supposed republicanism seemed to be confirmed by his antics, such as sliding down banisters at Buckingham Palace and pirouetting behind the Queen's back in 1977, and the removal of various Canadian royal symbols during his term of office.[106] In 1980, Canadian politicians sent to London to discuss the patriation of the Canadian constitution found the Queen "better informed ... than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats".[106] She was particularly interested after the failure of Bill C-60, which would have affected her role as head of state.[106] Patriation removed the role of the British parliament from the Canadian constitution, but the monarchy was retained. Trudeau said in his memoirs that the Queen favoured his attempt to reform the constitution and that he was impressed by "the grace she displayed in public" and "the wisdom she showed in private".[107]

text: During the 1981 Trooping the Colour ceremony, six weeks before the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, six shots were fired at the Queen from close range as she rode down The Mall on her horse, Burmese. Police later discovered the shots were blanks. The 17-year-old assailant, Marcus Sarjeant, was sentenced to five years in prison and released after three.[108] The Queen's composure and skill in controlling her mount were widely praised.[109]

text: Months later, in October, the Queen was the subject of another attack while on a visit to Dunedin, New Zealand. New Zealand Security Intelligence Service documents declassified in 2018 revealed that 17-year-old Christopher John Lewis fired a shot with a .22 rifle from the fifth floor of a building overlooking the parade, but missed.[110] Lewis was arrested, but never charged with attempted murder or treason, and sentenced to three years in jail for unlawful possession and discharge of a firearm. Two years into his sentence, he attempted to escape a psychiatric hospital in order to assassinate Prince Charles, who was visiting the country with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Prince William.[111]

text: From April to September 1982, the Queen was anxious but proud of her son, Prince Andrew, who was serving with British forces during the Falklands War.[112] On 9 July, the Queen awoke in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace to find an intruder, Michael Fagan, in the room with her. In a serious lapse of security, assistance only arrived after two calls to the Palace police switchboard.[113] After hosting US President Ronald Reagan at Windsor Castle in 1982 and visiting his California ranch in 1983, the Queen was angered when his administration ordered the invasion of Grenada, one of her Caribbean realms, without informing her.[114]

text: Intense media interest in the opinions and private lives of the royal family during the 1980s led to a series of sensational stories in the press, not all of which were entirely true.[115] As Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, told his staff: "Give me a Sunday for Monday splash on the Royals. Don't worry if it's not true—so long as there's not too much of a fuss about it afterwards."[116] Newspaper editor Donald Trelford wrote in The Observer of 21 September 1986: "The royal soap opera has now reached such a pitch of public interest that the boundary between fact and fiction has been lost sight of ... it is not just that some papers don't check their facts or accept denials: they don't care if the stories are true or not." It was reported, most notably in The Sunday Times of 20 July 1986, that the Queen was worried that Margaret Thatcher's economic policies fostered social divisions and was alarmed by high unemployment, a series of riots, the violence of a miners' strike, and Thatcher's refusal to apply sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The sources of the rumours included royal aide Michael Shea and Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal, but Shea claimed his remarks were taken out of context and embellished by speculation.[117] Thatcher reputedly said the Queen would vote for the Social Democratic Party – Thatcher's political opponents.[118] Thatcher's biographer John Campbell claimed "the report was a piece of journalistic mischief-making".[119] Belying reports of acrimony between them, Thatcher later conveyed her personal admiration for the Queen,[120] and the Queen gave two honours in her personal gift – membership in the Order of Merit and the Order of the Garter – to Thatcher after her replacement as prime minister by John Major.[121] Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said Elizabeth was a "behind the scenes force" in ending apartheid.[122][123]

text: By the end of the 1980s,  the Queen had become the target of satire.[124] The involvement of younger members of the royal family in the charity game show It's a Royal Knockout in 1987 was ridiculed.[125] In Canada, Elizabeth publicly supported politically divisive constitutional amendments, prompting criticism from opponents of the proposed changes, including Pierre Trudeau.[122] The same year, the elected Fijian government was deposed in a military coup. As monarch of Fiji, Elizabeth supported the attempts of the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, to assert executive power and negotiate a settlement. Coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka deposed Ganilau and declared Fiji a republic.[126]

text: In 1991, in the wake of coalition victory in the Gulf War, the Queen became the first British monarch to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.[127]

