Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and, despite being declared illegitimate following the annulment of her parents’ marriage, came to the throne as the next in line behind her Catholic half-sister under the terms of the Third Act of Succession.

Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the General Election of 1979 but by the late 1980s her popularity, along with that of her party, was plummeting.