The royal corgis have a reputation for unruly behaviour. Amongst other misdemeanours, they have knocked out a royal butler, Paul Burrell, by toppling him on the stairs, torn the seat out of a Guards officer’s trousers, savaged the leg of a royal clock winder and even bitten the Queen herself, during a dogfight in 1991, after which she required three stitches in her hand.

The Queen is usually accompanied by a pack of four or five corgis and has even developed her own special breed of ‘dorgi’, a cross between a corgi and a dachshund.

The gourmet daily menu enjoyed by the corgis, or dorgis, consists of Pedigree Chum embellished with fresh steak, rabbit or chicken, which is customarily fed to them by the Queen using a silver spoon and fork. For breakfast there is toast and marmalade with Her Majesty, and at tea-time, crumbled fresh baked scones and butter.

Royal Pets

The royal fascination with animals and pets goes back to HENRY I, who in 1129 put up 7 miles (11 km) of wall around his hunting lodge at WOODSTOCK, near Oxford, creating THE FIRST ENCLOSED PARK IN ENGLAND. The walls were built to keep in his menagerie, which included lions, camels, leopards and THE FIRST PORCUPINE SEEN IN ENGLAND.

In 1255 King Louis IX of France presented HENRY III with an elephant, THE FIRST ELEPHANT SEEN IN ENGLAND since the Roman Emperor Claudius’s invasion in AD 42, when Claudius is believed to have used elephants to frighten the Celtic defenders during the siege of Colchester. Henry’s elephant was brought up the Thames by boat and then walked to the Tower of London, where the King already kept quite a menagerie, with leopards and a polar bear given by Haakon IV of Norway in 1252.

After MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in February 1587, her limp, headless body began to move causing much alarm – hidden under Mary’s gown was her little terrier GEDDON, Mary’s constant friend during those last years of imprisonment, who had stayed with her to the end.

Like his grandmother, CHARLES I went to his death accompanied by his dog. On the morning of 30 January 1649, after Charles had taken Communion in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, his faithful hound ROGUE bounded happily along behind the King as Charles was escorted across St James’s Park to his doom at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

CHARLES II gave his name to a breed of spaniel from the Far East of which he was particularly fond, the KING CHARLES SPANIEL.

Royal Thespians

As a young girl in the Second World War, Princess Elizabeth acted in a number of pantomimes, which were usually performed in the Waterloo Chamber in Windsor Castle.

She was following in a noble royal tradition. In 1516 HENRY VIII took a leading part in THE FIRST MASQUERADE SEEN IN ENGLAND, performed in the park surrounding Greenwich Palace.

JAMES I and his wife ANNE OF DENMARK were particularly fond of masques, theatrical performances in which everyone could dress up and there was plenty of song and dance. They were mainly held at the Queen’s residence SOMERSET PALACE, by the River Thames in London. Playwright BEN JONSON gained great favour by writing a number of masques especially for the Royal Family, which included roles for the Queen and for James’s eldest son PRINCE HENRY. Jonson was given a paid position at court and a lifetime pension, and is regarded as perhaps THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF A POET LAUREATE, although the position would not be officially established until Charles II made JOHN DRYDEN Poet Laureate in 1668.

Somerset House, as it now appears

The architect INIGO JONES made his name by designing the sets and costumes for Ben Jonson’s court masques.

Royal Performances

In November 2004, Elizabeth II invited the West End cast of LES MISERABLES to perform in front of JACQUES CHIRAC, the French President, at Windsor Castle, THE FIRST TIME THE CAST OF A WEST END MUSICAL HAD PERFORMED IN A ROYAL RESIDENCE.

ELIZABETH I was a great patron of the theatre and ordered her Lord Chamberlain to grant a licence to a troupe of actors, led by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, who became known as the LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN. While staying at Windsor Castle Elizabeth asked Shakespeare to write a play for her, ‘in a fortnight’, and the result was THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, which in 1602 had its FIRST PERFORMANCE IN FRONT OF ELIZABETH I IN WINDSOR CASTLE.

JAMES I promoted the troupe from the Lord Chamberlain’s to THE KING’S MEN, and many of Shakespeare’s plays were premiered in front of James’s royal court at Whitehall Palace and in the Great Hall at Hampton Court.

Childhood Homes

White Lodge

The WHITE LODGE in Richmond Park, originally known as the New Lodge, was built as a hunting lodge for GEORGE II and his wife QUEEN CAROLINE in 1729. In 1751 their daughter PRINCESS AMELIA moved in there when she became Ranger of Richmond Park and caused much consternation by closing the park to the public, a decision that was reversed in 1758. In the meantime she added two flanking wings to the lodge.

On Princess Amelia’s death, the Prime Minister, the 3RD EARL OF BUTE, became Ranger and lived in the lodge until he died in 1792. During this time it became known as the White Lodge, and George III and Queen Charlotte were frequent visitors for Sunday lunch.