text: In a speech on 24 November 1992, to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession, Elizabeth called 1992 her annus horribilis, meaning horrible year.[128] Republican feeling in Britain had risen because of press estimates of the Queen's private wealth – which were contradicted by the Palace – and reports of affairs and strained marriages among her extended family.[129] In March, her second son, Prince Andrew, and his wife, Sarah, separated; in April, her daughter, Princess Anne, divorced Captain Mark Phillips;[130] during a state visit to Germany in October, angry demonstrators in Dresden threw eggs at her;[131] and, in November, a large fire broke out at Windsor Castle, one of her official residences. The monarchy came under increased criticism and public scrutiny.[132] In an unusually personal speech, the Queen said that any institution must expect criticism, but suggested it be done with "a touch of humour, gentleness and understanding".[133] Two days later, the Prime Minister, John Major, announced reforms to the royal finances planned since the previous year, including the Queen paying income tax from 1993 onwards, and a reduction in the civil list.[134] In December, Prince Charles and his wife, Diana, formally separated.[135] The year ended with a lawsuit as the Queen sued The Sun newspaper for breach of copyright when it published the text of her annual Christmas message two days before it was broadcast. The newspaper was forced to pay her legal fees and donated £200,000 to charity.[136]

text: In the years to follow, public revelations on the state of Charles and Diana's marriage continued.[137] Even though support for republicanism in Britain seemed higher than at any time in living memory, republicanism was still a minority viewpoint, and the Queen herself had high approval ratings.[138] Criticism was focused on the institution of the monarchy itself and the Queen's wider family rather than her own behaviour and actions.[139] In consultation with her husband and the Prime Minister, John Major, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and her private secretary, Robert Fellowes, she wrote to Charles and Diana at the end of December 1995, saying a divorce was desirable.[140]

text: In August 1997, a year after the divorce, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. The Queen was on holiday with her extended family at Balmoral. Diana's two sons by Charles – Princes William and Harry – wanted to attend church and so the Queen and Prince Philip took them that morning.[141] After that single public appearance, for five days the Queen and the Duke shielded their grandsons from the intense press interest by keeping them at Balmoral where they could grieve in private,[142] but the royal family's seclusion and the failure to fly a flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace caused public dismay.[123][143] Pressured by the hostile reaction, the Queen agreed to return to London and do a live television broadcast on 5 September, the day before Diana's funeral.[144] In the broadcast, she expressed admiration for Diana and her feelings "as a grandmother" for the two princes.[145] As a result, much of the public hostility evaporated.[145]

text: In November 1997, the Queen and her husband held a reception at Banqueting House to mark their golden wedding anniversary.[146] She made a speech and praised Philip for his role as a consort, referring to him as "my strength and stay".[146]

text: In 2002, Elizabeth marked her Golden Jubilee. Her sister and mother died in February and March respectively, and the media speculated whether the Jubilee would be a success or a failure.[147] She again undertook an extensive tour of her realms, which began in Jamaica in February, where she called the farewell banquet "memorable" after a power cut plunged the King's House, the official residence of the governor-general, into darkness.[148] As in 1977, there were street parties and commemorative events, and monuments were named to honour the occasion. A million people attended each day of the three-day main Jubilee celebration in London,[149] and the enthusiasm shown by the public for the Queen was greater than many journalists had expected.[150]

text: Though generally healthy throughout her life, in 2003 she had keyhole surgery on both knees. In October 2006, she missed the opening of the new Emirates Stadium because of a strained back muscle that had been troubling her since the summer.[151]

text: In May 2007, The Daily Telegraph, citing unnamed sources, reported the Queen was "exasperated and frustrated" by the policies of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that she was concerned the British Armed Forces were overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that she had raised concerns over rural and countryside issues with Blair.[152] She was, however, said to admire Blair's efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.[153] She became the first British monarch to celebrate a diamond wedding anniversary in November 2007.[154] On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy service held outside England and Wales.[155]

text: The Queen addressed the United Nations for a second time in 2010, again in her capacity as Queen of all Commonwealth realms and Head of the Commonwealth.[156] The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, introduced her as "an anchor for our age".[157] During her visit to New York, which followed a tour of Canada, she officially opened a memorial garden for British victims of the September 11 attacks.[157] The Queen's visit to Australia in October 2011 – her sixteenth visit since 1954 – was called her "farewell tour" in the press because of her age.[158] By invitation of the Irish President, Mary McAleese, the Queen made the first state visit to the Republic of Ireland by a British monarch in May 2011.[159]

text: Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 marked 60 years on the throne, and celebrations were held throughout her realms, the wider Commonwealth, and beyond. In a message released on Accession Day, Elizabeth wrote:

text: In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness ... I hope also that this Jubilee year will be a time to give thanks for the great advances that have been made since 1952 and to look forward to the future with clear head and warm heart.[160]

