Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:0030 Things You Didn't Know About Queen Elizabeth
00:12As one of the most famous monarchs in the world, Queen Elizabeth II has had a life that
00:16was constantly under scrutiny by the media and the public. With such a long reign, Queen
00:21Elizabeth has seen it all. This royal is extremely private, which is why there are a lot of things
00:27about Queen Elizabeth that you may not know. Here is a list of some of the little-known
00:32facts about the Queen.
00:341. She is the longest-reigning British monarch
00:40Queen Elizabeth II is the United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch and one of the world's
00:44longest-ruling monarchs in history. Following the death of her father, King George VI in
00:501952, she ascended to the throne. In June of 1953, she was officially crowned the Queen
00:57of the United Kingdom and Queen Regent of seven Commonwealth countries at the time.
01:022. She was not technically in line to take the throne
01:08The longest-reigning British monarch was never supposed to ascend to the throne. In 1936,
01:14Queen Elizabeth's uncle became King Edward VIII, however, he was never crowned and he
01:18didn't rule for even a year. He made the controversial decision to marry an American
01:23divorcee, Wallace Simpson, and this led him to abdicating the throne. This changed the
01:28course of Elizabeth's life forever. As King George became king, Elizabeth became the immediate
01:34heir to her throne. Her whole life became a matter of public scrutiny.
01:393. She never went to school
01:43Princess Elizabeth never went to school, but that didn't mean that she wasn't educated.
01:49Elizabeth and Margaret were homeschooled instead, which was normal for a royal at the time.
01:54She studied constitutional history from Henry Martin, the vice-provost of Eton College,
01:59which helped her prepare for her role as the future monarch. The Archbishop of Canterbury
02:03taught her religion. She was also fluent in French, a skill that helped her greatly during
02:08her reign. She studied art and music and was a champion swimmer.
02:134. She had two birthdays
02:17The queen celebrated her birthday twice a year. She celebrated her birthday on 21 April,
02:23which is her actual birthday, and then she celebrated it again in June. This is because
02:28April was deemed too cold for any public celebrations.
02:325. She had more than one use for her handbag
02:37The queen never seemed to be without her handbag, and her handbag was never without a portable
02:42hook. Does that sound strange? Yeah, maybe, but it did have its uses. You see, the queen
02:48used her bag to send signals to her staff. If she set it on the table for dinner, it
02:53meant that she wanted to end the event within the next five minutes. When she puts her bag
02:58on the floor, it's a sign that she's not into the conversation and wants to be rescued
03:02by her lady-in-waiting. But if she hangs the bag from the portable hook under the table,
03:07then everything is well and good.
03:106. She owns all the swans in Britain
03:15The queen legally owns all the unmarked mute swans in the whole of the United Kingdom.
03:20This is part of a royal tradition that started way back in 1186. Swans were very valuable
03:26at the time, so when Henry VIII was king, it was a crime to steal swan eggs. All the
03:31eggs had to be counted to make sure none were stolen, a tradition known as swan upping.
03:37Swan upping dates way, way back to the 12th century, when swans were a food, a very important
03:45food.
03:47Every year, a team rose through the Thames to check on the health of the birds. So, the
03:51tradition that originally started to prove ownership is now a census of the birds.
03:567. She was a part of the army
04:01Princess Elizabeth started training as a girl guide when she was 11 years old, along with
04:05her sister, Princess Margaret. She was also a part of the Sea Rangers, a group that taught
04:10girls water-based activities like sailing. Her work in the Girl Guides and Sea Rangers
04:15helped her prepare for military service.
04:18Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the ATS, in 1945, becoming the first
04:24female member of the royal family to join the armed services as a full-time member.
04:29She served in World War II.
04:31The princess learned how to drive and maintain vehicles while in the ATS. She worked as a
04:36mechanic and a truck driver.
04:398. She has a stable of racehorses
04:44Queen Elizabeth is an avid equestrian. She began riding when she was only 3 years old.
