<P> The Crown traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to the present day . The first season, which sees Claire Foy portraying the Queen in the early part of her reign, depicts events up to 1955, with Winston Churchill resigning as Prime Minister and the Queen's sister Princess Margaret deciding not to marry Peter Townsend . The second season covers from the Suez Crisis in 1956 through the retirement of the Queen's third Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963 following the Profumo affair political scandal and the birth of Prince Edward in 1964 . </P> <P> The third season will see Olivia Colman portraying the Queen, and will cover the two terms of Harold Wilson as the Queen's Prime Minister, starting in 1964 with his first, until 1976 at the end of his second . It will also include Princess Margaret's five - year affair with baronet and gardening expert Roddy Llewellyn, and see the introduction of Camilla Parker Bowles and Lady Diana Spencer . Spencer will be more of a focus in the fourth season, which also sees Margaret Thatcher's premiership . </P> <Ul> <Li> Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth and later Queen Elizabeth II . </Li> <Li> Matt Smith as Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and later Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth's husband </Li> <Li> Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister . </Li> <Li> Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary, Elizabeth's grandmother (season 1) </Li> <Li> Jeremy Northam as Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary, who succeeds him as Prime Minister </Li> <Li> Victoria Hamilton as Queen Elizabeth, George VI's wife and Elizabeth's mother, known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother during her daughter's reign </Li> <Li> Ben Miles as Group Captain Peter Townsend, George VI's equerry, who hopes to marry Princess Margaret </Li> <Li> Greg Wise as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Philip's ambitious uncle and great - grandson of Queen Victoria </Li> <Li> Jared Harris as King George VI, Elizabeth's father, known to his family as Bertie </Li> <Li> John Lithgow as Winston Churchill, the Queen's first Prime Minister </Li> <Li> Alex Jennings as Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, who had abdicated in favour of his younger brother Bertie to marry Wallis Simpson; known to his family as David </Li> <Li> Lia Williams as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, Edward's American wife </Li> <Li> Anton Lesser as Harold Macmillan, who follows Anthony Eden as Prime Minister (season 2) </Li> <Li> Matthew Goode as Antony Armstrong - Jones, known as Tony, a society photographer who marries Princess Margaret (season 2) </Li> </Ul> <Li> Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth and later Queen Elizabeth II . </Li>

Who plays the duke of edinburgh on the crown