text: She and her husband undertook an extensive tour of the United Kingdom, while her children and grandchildren embarked on royal tours of other Commonwealth states on her behalf.[161][162] On 4 June, Jubilee beacons were lit around the world.[163] In November, the Queen and her husband celebrated their sapphire wedding anniversary.[164] On 18 December, she became the first British sovereign to attend a peacetime Cabinet meeting since George III in 1781.[165]

text: The Queen, who opened the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, also opened the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London, making her the first head of state to open two Olympic Games in two countries.[166] For the London Olympics, she played herself in a short film as part of the opening ceremony, alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond.[167] On 4 April 2013, she received an honorary BAFTA for her patronage of the film industry and was called "the most memorable Bond girl yet" at the award ceremony.[168]

text: On 3 March 2013, Elizabeth was admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital as a precaution after developing symptoms of gastroenteritis. She returned to Buckingham Palace the following day.[169] A week later, she signed the new Commonwealth charter.[170] Because of her age and the need for her to limit travelling, in 2013 she chose not to attend the biennial meeting of Commonwealth heads of government for the first time in 40 years. She was represented at the summit in Sri Lanka by her son, Prince Charles.[171] She had cataract surgery in May 2018.[172]

text: The Queen surpassed her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-lived British monarch on 21 December 2007, and the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state in the world on 9 September 2015.[173][174][175] She is also the "longest-reigning sovereign in Canada's modern era".[176] (King Louis XIV of France reigned over Canada (New France) for longer than Elizabeth.[177]) She became the oldest current monarch after King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died on 23 January 2015.[178][179] She later became the longest-reigning current monarch and the longest-serving current head of state following the death of King Bhumibol of Thailand on 13 October 2016,[180][181] and the oldest current head of state on the resignation of Robert Mugabe on 21 November 2017.[182][183] On 6 February 2017, she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee,[184] and on 20 November, she was the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum wedding anniversary.[185] Prince Philip had retired from his official duties as the Queen's consort in August.[186]

text: The Queen does not intend to abdicate,[187] though Prince Charles is expected to take on more of her duties as Elizabeth, who celebrated her 92nd birthday in 2018, carries out fewer public engagements.[188] On 20 April 2018, the government leaders of the Commonwealth of Nations announced that she will be succeeded by Prince Charles as head of the Commonwealth. The Queen stated it was her "sincere wish" that the Prince of Wales would follow her in the role.[189] Plans for her death and funeral have been extensively prepared by most British government and media organisations for decades.[190]

text: Public perception and character

text: Since Elizabeth rarely gives interviews, little is known of her personal feelings. As a constitutional monarch, she has not expressed her own political opinions in a public forum.[191] She does have a deep sense of religious and civic duty, and takes her coronation oath seriously.[192] Aside from her official religious role as Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, she is a member of that church and also of the national Church of Scotland.[193] She has demonstrated support for inter-faith relations and has met with leaders of other churches and religions, including five popes: Pius XII, John XXIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.[194] A personal note about her faith often features in her annual Christmas message broadcast to the Commonwealth. In 2000, she said:

text: To many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example.[195]

text: She is patron of over 600 organisations and charities.[196] Her main leisure interests include equestrianism and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis.[197] Her lifelong love of corgis began in 1933 with Dookie, the first corgi owned by her family.[198][199] Scenes of a relaxed, informal home life have occasionally been witnessed; she and her family, from time to time, prepare a meal together and do the washing up afterwards.[200]

text: In the 1950s, as a young woman at the start of her reign, Elizabeth was depicted as a glamorous "fairytale Queen".[201] After the trauma of the Second World War, it was a time of hope, a period of progress and achievement heralding a "new Elizabethan age".[202] Lord Altrincham's accusation in 1957 that her speeches sounded like those of a "priggish schoolgirl" was an extremely rare criticism.[203] In the late 1960s, attempts to portray a more modern image of the monarchy were made in the television documentary Royal Family and by televising Prince Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales.[204] In public, she took to wearing mostly solid-colour overcoats and decorative hats, which allow her to be seen easily in a crowd.[205]

text: At her Silver Jubilee in 1977, the crowds and celebrations were genuinely enthusiastic,[206] but in the 1980s, public criticism of the royal family increased, as the personal and working lives of Elizabeth's children came under media scrutiny.[207] Elizabeth's popularity sank to a low point in the 1990s. Under pressure from public opinion, she began to pay income tax for the first time, and Buckingham Palace was opened to the public.[208] Discontent with the monarchy reached its peak on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, though Elizabeth's personal popularity and support for the monarchy rebounded after her live television broadcast to the world five days after Diana's death.[209]