04:49When she was 4, Elizabeth got her first pony as a birthday present from her grandfather,
04:54King George V. Her first pony was Susan, a Shetland pony.
04:59The queen breeds racehorses and owns many award-winning horses. Her horses have won
05:03more than 1,600 races. She is a patron of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association and
05:09is very knowledgeable about the industry.
05:12One of the biggest horse shows in the world, the Royal Windsor Horse Show, is often attended
05:17by the queen.
05:199. She loves dogs
05:23You must have seen the classic images of Queen Elizabeth along with her corgis. It is a well-known
05:28fact that the queen loves dogs. She received her first corgi, Susan, as a birthday present
05:34when she turned 18. After Susan, the queen had owned at least 30 Pembroke Welsh Corgis,
05:40who all descended from Susan. The last of them, Willow, died in 2018.
05:46The queen has also bred a mix of corgis and dachshunds called dorgies. She used coupons
05:51to buy her wedding dress.
05:54Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip got married in 1947 when the country was still recovering
06:00from the war and had rationing measures in place. As a result, Elizabeth had to use ration
06:05coupons to buy the material for her wedding dress. She got 200 extra coupons from the
06:10government.
06:11Princess Elizabeth looked beautiful in the final dress, designed by Norman Hartnell.
06:16The dress was made of Chinese silk with a high neckline and tailored bodice. It had
06:21a 13-foot-long train with a Botticelli-inspired pattern and was adorned with crystals and
06:2710,000 seed pearls imported from America.
06:3111. Her Tiara Snapped on Her Wedding Day
06:36Hours before her wedding, the diamond tiara that Princess Elizabeth was supposed to wear
06:41snapped in half as it was being secured to her veil. Seeing as how this wedding was going
06:45to be broadcast all over the world, this was a disaster.
06:49The tiara, called the Fringe Tiara, was the Queen's something borrowed from her mother,
06:54the Queen Mother. When the tiara snapped, according to reports, the Queen Mother told
06:59Elizabeth that they still had two hours and there are other tiaras.
07:03Thankfully, the Royal Jewelry House, Garrard, was on call in case of an emergency, and the
07:08broken tiara was taken to the workshop and welded back together. And it reached the princess
07:13in time for her to wear it to the wedding.
07:1712. She Met Prince Philip When She Was 13 Years Old
07:22Elizabeth and Philip first crossed paths when the princess was just 8 years old at the wedding
07:26of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark and Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934. They
07:32met again properly five years later at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth when Elizabeth
07:37was 13 and Philip was 18. This was the first time that she remembers meeting him, and it
07:42was here, apparently, that she fell in love with her future husband.
07:47Later they began exchanging letters. Then, in 1946, Philip asked King George VI for his
07:52daughter's hand in marriage. The King agreed on the condition that the formal announcement
07:57of the engagement be delayed until Elizabeth turned 21 the following April.
08:02According to reports, both the King and the Queen feared that their daughter was a little
08:06too young. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth were third cousins through Queen Victoria.
08:12Prince Philip was born a royal of Greece and Denmark.
08:1513. She Has Broken Many Records Queen Elizabeth is the longest-reigning royal
08:23in the history of Britain. During the Queen's reign, there have been 12 British prime ministers
08:28and 7 Roman Catholic popes. Queen Elizabeth is also the longest-reigning female monarch
08:34in the history of the world. The marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip is the
08:39longest of any British sovereign. The Queen also holds the record for the most countries
08:44with her portrait on the currency. She appears on the currency of 35 different nations.
08:50Queen Elizabeth has traveled the world more than any other king or queen in the world.
08:54She has visited 116 countries for official visits.
08:5914. She Likes to Drink The Queen has a glass of champagne every single
09:06day. According to her cousin, Margaret Rhodes, the Queen enjoys a tipple every single day,
09:12and she performs the same drinking ritual every day. A gin and a Dubonnet on the rocks
09:16with a slice of lemon before lunch, wine with lunch, and a glass of champagne to finish
09:21off the day. That does sound good.
