20 Surprising Facts About Queen Elizabeth II
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The queen's birthplace is now a world-famous restaurant.
With Queen Elizabeth II's recent death, we're looking back at some of the most surprising facts about her life!
After 70 years on the throne, the longest-reigning monarch in British history had some interesting hobbies, duties and royal possessions.
Queen Elizabeth II Facts
1. The queen was known for her love of corgis—in fact, she had owned more than 30 of the breed throughout her life—but did you know that she bred the first dorgi? Her sister Princess Margaret's pet dog—a dachshund called Pippin—had some alone time with one of the queen's corgis and history was made.
2. Post-war austerity measures meant that the then-Princess Elizabeth bought the material for her wedding dress with WWII coupons. She was helped by the British government, which granted her an extra 200 clothing ration coupons, and brides-to-be sent the princess the coupons meant for their own special days. (However, the queen had to return these as members of the royal family are not allowed to accept gifts from the public.) Eventually, Elizabeth married Prince Philip in a stunning wedding gown made by Norman Hartnell from Chinese silk.
3. Elizabeth's diamond tiara snapped on the morning of her wedding in 1947 as it was being secured to her veil. With only two hours till showtime, the headpiece—a halo of diamond-studded spikes created in 1919 for Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary—was rushed to the workshop of the royal jewelry house Garrard under police escort, where it was hastily welded together.
4. The queen was gifted a miniature cottage when she was 6 years old. Y Bwthyn Bach (which means 'Little House') is an adorable thatched wendy house given to Princess Elizabeth by the people of Wales on her sixth birthday. It was placed in the grounds of Royal Lodge in Windsor. The house was modeled on a typical Welsh cottage and contained a miniature radio, china set, portrait of the queen's mother, books, pots, pans, brooms and a working telephone—all made to scale.
5. The queen's birthplace is now a world-famous restaurant. A London townhouse at 17 Bruton Street was the home of her maternal grandparents and saw the birth of the baby that would go to become Britain's longest-reigning monarch. It's now a Cantonese restaurant called Hakkasan.
6. The queen raced pigeons! She kept a flock of 200 pigeons at her country estate of Sandringham.
7. You may know that all unmarked swans on Britain's waterways were technically owned by the queen, but did you know that she also owned all the dolphins and whales in British waters? They are known as "fishes royal."
8. The queen and Prince Philip received over 2,500 wedding gifts when they married in 1947. Because nylon stockings were in limited supply due to clothes rationing, 131 pairs were sent to Elizabeth by women across the country. The couple also received a box of apples, 500 tins of pineapple and an $83 million necklace.
9. Elizabeth met Philip when she was just 8 years old and he was 13 at the wedding of Prince George (Elizabeth's brother) and Princess Marina (Philip's cousin). Elizabeth and Philip are themselves third cousins. When Philip was 18, he began writing to 13-year-old Elizabeth. Seven years later, they were engaged.
10. The queen was fluent in French.
11. The queen successfully lobbied to have her land in Scotland exempt from an initiative to cut carbon emissions, and her household is exempt from laws that make it illegal for employers to refuse to hire someone based on their race or ethnicity.
12. You know those brightly colored outfits complete with matching hats that the queen was so fond of? Well, there's a reason that she dressed in shades of bright pink, yellow and green. It was so that she would always stand out in a crowd. She was pretty short, so wearing neon and pastel shades help people catch a glimpse of her during public engagements.
13. The queen had a glass of champagne every night. She also started the day off with a gin cocktail, although given her recent health issues she might have cut back a bit toward the end.
14. Since 1989 queen has worn one shade of nail polish and one shade only: Ballet Slippers by Essie, a shade of palest pearly pink, and the queen's first bottle was originally ordered for her by her hairdresser.
15. When she was at Balmoral, the queen was woken by a bagpiper playing under her window every morning at 7:30. Apparently it went on for a full 15 minutes. You'd sure be ready to get up and start the day's business of queening after that!
16. The queen had at least 30 godchildren, including Princess Diana's brother, the Earl Spencer.
17. In 1944, when Princess Elizabeth was 18, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service with which she trained as a truck driver and a mechanic in order to play her part in a war that began when she was 13 years old. She was the only female member of the British royal family to have served in the military.
18. The queen was the only person in the UK who was not required to have a driving license or license plate on her vehicle. She also didn't need a passport to travel, as all British passports are issued in her name.
19. The queen had two birthdays! She turned 96 on April 21, 2022, but celebrated her official birthday in June, in the midst of her jubilee celebrations. The tradition of the monarch celebrating an "official" birthday began more than 250 years ago, with King George II deciding to publicly celebrate his birthday in the summer rather than cold and wet November. And so, since 1748, every British monarch has carried on the tradition, so that there would be less chance of poor weather impeding outdoor celebrations and military parades celebrating their birthdays.
20. The queen had sat for almost 150 portraits during her reign and in 2012 sat for a holographic portrait called "Equanimity" by Chris Levine and Rob Munday, in which 10,000 images were layered one over the other to create the three-dimensional image. Later it was repurposed in a new work called "The Diamond Queen" to mark the queen's diamond jubilee in 2012. The project saw London jewelry Asprey overlay 1,100 white diamonds over the tiara she wears in the portrait.