text: In November 1999, a referendum in Australia on the future of the Australian monarchy favoured its retention in preference to an indirectly elected head of state.[210] Polls in Britain in 2006 and 2007 revealed strong support for Elizabeth,[211] and in 2012, her Diamond Jubilee year, approval ratings hit 90 percent.[212] Referendums in Tuvalu in 2008 and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2009 both rejected proposals to become republics.[213]

text: Elizabeth has been portrayed in a variety of media by many notable artists, including painters Pietro Annigoni, Peter Blake, Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, Terence Cuneo, Lucian Freud, Rolf Harris, Damien Hirst, Juliet Pannett, and Tai-Shan Schierenberg.[214][215] Notable photographers of Elizabeth have included Cecil Beaton, Yousuf Karsh, Annie Leibovitz, Lord Lichfield, Terry O'Neill, John Swannell, and Dorothy Wilding. The first official portrait of Elizabeth was taken by Marcus Adams in 1926.[216]

text: Finances

text: Elizabeth's personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. In 1971 Jock Colville, her former private secretary and a director of her bank, Coutts, estimated her wealth at £2 million (equivalent to about £26 million in 2016[217]).[218][219] In 1993, Buckingham Palace called estimates of £100 million "grossly overstated".[220] In 2002, she inherited an estate worth an estimated £70 million from her mother.[221] The Sunday Times Rich List 2017 estimated her personal wealth at £360 million, making her the 329th richest person in the UK.[222]

text: The Royal Collection, which includes thousands of historic works of art and the Crown Jewels, is not owned by the Queen personally but is held in trust,[223] as are her official residences, such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,[224] and the Duchy of Lancaster, a property portfolio valued at £472 million in 2015.[225] Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are personally owned by the Queen.[224] The British Crown Estate – with holdings of £12 billion in 2016[222] – is held in trust and cannot be sold or owned by Elizabeth in a personal capacity.[226]

text: Titles, styles, honours, and arms

text: Titles and styles

text:
21 April 1926 – 11 December 1936: Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York
11 December 1936 – 20 November 1947: Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth
20 November 1947 – 6 February 1952: Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh
Since 6 February 1952: Her Majesty The Queen

text: Elizabeth has held many titles and honorary military positions throughout the Commonwealth, is Sovereign of many orders in her own countries, and has received honours and awards from around the world. In each of her realms she has a distinct title that follows a similar formula: Queen of Jamaica and her other realms and territories in Jamaica, Queen of Australia and her other realms and territories in Australia, etc. In the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, which are Crown dependencies rather than separate realms, she is known as Duke of Normandy and Lord of Mann, respectively. Additional styles include Defender of the Faith and Duke of Lancaster. When in conversation with the Queen, the practice is to initially address her as Your Majesty and thereafter as Ma'am.[227]

text: Arms

text: From 21 April 1944 until her accession, Elizabeth's arms consisted of a lozenge bearing the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing a Tudor rose and the first and third a cross of St George.[228] Upon her accession, she inherited the various arms her father held as sovereign. The Queen also possesses royal standards and personal flags for use in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, and elsewhere.[229]

text:
Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth (1944–1947)

Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (1947–1952)

Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in Scotland

Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in Canada (one of three versions used in her reign)[d]

text: Issue

text:
Name

Birth

Marriage

Their children

Their grandchildren

Date

Spouse

Charles, Prince of Wales

14 November 1948

29 July 1981Divorced 28 August 1996

Lady Diana Spencer

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Prince GeorgePrincess CharlottePrince Louis

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

None

9 April 2005

Camilla Parker Bowles

None

Anne, Princess Royal

15 August 1950

14 November 1973Divorced 28 April 1992

Mark Phillips

Peter Phillips

Savannah PhillipsIsla Phillips

Zara Tindall

Mia TindallLena Tindall

12 December 1992

Timothy Laurence

None

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

19 February 1960

23 July 1986Divorced 30 May 1996

Sarah Ferguson

Princess Beatrice of York

None

Princess Eugenie

None

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

10 March 1964

19 June 1999

Sophie Rhys-Jones

Lady Louise Windsor

None

James, Viscount Severn

None

text: Ancestry

text: showAncestors of Elizabeth II       8. Edward VII of the United Kingdom      4. George V of the United Kingdom         9. Princess Alexandra of Denmark      2. George VI of the United Kingdom           10. Francis, Duke of Teck      5. Princess Mary of Teck         11. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge      1. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom            12. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne      6. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne         13. Frances Dora Smith      3. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon           14. Charles Cavendish-Bentinck      7. Nina Cavendish-Bentinck         15. Carolina Burnaby[231]