09:2515. She Is Exempt From The Usual Documentation The Queen does not require to have most of
09:33the important documentation that we have. She can drive without a license. She doesn't
09:38even need a passport. This is because they are all issued in her name. She has been to
09:42more than 100 countries without one. She is also exempt from taxes, but she still voluntarily
09:48pays income and capital gains taxes.
09:5216. She Has A Few Nicknames The Queen's full name is Elizabeth Alexandra
09:59Mary, but when she was a young girl, she had trouble pronouncing her own name, which
10:03came out as Lilibet, and the name stuck. She was called Lilibet by her close family. Prince
10:09Harry and his wife Meghan chose this name for their daughter. The Queen's husband lovingly
10:14called her Cabbage. Her great-grandchild Prince George calls her Gangan.
10:1917. She Speaks Fluent French Queen Elizabeth is fluent in French. She learned
10:26to speak French at a young age from her French and Belgian governesses. She often speaks
10:31in French when she visits the country and delivered an address at the state banquet
10:35in 2014 in French, shocking many.
10:52The skill has proved useful for the Queen while speaking to ambassadors and heads of
10:56state from French-speaking countries or when visiting French-speaking areas in Canada.
11:0218. She Has Got 30 Godchildren Being a godparent is a great honor. The Queen
11:09has at least 30 godchildren from the 1950s to the present day, but not all of them have
11:15been revealed publicly. She became a godparent even before her reign began. Many of her godchildren
11:21have connections to the royal family. Her first godchild, Guy Rupert Gerard Neville
11:26in 1945, was the son of Lady Neville, a longtime friend of Elizabeth.
11:3219. She Sent Her First Email From A British Army Base
11:38On the 26th of March 1976, the Queen sent her first-ever royal email while visiting
11:43the Ministry of Defense's scientific research hub, the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.
11:49Peter Kirstein, the man who first brought the Arpanet to Great Britain, set up the Queen's
11:54mail account. He chose the username HME2, Her Majesty Elizabeth II. All she had to do
12:01was press a couple of buttons and her message was sent. In doing so, Queen Elizabeth became
12:06the first royal to send an email.
12:0920. She Wears Essie Ballet Slippers Nail Polish
12:14When you are the Queen, even your nail paint is a very big deal. Since 1989, Queen Elizabeth
12:21has worn the same shade of nail polish. Essie's iconic ballet slippers nail polish is loved
12:27by the Queen so much that it's the only color that she will ever wear. According to the
12:32brand's website, the Queen's hairdresser wrote a letter to nail polish queen Essie
12:36Vangarten in 1989 requesting a bottle of the classic pale pink shade.
12:4221. She Owns an Apartment in New York City The British royal owns an apartment in the
12:49Big Apple. The Queen has a $7.9 million Pita Terre in Manhattan. The house is a three-bedroom
12:56apartment in Zeckendorf Development's 50 United Nations Plaza, a building designed
13:00by Lord Norman Foster, who was knighted by the Queen many years ago. The 3,000-square-foot
13:06space comes with three-and-a-half bathrooms and a 15-foot-long living and dining room.
13:1222. She is Rich Forbes estimates that the Queen is worth $500
13:19million in personal assets, and she is rich. However, even though she is the Queen, she
13:25is not the wealthiest person in the United Kingdom. Her net worth is way below the 2,674
13:31billionaires on the Forbes Richest People list. Much of her wealth comes from private
13:36income from her many estates.
13:3823. She Has a Personal Poet A poet laureate has been a part of the British
13:45royal staff since the 17th century. It is an honorary position appointed by the monarch
13:50of the United Kingdom. The Queen's current poet is Simon Armitage. He replaced Dame Carol
14:05Anne Duffy in 2019, who was made the first female poet laureate in 2009. She wrote poems
14:12for special royal events such as the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and the
14:17Queen's 60th coronation anniversary. The appointed poet gets an annual salary and 720
14:23bottles of sherry when they start.
