The longest-serving monarch in the world, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II died 'peacefully' in Scotland on Thursday. Known for elegance and poise, Queen Elizabeth II was the British monarch for 70 years. But not many know that the Queen would not have been a monarch if her uncle Edward VIII had not abdicated the throne for his love for an American divorcee.

Elizabeth was the daughter of George VI, the young brother of Edward VIII- the apparent heir to the throne as the firstborn of King George V. When Edward VIII fell in love with Wallis Simpson, an American lady and a divorcee, he had to give up the throne to marry her. Edward married Simpson in 1936 and his younger brother George became the British monarch.

Royal experts feel that it was a blessing in disguise as Edward was a Nazi sympathizer and many felt had he been the King, he would have dragged England to the war as Germany's ally.

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Elizabeth's father King George VI was the first British monarch to visit America but the war exacted a huge toll.The Royal Family website wrote: "His greatest achievements came during the Second World War, when he remained at Buckingham Palace for most of the time (the Palace was bombed nine times during the war)."

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Around the time, he "developed a close working relationship with his wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, as most of Europe fell to Nazi Germany."

"By 1948, it seemed that Britain had overcome the worst hardships of the post-war years, but the strain of the World War Two and the tensions of the post-war period had taken their toll on the King's health."

The King died in his sleep on 6 February 1952 at Sandringham, aged 56.

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Being his firstborn, Elizabeth was crowned as the Queen post his death. She was 26 at that time.

Queen Elizabeth II became the monarch of Britain 44 years after women in the UK first got to vote and 24 years after women got equal voting rights with men.