document_title: Vehicle registration plates of Europe

question_text: which country is e on a number plate

question_tokens: which country is e on a number plate

root

text: Vehicle registration plates of Europe

text: Format[edit]

text: The bulk of European countries issue license plates that are 520 by 110 mm (20.5 by 4.3 inches) or 520 by 120 mm (20.5 by 4.7 inches). This is one of the basic standard sizes worldwide: the others are:

tag: p

text:
305 by 152 mm (12.0 by 6.0 inches)
305 by 160 mm (12.0 by 6.3 inches)
372 by 135 mm (14.6 by 5.3 inches)

tag: ul

text: Some European countries use license plates in other formats:

text:
330 by 140 mm (13.0 by 5.5 inches) in Andorra.
440 by 120 mm (17.3 by 4.7 inches) in  Finland.
260 by 110 mm (10.2 by 4.3 inches) in Monaco.
390 by 120 mm (15.4 by 4.7 inches) in San Marino.
300 by 80 mm (11.8 by 3.1 inches) in Switzerland and Liechtenstein (only front plates).
360 by 110 mm (14.1 by 4.3 inches) in Italy (only front plates).

text: European Union[edit]

text: The common EU format of having a blue section on the extreme left with EU circle of stars and the country code was introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No 2411/98 of 3 November 1998[2] and entered into force on the 11 November 1998. It was based on a model registration plate which three member states had already introduced: Ireland (1991),[3] Portugal (1992) [4] and Germany (1994).[5] Luxembourg plates had displayed the EU flag on the left since 1988. Vehicles with EU number plates do not need to display the white oval international vehicle registration code while within the European Economic Area (EEA), or in countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.[6]

text:
The common design consists of a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue strip has the EU flag symbol (twelve yellow stars), along with the country code of the member state in which the vehicle is registered. Danish plates have a small holographic strip to the right of the blue EU strip.
EU format plates are either white or yellow, on a plate wider than it is tall. Yellow registration plates are used both front and rear in Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In Gibraltar, the United Kingdom and Cyprus, yellow plates are used at the rear and white at the front. The UK uses flat plastic plates (embossed metal plates are an option in the UK), as opposed to metal plates in most other European countries. A mixture of plastic and metal plates is permitted in France and Ireland. Plastic plates have earlier also been used in Sweden and Norway.
Denmark and Hungary use yellow plates for vehicles registered as commercial vehicles. In Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden yellow plates are used for taxi vehicles. Belgium uses red characters and is the only country not to use the standard black-on-white or black-on-yellow combination; with the introduction of European-style plates in November 2010, a slightly darker shade of red was chosen (RAL 3003) to improve legibility. In Norway, cars with front seats only (used for carrying goods) have green plates with black characters.
The use of the EU flag on registration plates is optional for member states, but they must accept it as a valid distinguishing sign of a foreign vehicle's country of origin.
Within the United Kingdom, motorists with vehicles registered in Great Britain may use number plates featuring the national flag of England, Scotland or Wales, or alternatively the Union Flag, together with the code name "ENG" for England, "SCO" for Scotland, "Wales" or "CYM" for Wales, "GB" for Great Britain or "UK" for United Kingdom respectively.

text: Other countries[edit]

text: Several non-EU European states have implemented formats similar to the EU format, replacing the circle of stars with their own symbols. Vehicles with such number plates do not need to display the white oval international vehicle registration code while within countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.[6]

text:
Norway is an example of such a state, issuing europlates with the Norwegian flag replacing the circle of stars. Iceland issues plates with the Icelandic flag above the country code on the left side, but without the blue strip. Of those states that joined in the 2004 enlargement of the European Union Malta already used europlates, while Latvia, Poland and Lithuania had used EU number plates displaying the national flag before their accession, as did Bulgaria and Romania before their accession in 2007.
Turkey is not a member of the EU, but it uses the blue European strip on the left of the plate as a member of European Customs Union (the only member of the union without EU membership), with the country code (TR), but without the 12-EU stars sign.

text: Common letter and digit systems between countries[edit]

text: Several countries have made efforts to avoid duplicating registration numbers used by other countries. Nevertheless, this is not completely successful and there are occasional difficulties for example in connection with parking fines and automatic speed cameras.

