releva nt? the truth is the queen's whole ethos was forged by growing up in the second world war. i mean, they were bound by that ethose, that sense of duty for the country, patriotism, all those things, that the queen and prince philip sort of embodied. but it was a lucky thing that the monarch who took over age 25 in 1953 had her particular combination and qualities. we tend to forget it was only 13 or 14 years since the abdication of her uncle. we had gone through the renaissance of the monarchy under george vi during the second world war when they became enormously popular. because they stayed in london in the blitz. but it could still have gone awry, it could still have cracked, if the younger sister, princess margaret, had been the monarch. she was a much more volatile, emotional, impulsive individual than her elder sister. it was sense and sensibility personified.