If you only keep the Queen’s wacky hats as your only memory, you haven’t understood a thing. The Queen was more than just a sovereign. She was badass, close and her people and way funnier than you thought. The proof.
1. She had two birthdays
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Indeed, the queen celebrated her birthday with her family (or with friends for that matter, that does not concern us) on D-Day, on April 21, and a second time in June during the Trooping the Colour. This tradition consists of publicly celebrating the sovereign’s birthday during the first days of summer with large military parades.
2. She owned all the sturgeons, whales, porpoises and dolphins in the UK
This right was granted to him by an old law published by Edward II in 1324 which provides that “the monarch has in fact the whales and sturgeons taken at sea or anywhere in the kingdom”, and which has never been suppressed. Therefore, the Queen had the right to say “give me back that porpoise and fissa” to any guy who caught it within 5 kilometers of the UK coast.
3. She didn’t have a passport
It must be said that no one has ever really needed to ask him for his ID…
4. She was allowed to drive without a license
A little in the same vein as the passport, the Queen of England was exempt from driving license. She did, however, learn to drive in the army during World War II. During Abdallah’s visit from Saudi Arabia in 1998, she had also driven the sovereign herself to Balmoral, just to make him understand that she did not agree with the law at all. Saudi Arabia banning women from driving. Badass, anyway.
5. She had an ATM all to herself.
Which is therefore located in Buckingham Palace. It’s not for nothing that no one has ever had the chance to see her queuing at the Société Générale ATM in Strasbourg st Denis.
6. She was the first ruler to send an email
It was March 26, 1976 from the base of the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern. Can we deduce that, unlike that of your parents, his computer did not have the usual characteristics of an old man’s computer? This is information that we unfortunately cannot provide you with.
7. Her husband, Philip Mountbatten, was also her cousin
Eh yes ! Before falling in love with each other, the Prince and the Queen were above all distant cousins. I grant you, you still have to go back a long time in their family trees to find their common ancestors, since they were both great great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. It goesaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
8. She paid for her wedding dress with ration coupons
Madly in love with Philip, Elizabeth accepted his marriage proposal in 1947, against the advice of those who viewed her future husband as a broke outsider. Aware that the state of the country was not tip top after the war, she insisted that the fabric of her wedding dress be purchased with ration coupons. An austere marriage, certainly, but which nevertheless lasted until the end, that is to say: almost 75 years. That’s a bit of a mouthful, huh Brit-Brit?
9. A stalker managed to break into his bedroom while he was sleeping.
It was July 9, 1982. That night, she was woken up by Michael Fagan, a good, not very neat gentleman who had climbed the gate and the facade of Buckingham Palace to slip into her room. When she opened her eyes, Michael was on his bed bleeding out from cutting his hand. She had to talk to him for 10 long minutes and listen to his fascinating stories about his children and his job while waiting for help to arrive.
10. She mastered photobombing like no other
And not without a certain touch of humor, which does not spoil anything.
11. He Was A Mechanical Ace
If you thought a queen couldn’t get her hands dirty, think again: during World War II, Elizabeth drove big trucks that she repaired with her pretty little royal hands. A nice way to keep your feet on the ground and to be close to your fellow citizens.