text:
Belgium (until 2010), Cyprus, Finland, Georgia (until 2014), Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Sweden (since 1974), and Moldova (since 2014) each use combinations of first three letters and then three digits.
Bulgaria uses plate numbers in the form A[A]-0000-A[A], i.e. one or two letters representing the region, then four digits, then one or two more letters. All letters used are intersection of Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, i.e. A, B, C, E, H, K, M, O, P, T, X and Y.
Greece uses a combination of three letters (which are chosen from the 14 character shapes which appear in both the Latin and the Greek alphabet (but not necessarily with the same sound values), i.e. A, B, E, Z, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, Y, X in Greek alphabetic order) and four numbers, in the form of AAA-0000, while Spain uses a four number-three letter combination, in the form of 0000 BBB (vowels and some maybe confusing consonants, like Ñ and Q, are not used)
Denmark and Norway use two letters and five digits, while trailers use two letters and four digits. The plates look very similar, but Denmark has a red border around the plate. Use of the country code on the plate may mitigate this problem (Norway began using the system on 1 November 2006). Denmark has begun running out of combinations in this style and has now introduced combinations previously reserved for the Faroe Islands for EU style number plates (which will use different letters from non-EU style plates).
The Netherlands (until recently) and Portugal both use three groups of two characters (letters or numbers) in several sequences: AB-12-CD, 12-34-AB, 12-AB-34, AB-12-34, etc. However, Portuguese plates have a white background, while those of Netherlands (after 1 January 1978) have a yellow one, though both countries also use white letters on blue plates for classic cars. Furthermore, newer plates on Dutch vehicles only contain consonants, to avoid coincidental abbreviations or words. Also some sensitive letter combinations, such as SS or SD, are not used. The combination 'AA' is reserved for cars of the royal family. Dutch company registered bus, truck and/or minivan plates always start with a B or a V. Dutch taxis use blue registration plates. The number of new combinations ran out in 2008. New registered cars in the Netherlands now use the format of two digits-three letters-one digit (12-ABC-3).
Belgium used the sequence ABC-123 between 1973 and 2008. When these combinations ran out in 2008, the inverse sequence 123-ABC was adopted, with the first plate in the new series issued on June 25, 2008. With the introduction of the European format on November 15, 2010, a seven-character combination 1-ABC-234 is used and the previous 123-ABC was discontinued. However, the six-character plates will remain valid, and no date is set for their expiration. Since Belgian plates are linked to an owner rather than to a vehicle, these older plates are likely to remain in use for a considerable time. As a way to phase out the six-character plates, future vehicle subscriptions will only be possible on the seven-character plates.
Luxembourg plates use two letters and four digits AB 1234. An older series with only three digits (AB 123) is no longer issued but is still in use.
Current registrations allocated in Romania and the United Kingdom (where the registration contains two digits) are both of the form AB12 CDE. The Romanian rear plates are white whereas UK ones are yellow. There is also a difference in the spacing and the font. In 2015, Bucharest, the capital of Romania, adopted the form B 123 AAA, three digits and three letters, because the number of cars had risen. In the United Kingdom, B123 AAA was issued to cars registered from August 1984 to August 1985.
Sweden. Until 1973/74 the Swedish pattern was one letter representing the län (county) where the car was first registered, followed by four or five digits. However, in the more populated län, a second letter was introduced over time. For exmample, vehicles from southernmost county got the letter M + five digits, later also MA + five digits, MB + five digits etc. A problem was that the two northernmost counties had already been given two letters, the letter prefixes AC and BD, as the number of usable letters exceeded the number of counties. The ABC 123 system was introduced gradually from July 1973 until June 1974.
Slovakia uses AB 123CD and Serbia and Croatia uses AB 123-CD (in both cases also other patterns are possible). All three countries use a coat of arms after first two letters, and the fonts and colors also look very similar. The plates can be easily distinguished by country code on the blue strip on left.Croatia and Serbia uses Č,Š,Ž for some municipality codes while in Slovakia C,S,Z are used instead.

text: There are also many municipality codes that are same in all three countries.

text:
Montenegro and Serbia, currently not members of the EU, used the following: MM 12-34, MM 123-45 or MM 123-456 (MM being two letter abbreviation of municipality), and having state flag (of former Yugoslavia, later Serbia and Montenegro) between municipality and numbers. Montenegro left that system in 2007, and introduced new format: MM AB 123, with Montenegrin coat of arms in circular shape between municipality and letter sequence. Blue strip with MNE country code is placed in the left side, with vacant place for EU stars, in case of joining the Union. Serbia also uses new system since 2011. with blue strip country code SRB: MM 123-AB and MM 1234-AB, with Serbian coat of arms between municipality and number sequence. The first two letters on the Serbian plates represent the municipality code, written in Latin letters, and repeated in Cyrillic characters with small letters under the coat of arms. The following system is used for taxi vehicles: BG 123 TX or BG 1234 TX and recently even BG 12345 TX, where a TX combination is reserved for this purpose only (another taxi vehicles have private vehicle plates). Since 2017, Serbia stopped issuing plates with last two letters containing W, Q, Y, X (except TX), Č, Ć, Š, Ž, and Đ, however Serbian Latin letters with diacritics are still used to mark the municipality code, like ČA for Čačak or ŠA for Šabac.
Poland and the United Kingdom have both used AAA 123A.  In Poland these were issued from 1976-2000, in the UK, they were issued from 1963-1983, with those issued prior to 1973 being the same colour as their Polish counterparts (white on black).  These plates are still valid in both countries.

