Here are 60 things you probably do not know about the Queen of England 1 On a state visit to Brazil in 1968, the Queen
was given two sloths. The animal gifts she receives
tend to be placed in zoos, though a horse donated
by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was housed in
the Royal Mews.
2 The Queen costs the public purse £36.2m each
year, including £359,000 paid directly by the
Government to Prince Philip.
3 Since 1952 the Queen has given royal assent to
more than 3,500 Acts of Parliament.
4 Each morning, the Queen's breakfast table is laid
out with cornflakes and porridge oats in Tupperware
containers, yoghurt and two kinds of marmalade –
light and dark.
5 A royal footman who poured whisky into the
corgis' water as a party trick was rewarded with a
salary cut and a demotion.
6 When she crossed a corgi with a dachshund to
create the dorgi the Queen perhaps unwittingly
began the craze for designer cross-breeds.
7 The Queen is patron of more than 600 charities
and organisations.
8 The Queen is the first monarch to have seen
three of her children divorce.
9 Britain's monarchy is the most expensive in
Europe, though the Netherlands isn't far behind.
Spain's royal family gets a comparatively meagre £7m
allowance each year.
10 The Queen is thought to be worth around
£300m, making her the 257th richest person in the
UK.
11 All 5,300 breeding pairs of mute swan in Britain
are officially owned by the Queen.
12 'Fishes Royal' applies to all sturgeon, whales,
porpoises and dolphins in the water around the UK.
Like swans, they also officially belong to the Queen.
13 The Queen sent her first email in 1976 from an
army base.
14 The top video on Her Majesty's official YouTube
Channel is a clip of Prince William and Kate leaving
Buckingham Palace in an Aston Martin.
15 At an official photocall marking the end of
2009's G20 summit, Her Majesty was offended by
Silvio Berlusconi hollering "Mr Obama!" at the US
President. Unimpressed, the Queen snapped: "What
is it? Why does he have to shout?"
16 The Queen was educated by her governess Marion
Crawford, to whom she gave the nickname "Crawfie".
17 Ms Crawford's services were not enough to grant
her everlasting favour with the royals, however. In
1950, she published a book titled The Little
Princesses, recounting the time she spent with
Elizabeth and Margaret. The royals were apparently
furious.
18 There have been six Archbishops of Canterbury
during the Queen's reign – Geoffrey Fisher, Michael
Ramsey, Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey
and Rowan Williams. There have also been six popes
– Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John
Paul II and Benedict XVI.
19 Should the royal chauffeur take a day off, the
Queen is quite capable of driving for herself, having
learnt to drive in 1945.
20 The Royal Train comes with chefs, lace-trimmed
pillows, and a no bumpy track rule during the
Queen's 7:30am bath.
21 According to former Arsenal player Cesc Fabregas,
the Queen is a Gunners fan. The first football
match the Queen attended was the 1953 FA Cup
Final.
22 When Her Majesty visited Centre Court's Royal
Box for an Andy Murray match in 2010, it ended a
33-year Wimbledon snub.
23 When former Australian Prime Minister Paul
Keating dared to put an arm round his royal
overlord, the press branded him "the Lizard of Oz".
24 The Queen's vocal range is as yet untested, but
a recording of a concert to celebrate her Golden
Jubilee titled Party at the Palace sold 100,000
copies in its first week of release, making the
Queen the first member of the Royal Family to be
awarded a gold disc.
25 Her Majesty has endured 36 Royal Variety
Performances.
26 Diageo, the world's biggest distiller, is selling 60
decanters of Scotch whisky for £100,000 apiece for
the Diamond Jubilee.
27 According to Margaret Rhodes, the Queen's
cousin, HM's alcohol intake never varies. She takes
a gin and Dubonnet before lunch, with a slice of
lemon and a lot of ice. She will take wine with
lunch and a dry Martini and a glass of champagne in
the evening. That comes to 6 units per day, which
would make Her Majesty a binge drinker by
government standards.
28 On a state visit to Australia in 1954, during an
argument with Prince Philip, the Queen was filmed
"hurling shoes, threats and sporting equipment, and
venting the sort of regal fury that, in another age,
would have cost someone their head", according to
writer Robert Hardman. "I'm sorry for that little
interlude," she later said, "but, as you know, it
happens in every marriage."
