The father of Queen Elizabeth II was king of Britain from 1936 until 1952. What was his name?

The man who would become the father of Britain's longest-reigning monarch never expected to wear the crown. Born Prince Albert and known to his family as "Bertie," he was the second son of King George V. His life was forever changed in 1936 when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in order to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, an act constitutionally unacceptable at the time. Reluctantly, Albert assumed the throne, choosing the regnal name George VI to create a sense of continuity with his respected father.

His reign was immediately defined by the immense pressure of impending global conflict. A naturally shy man who struggled with a severe stammer, famously depicted in the film "The King's Speech," he had to become a national figurehead during World War II. He and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, earned the admiration of the British people for their steadfast resolve, notably by refusing to leave London during the Blitz and visiting bomb-damaged areas of the city.

King George VI was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, overseeing the difficult transition of the British Empire after the war. His health, strained by the stress of his duties and a lifetime of heavy smoking, declined rapidly in the postwar years. Upon his death from illness in 1952, his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, immediately ascended to the throne, beginning her own historic reign.