14:2624. She is Woken Up Every Day with Bagpipes The Queen doesn't wake up to an alarm clock
14:33like us commoners. Instead, she has a bagpiper who plays outside her window for 15 minutes
14:39every morning at 9am. The piper is known as Piper to the Sovereign. She can even tell
14:45if someone different than her usual bagpiper is playing.
14:5025. She was in Kenya when she received a message about her father's death
15:08Princess Elizabeth became Queen after the death of her father, King George VI, on 6th
15:13of February 1952. At the time, she was on a royal tour of Kenya with her husband Prince
15:18Philip. Elizabeth's private secretary got the news through a call from a local journalist
15:23and was confirmed by Prince Philip's equerry after listening to the BBC World Service on
15:28the radio. Prince Philip broke the news to the Queen about her father's death. She
15:33was one of the last to know that she had become Queen.
15:3726. She doesn't risk getting blisters when she buys new shoes
15:43The royal duties of a Queen would also entail being on her feet for hours on end. The Queen
15:48is known to wear a few different styles of shoes from Anello and David, and she has a
15:52trick that she uses to never risk getting blisters on her feet. The Queen has a servant
15:57with the same size feet who breaks in her shoes for her. Her shoes have to be immediately
16:02comfortable. She can never say, I am uncomfortable, I can't walk anymore, during a royal occasion.
16:09The servants breaking in the shoes also wear cotton ankle socks and walk on a carpet to
16:13soften the leather.
16:1527. She once found an intruder in her room
16:20In 1982, a man named Michael Fagan invaded her bedroom. The reports at the time said
16:26that the Queen, with all her poison calm, asked him what he was doing there and stalled
16:30him with 10 minutes of conversation while waiting for security. But according to later
16:35interviews with Fagan, he said that she didn't wait to have any chats, instead running past
16:40him and straight out of the room.
16:5528. She sneaked out with her sister to celebrate the end of the war
17:01When the war finally ended on the 8th of May 1945, Elizabeth and Margaret were allowed
17:06to join the crowds on the streets to celebrate. The Queen recalls the evening as one of the
17:10most memorable in her life.
17:12I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall. All of us
17:17just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief, she said of the event, according to
17:22a post by the royal family on Instagram.
17:2529. She has survived assassination attempts
17:31Being a royal constantly in the public eye isn't always a good thing. Queen Elizabeth
17:36has been in danger on more than one occasion and has survived three assassination attempts.
17:41In 1970, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were on a tour of Australia when an attempt
17:47was made to assassinate the Queen, according to former Detective Superintendent Cliff McHardy.
17:52The royal couple was to go by rail from Sydney to Orange and the would-be assassins had placed
17:57a log on the train tracks to derail the train. The train struck the log but was traveling
18:02too slowly for any damage to be done.
18:05On 13 June 1981, at the annual Trooping the Colour event in London, crowds gathered to
18:10watch the Queen attending the ceremony on horseback. As the Queen rode by, 17-year-old
18:16Marcus Sargent fired six blanks from a starting pistol. The Queen's horse was startled but
18:21the Sovereign managed to calm him down. He was arrested and sentenced to five years in
18:26prison.
18:27Just a few months after being shot at the event, the Queen faced another assassination
18:31attempt during a visit to New Zealand in 1981. While she was visiting a museum in Dunedin,
18:37Christopher John Lewis, 17, was waiting in a nearby building and fired out of the window
18:42as the Queen aligned from her vehicle. He missed but witnesses reported hearing a loud
18:47crack. He was arrested eight days later.
18:5130. She has many titles
18:55Her official title is Elizabeth II by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great
19:00Britain and Northern Ireland and her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the
19:04Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. In Canada, she also holds the title of Chief Hunter of
19:10the Order of the Buffalo Hunt. She also holds titles from the Order of the Garter, the Order
19:15of St. John of Jerusalem, and the Imperial Order of the Crown in India, just to name
19:20a few.
19:22So did you learn any new information about this popular British Royal? How many of these
19:27facts did you know about and how many did you learn from? Tell us in the comment section
19:31below. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a big thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe
19:36to our channel. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one!