Another Prime Minister, HENRY ADDINGTON, took over the lodge and created a private garden there in 1805. In the same year he was visited at the lodge by Lord Nelson just before Nelson sailed to fight the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Queen Victoria gave the White Lodge to her aunt, PRINCESS MARY, last surviving daughter of George III, and then Prince Albert decided to send the 17-year-old EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES there to study, away from the distractions of London. Not surprisingly, Edward found life at the White Lodge deadly dull.

In 1861 Queen Victoria stayed at the lodge with Prince Albert while grieving over the death of her mother, and only a few months later Albert was dead too.

In 1869 PRINCESS MARY ADELAIDE, DUCHESS OF TECK, a granddaughter of George III and cousin of Queen Victoria, was given the lodge. In 1893 Victoria’s grandson George, Duke of York married the Duchess of Teck’s daughter Mary, and in 1894 Mary gave birth at the White Lodge to her first child, the future Edward VIII. Queen Victoria came to the lodge to see the new baby.

In 1923 Edward’s younger brother Prince Albert, Duke of York, the future George VI, and his new bride Elizabeth spent part of their honeymoon at the White Lodge and loved it so much they eventually took up residence there, enlarging the house to make it into a family home and landscaping the gardens. Their daughter Princess Elizabeth spent her early years there, and on her birth certificate the White Lodge is given as her parents’ address.

The White Lodge is now the home of the ROYAL BALLET SCHOOL.

Royal Lodge Windsor

There has been a house on the site of the ROYAL LODGE in Windsor Great Park, 3 miles (5 km) south of Windsor Castle, since the mid 17th century, but the first royal to occupy the site was the PRINCE REGENT, who moved there in 1815 after alterations were undertaken by John Nash to turn the property into an elaborate rustic cottage, or summer house, known as a cottage orne. Sir Jeffrey Wyattville made additions and the house became known as the Royal Lodge.

Much of the house was demolished on the orders of William IV in 1830, but since then the lodge has been developed piecemeal around the surviving conservatory. In 1931 the Royal Lodge was granted to the future George VI and his wife Elizabeth, who enlarged it with flanking wings and entrance lodges. The house now has some 30 rooms, including seven bedrooms and the original conservatory.

After the death of George VI, his widow, now known as the QUEEN MOTHER, continued to use the Royal Lodge as her Windsor home. She died there in her sleep in March 2002 at the age of 101, THE LONGEST LIVING QUEEN IN BRITISH ROYAL HISTORY and, at the time, THE LONGEST LIVING MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY IN HISTORY – the latter title later went to her sister-in-law PRINCESS ALICE, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER, who died in 2004 at the age of 102.

Before being taken to London, where the Queen Mother would lie in state in Westminster Hall, her coffin rested in the tiny ROYAL CHAPEL OF ALL SAINTS in the grounds of the Royal Lodge. The chapel had been originally converted out of a porter’s lodge by George IV and then rebuilt in the reign of Queen Victoria, with an east window dedicated to the memory of Victoria’s mother the Duchess of Kent. Members of the Royal Family still attend services in the chapel when they wish to be private.

In 2004 the Royal Lodge became the official residence of PRINCE ANDREW, DUKE OF YORK, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II.

Y Bwthyn Bach

In 1932 a small straw-thatched cottage called Y BWTHYN BACH (the Little House) was erected in the gardens of the Royal Lodge as a gift from the people of Wales to Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, the daughters of the Duke of York, the future George VI, and his wife Elizabeth. The cottage, fully furnished and with its own scaled-down garden, is still standing today. The house is so tiny that when the Princesses’ grandmother Queen Mary paid a visit she got stuck in the sitting room.

Well, I never knew this about

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

The Queen’s birthplace, 17 BRUTON STREET, built in 1742, was demolished in 1937 and replaced with an office block, Berkeley Square House. A small plaque commemorates the birth.

While Elizabeth II was sitting in a tree house in Kenya when she heard that she had become Queen, her namesake Elizabeth I was sitting under an oak tree in the grounds of Hatfield Palace when she heard that she had become Queen.

ELIZABETH II was 25 years old when she became Queen in 1952, the same age as her namesake ELIZABETH I when the latter succeeded her sister Mary in 1558.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing became THE FIRST MEN TO REACH THE TOP OF MOUNT EVEREST just four days before Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.

Elizabeth II is the FORTIETH MONARCH since William the Conqueror.

Elizabeth II is 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall, the same height as Elizabeth I and Charles I, who is BRITAIN’S SHORTEST KING. The TALLEST BRITISH MONARCH to date is Edward IV, who was 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall.

TONY BLAIR, born in May 1953, is THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER TO HAVE BEEN BORN DURING ELIZABETH II’s REIGN. DAVID CAMERON, born in 1966, is THE ONLY PRIME MINISTER TO HAVE BEEN BORN SINCE HER CORONATION.

Elizabeth II is a keen pigeon racer and Patron of the ROYAL PIGEON RACING ASSOCIATION. In 1990 one of the Queen’s birds won a section of the INTERNATIONAL PAU RACE, held in southern France, one of the four ‘classic’ pigeon races, and was afterwards named SANDRINGHAM LIGHTNING.