29 The Queen has been at the saluting base of her
troops in every Trooping the Colour ceremony since
the start of her reign, with the exception of 1955,
when a national rail strike forced the cancellation of
the parade.
30 A message of the Queen's congratulations to
Apollo 11 astronauts for the first moon landing was
microfilmed and deposited in a metal container on
the satellite's surface.
31 What gives the Queen the giggles? Ali G
impressions, according to Prince William.
32 The Queen is the 40th monarch since William
the Conqueror obtained the crown of England.
33 The Queen, the official head of the Church of
England, first entered a mosque in July 2002, at
Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.
34 During the last 60 years, the Queen has
undertaken 261 official overseas visits, including 78
state visits, to 116 different countries.
35 She's also received 102 inward state visits from
1952 to the end of 2011, the last being Turkey in
November 2011.
36 The first "royal walkabouts", designed so the
Queen could meet the public, took place in Australia
and New Zealand in 1970.
37 She has broadcast a Christmas message every
year since her coronation in 1952, except in 1969.
38 The Queen was born on 21 April 1926, but her
official birthday is celebrated in June.
39 The Royal Collection, a vast hoard of art
including 150,000 paintings by the likes of Rubens,
Rembrandt, Titian and Raphael, is held in trust by
the Queen for the nation.
40 The monarch has answered around three and a
half million items of correspondence and more than
175,000 telegrams sent to centenarians in the UK
and the Commonwealth.
41 The Queen has sat for 129 portraits during her
reign, painted in a variety of styles. Lucian Freud's
2001 depiction of HM divided critics and was slated
by the tabloids.
42 During the past 60 years almost one and a half
million people have attended garden parties at
Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse,
with 8,000 people head through the gates every
year.
43 Owing to the collapse of the Empire the Queen
has presided over the loss of sovereignty of more
countries than any of her predecessors.
44 Since 1952, the Queen has conferred more than
404,500 honours and awards.
45 The Queen's first portrait was painted in 1933,
when she was seven, and the most recent was for
Rolf Harris in 2005.
46 During her reign the Queen has visited Canada
22 times, Australia 18 times, New Zealand 10 times
and Jamaica six times.
47 The monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh have
sent approximately 45,000 Christmas cards.
48 The Queen became the first monarch to open
the doors to Buckingham Palace to the public in
1993. She needed the cash for the repair of Windsor
Castle after a fire.
49 The design of the 1st class stamp is to be
updated for the Jubilee. The traditional gold will be
replaced with a blue colour scheme and the words
"Diamond Jubilee" highlighted in iridescent ink.
50 It's been forecast that the four-day holiday for
the jubilee will hit the economy with up to a 0.5
per cent reduction in GDP, despite the boost to
tourism and retail.
51 The Queen has seen 12 different Prime Ministers
during her reign – from Sir Winston Churchill through
to the incumbent David Cameron.
52 Apparently, it has always been the Queen's
dream to see one of her horses win the Epsom
Derby. Aureole came second in 1953, and last year
Carlton House managed third.
53 The Queen's racing colours are a purple body
with gold braid, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap
with gold fringe. They were adopted from those used
by Edward VII; one of his most successful horses
was called Diamond Jubilee.
54 The Queen and duke have been married for a
whopping 64 years.
55 Queen Victoria was the last, and previously the
only, British monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee.
56 The Queen has bought a lot of Christening gifts
thanks to her huge list of 30 godchildren.
57 The only time the sovereign has had to interrupt
an overseas tour was in 1974 during a visit to
Australia and Indonesia when she was called back to
the UK when a snap general election was called.
58 The Queen's official visits have ranged from the
Cocos Islands, 5.4 square miles with a population of
596 to China, 3.7 million square miles with a
population of 1.34 billion.
59 In May 2011, the Queen became the first British
monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since Irish
independence.
60 The Queen has laid her wreath at the Cenotaph
on Remembrance Sunday every year of her reign,
except in 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1983 and 1999
when she was either pregnant or overseas on official visits

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