Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was not supposed to be queen. Her father, George VI, would not have been king had his brother and her uncle, Edward VIII, not abdicated. But despite the crown being thrust upon her at the age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II performed her role for 70 years in the most extraordinary manner.

‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’ is a famous line from Shakespeare’s King Henry IV play, and Elizabeth most certainly had more than a few challenges to contend with during her years as the longest-reigning British monarch.

For seven decades, Queen Elizabeth remained committed to her duties. We look at seven events that could have easily shaken her, but that she handled with great poise and dignity.

1981: The Queen managed to keep her horse under control during the Trooping the Colour ceremony when a 17-year-old man fired six blank rounds from a replica gun directly at her.

1982: The Queen calmly talked to Michael Fagan for 10 minutes in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace after he managed to get over the palace walls and make it into her chambers. She called for assistance while Fagan was in her room.

1992: The Queen referred to her 40^th year on the throne as annus horribilis (horrible year), saying: “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.” This follows several revelations and tabloid stories about Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla-Parker Bowles, the separation of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson and the divorce of her sister, Princess Anne.

1997: After initially keeping mum about the death of Princess Diana, the Queen eventually relented under public pressure and gave a televised message, expressing her feelings as ‘the Queen and as a grandmother’.

2011: The Queen bridged the divide between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland by becoming the first British monarch in 100 years to visit the nation after its separation from the UK in 1922.

2019: Not normally interfering in issues of governance, the Queen was dragged into the Brexit drama when she relented to a request by then British prime minister Boris Johnson to suspend parliament over the continued debate.

2021: The Queen’s husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, passed away on April 9. “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” she once said about him.