text: Differing numbering systems[edit]

text: Individual European countries use differing numbering schemes and text fonts:

text:
Most countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland (formerly also Sweden until 1974, Italy until 1994, Bosnia and Herzegovina until 1998, Lithuania and Spain  until 2000, Estonia until 2004 and Albania until 2011, also former countries East Germany  until 1990, Soviet Union  until 1991, Czechoslovakia until 1993, Yugoslavia until 1998 and Serbia and Montenegro until 2011, have systems in which there is a direct link between a letter or letters appearing on the plate and the town or district where the plate was issued (e.g. "B" and "M" in Germany for Berlin and Munich, "TN" and "ZV" in Slovakia for Trenčín and Zvolen, "BG" and "KG" in Serbia for Belgrade and Kragujevac and "AX" and "KY" in Greece for Achaea and Corfu). Some countries, including Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland, even include a regional or municipal coat of arms on the plate, but Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovakia include a national coat of arms. In Ireland, all plates have the name of the county of registration in Irish in smaller letters on the top.
France (until 2009), and Turkey and Russia (since October 2013) use a system with an indirect number relation to the car's place of registration.
The UK uses a system based on the region where the car was first registered and the date of registration, for example CA52 GJK, where the "C" stands for Wales (the name of that country in Welsh being Cymru), the "A" stands for Cardiff (the letters A-O assigned to the city), and the "52" means that the car was registered in the period September 2002 to February 2003.
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia (after 2004), Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania (after 2000), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden (after 1974) use plates that do not denote the location where the car is registered. Since 2000 Spain no longer uses province codes on plates but codes like 'B' for Barcelona or 'M' for Madrid can still be seen, for cars registered before that date. Italy, also, did not use the province codes on plates between 1994 and 1999.
Italy, since 1999, has added a blue strip on either side. On the right one are the two digits of the year when the plate was issued (e.g. "99", "05", "08") and below that there may be an optional two-letter code for the province, such as "MO" for the Province of Modena. Albania and France have adopted similar formats.
Irish license plates also contain the year in which the vehicle was registered. A car registered in 2008 would have the format 08-XX-XXXX. In 2013, this was updated to specify which half of the year the registration occurred. So from January to June, the license plate would show (for 2018) 181-XX-XXXX, whereas from July to December, the plate instead shows 182-XX-XXXX.
Turkish license plates consist of letters and digits in combinations of 99 AB 999, 99 A 9999, 99 ABC 99, 99 AB 9999 or 99 A 99999 where the first two digits show which province the vehicle is registered from. First two digits numbers go from 01 to 81 (as there are 81 provinces in Turkey) and each one is assigned to a province with alphabetical order e.g. 01 is the code of the province Adana or 34 is the code of the province Istanbul. All 81 provinces uses "01 AB 123" style plates initially until all combinations ran out, then the province starts to use 01 A 1234 then 01 ABC 12 etc. As a result, three largest provinces i.e. Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir are currently issuing 99 AB 9999 style plates since they used all combinations of previous series but the province Sivas for example, still issues 99 AB 999 plates as having a modest population and number of vehicles. 99 A 99999 series are not regular since they are only used in provinces where commercial vehicles are abundant e.g. Bursa to distinguish these vehicles there from passenger cars. Letters "I" and "O" are only used in the middle 01 ABC 12 series e.g. 34 YOC 34 or 06 TIL 56 to avoid confusion with numerals "1" and "0" respectively. Also some letters combinations like "PKK" are not issued due to their referring to political organizations or words likely to cause offence.

