LONDON — Britons consider Queen Elizabeth II their greatest monarch, according to a survey published three days before she becomes her nation's longest-serving head of state. A total of 27 percent of respondents backed the current queen, according to an opinion poll conducted by YouGov for the Sunday Times newspaper.
Elizabeth, who is 89, will on Sept. 9 beat the record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years and 216 days.
Victoria received the support of 12 percent of respondents, while Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the second of his six wives, was preferred by 13 percent.
Elizabeth II, who never expected to take the throne and did so only because her uncle Edward VIII abdicated, ascended to the throne in 1952, in the twilight of the British Empire.
