Queen of Mauritius

Queen of Mauritius

Elizabeth II on a Mauritian stamp, 1954
Details
Style Her Majesty
Formation 12 March 1968
Abolition 12 March 1992

Elizabeth II was Queen of Mauritius from 1968 to 1992. Mauritius was a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth as head of state.[1] The Queen was also the monarch of the other Commonwealth realms, including the United Kingdom. Her constitutional roles in Mauritius were delegated to a Governor-General.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom's Mauritius Independence Act 1968 transformed the British Crown Colony of Mauritius into an independent sovereign state. Unusually, no member of the British royal family attended the independence ceremony on the island because of security concerns. Princess Alexandra was due to attend but after communal violence the British Minister of State for the Commonwealth, Lord Shepherd, advised that her visit be cancelled.[2]

The Queen and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited Mauritius for three days (24–26 March) in 1972, as part of a tour of Asia and Africa. They arrived in Port Louis on the royal yacht Britannia after visiting the Seychelles. They were met by a crowd of nearly a quarter of a million people, and rode through the city in an open-topped car. During the visit, the Queen opened the sixth session of the third Mauritius Parliament. The royal couple left Mauritius for Nairobi by air. It was the first ever visit to the island by a reigning monarch.[3]

Mauritius became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1992 with the President of Mauritius replacing the Queen as head of state. To date, Mauritius is the most recent Commonwealth realm to become a republic.

Queen
Name Birth Death Consort Heir apparent
Queen Elizabeth II 21 April 1926 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Charles, Prince of Wales
Titles
Elizabeth II
12 March 1968 – 15 April 1968: By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith
15 April 1968 – 12 March 1992: Queen of Mauritius and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mauritius country profile". BBC. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Philip Murphy (2013). Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth. Oxford University Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-0-19-921423-5.
  3. ↑ "Mauritius: Queen Elizabeth Arrives for a Three-Day Visit to Mauritius". ITN. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
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