text: Cross-border traffic[edit]

text: According to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, vehicles in cross-border traffic are obliged to display a distinguishing sign of the country of registration on the rear of the vehicle. This sign may either be placed separately from the registration plate or may be incorporated into the vehicle registration plate. One of the main benefits of the convention for motorists is the obligation on signatory countries to recognize the legality of vehicles from other signatory countries. The following requirements must be met when driving outside the country of registration:

text:
The physical requirements for the separate sign are defined in Annex 3 of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which states that the letters shall be in black on a white background having the shape of an ellipse with the major axis horizontal. The distinguishing sign should not be affixed in such a way that it could be confused with the registration number or impair its legibility.
When the distinguishing sign is incorporated into the registration plate, it must also appear on the front registration plate of the vehicle, and may be supplemented with the flag or emblem of the national state, or the emblem of the regional economic integration organization to which the country belongs. The distinguishing sign should be displayed on the far left or far right on the registration plate. When a symbol/flag/emblem is also displayed, the distinguishing sign shall obligatory be placed on the far left on the plate. The distinguishing sign shall be positioned so to be easy identifiable and so that it cannot be confused with the registration number or impair its legibility. The distinguishing sign shall therefore be at least a different color from the registration number, or have a different background color to that reserved for the registration number, or be clearly separated from the registration number, preferably with a line.[1]

text:
The following European countries are required to recognize the licence plate of other European countries, satisfying the requirements set out in the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, as an international vehicle registration code

License plate issued in EU member states in the common EU format[show]
 Austria
 Belgium
 Bulgaria
 Croatia
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Ireland
 Italy
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Spain
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

License plates issued in European countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic[show]
 Albania
 Armenia
 Austria
 Azerbaijan
 Belarus
 Belgium
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Bulgaria
 Croatia
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Georgia
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Italy
 Kazakhstan
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Macedonia
 Moldova
 Monaco
 Montenegro
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Russia
 San Marino
 Serbia
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Sweden
  Switzerland
 Turkey
 Ukraine
 United Kingdom

Member states of the European Economic Area (EEA)[show]
 Austria
 Belgium
 Bulgaria
 Croatia
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Iceland
 Ireland
 Italy
 Latvia
 Liechtenstein
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Spain
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

Yes

No

Countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic[show]
 Albania
 Armenia
 Austria
 Azerbaijan
 Belarus
 Belgium
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Bulgaria
 Croatia
 Czech Republic
 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Georgia
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Italy
 Kazakhstan
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Macedonia
 Moldova
 Monaco
 Montenegro
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Poland
 Portugal
 Romania
 Russia
 San Marino
 Serbia
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Sweden
  Switzerland
 Turkey
 Ukraine
 United Kingdom

Yes

Yes

tag: table

text: Countries[edit]

text: Dependencies and disputed territories[edit]

text: List[edit]

text: Vehicle registration plates of each country are described in the following table:

text: Countries [7][edit]

text:
Country
Code
Example

 Albania
AL

 Andorra
AND

 Armenia
AM

 Austria
A

 Azerbaijan
AZ

 Belarus
BY

 Belgium
B

 Bosnia and Herzegovina
BIH

 Bulgaria
BG

 Croatia
HR

 Cyprus
CY

 Czech Republic
CZ

 Denmark
DK

 Estonia
EST

 Finland
FIN

 France
F

 Georgia
GE

 Germany
D

 Greece
GR

 Hungary
H

 Iceland
IS

 Ireland
IRL

 Italy
I

 Latvia
LV

 Liechtenstein
FL

 Lithuania
LT

 Luxembourg
L

 Macedonia
MK

 Malta
M

 Moldova
MD

 Monaco
MC

 Montenegro
MNE

 Netherlands
NL

 Norway
N

 Poland
PL

 Portugal
P

 Romania
RO

 Russia
RUS

 San Marino
RSM

 Serbia
SRB

 Slovakia
SK

 Slovenia
SLO

 Spain
E

 Sweden
S

  Switzerland
CH

 Turkey
TR

 Ukraine
UA

 United Kingdom
GB

  Vatican City
V

text:
Territory
Code
Example

 Åland Islands
AX

 Faroe Islands
FO

 Gibraltar
GBZ

 Guernsey
GBG

 Isle of Man
GBM

 Jersey
GBJ

 Kosovo
RKS

 Northern Cyprus
CY

text: Motorcycle plates[edit]

text: These are used for motorcycles and vehicles where mounting space is an issue, such as taxis which display their licence plate beside the registration plate, and vehicles imported from countries where the mounting space was not originally designed to take European-sized plates (e.g. USA).

text: Countries[edit]

text:
Country
Code
Example

 Belarus
BY

 France
F

 Germany
D

 Ireland
IRL

 Italy
I

 Latvia
LV

 Macedonia
MK

 Malta
M

 Monaco
MC

 Montenegro
MD

 Norway
N

 Poland
PL

 Serbia
SRB

 Slovenia
SLO

 Spain
E

 Sweden
S

  Switzerland

CH

 Turkey
TR

 Ukraine
UA

 United Kingdom
GB

text:
Territory
Code
Example

 Kosovo
RKS