It was Henry VIII who was first given the title of Defender of the Faith, by a grateful Pope for defending the Catholic Church’s teaching against the denunciations of Martin Luther. Despite his break from Rome, Henry clung on to it, and every English and later British monarch has since claimed it. From the start of her reign in 1952, when she succeeded her father, George VI, the coins which bore the head of Elizabeth II still referred to that title. Elizabeth DG, Reg, FD, they have said for 70 years: Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith. But perhaps no other monarch has ever been quite such a staunch defender of the Christian faith as Elizabeth II, who died yesterday (8 September) at the age of 96.
The daughter of Prince George, Duke of York and his wife, the former Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Princess Elizabeth was born in 1926, and enjoyed an idyllic childhood in London and Windsor.
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Catherine Pepinster is the author of Defenders of the Faith: the British Monarchy, Religion and the Next Coronation. The rest of this article is now available here.
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