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00:00Even if the majority of royals make an effort
00:02to steer clear of customary wedding presents
00:05and instead request charitable contributions
00:07be made in their honor,
00:09this doesn't stop people from showering them
00:11with strange and unnecessary gifts.
00:14The royals most certainly do not lack
00:16in terms of wealth or things.
00:18In fact, given that they could purchase
00:20everything they desired for themselves,
00:22who would even know what to buy for them?
00:24Despite this, supporters in politics,
00:27the general public, and even family
00:29make extravagant and odd offerings for a royal member.
00:33Purchasing gifts can be quite difficult,
00:36but consider the pressure involved
00:37in selecting the ideal present for a royal.
00:41We've compiled the 30 strangest royal wedding presents
00:44in today's video.
00:46Number one, a bull.
00:49One of the most unusual gifts was given to Harry and Meghan
00:53by their wedding guests, in my opinion.
00:55On behalf of the newlyweds,
00:57Peeta India adopted a frail and injured Indian bull.
01:01Mary, a cross between Harry and Meghan,
01:03was given to Peeta India,
01:05who will live out the remainder of his days
01:07in a serene sanctuary in Maharashtra, India.
01:11Number two, a statue of a great Canadian
01:15who was a soldier, a doctor, and a poet.
01:18Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, 1872 to 1918,
01:23was not only a soldier and a doctor,
01:25but also a poet and the author
01:27of the tragic, evocative wartime poem,
01:30In Flanders Fields, which begins,
01:32In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
01:34Between the crosses, row on row.
01:37Brigadier General James Selby,
01:39Colonel Commandant, Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery,
01:43gave the Queen a statuette of McRae in October.
01:46The sculpture, a scale model of the one installed in Ottawa
01:49in May of 2016, shows McRae composing his poem.
01:54Number three, a wheel of cheese.
01:59A 1,000-pound wheel of cheese was given as a gift
02:02to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840.
02:06The cheese, which came from the milk of 750 cows,
02:09weighed more than 500 kilograms.
02:12The farmers who produced the cheese
02:14then requested that it be displayed
02:16after the Queen accepted the gift.
02:18Sadly, the Queen resisted taking it back
02:21after the exhibit was finished.
02:24Number four, a tandem bike.
02:28At the time of Prince William and Kate's wedding
02:30in April of 2011, when Boris Johnson
02:33was serving as acting mayor of London,
02:35he gave the couple a tandem bike
02:37in the image of his infamous Boris bikes.
02:40On the wedding day, he told a gathering in Trafalgar Square,
02:44I look forward to seeing the newlyweds on tandem wheels
02:47as they start their new life in Anglesey.
02:49It is unknown whether the couple
02:51ever ended up using their unique bike.
02:55Number five, the ingredients for a wedding cake.
02:59The 1947 wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
03:03took place when food rationing was still in effect.
03:06The Australian Girl Guides Association,
03:09who gave the newlyweds all the ingredients
03:11they would require, nevertheless helped the pair
03:13have the ideal wedding cake.
03:16Number six, five notebooks,
03:19including one that belonged to the husband's ex-wife.
03:24Just three weeks after his fourth marriage
03:26to Anne of Cleves was declared null and void
03:29in July of 1540, Henry VIII wed Catherine Howard,
03:32his fifth wife.
03:34He sent Catherine a collection of five small girdle books
03:37or jewel-encrusted notebooks as a wedding gift.
03:41Unfortunately, planning a wedding in less than a month
03:43doesn't seem to provide much time
03:45for checking small details,
03:47like whether your initials and those of your ex-wife
03:50still appear stamped on the wedding gift
03:52you just gave to your new husband.
03:54Yes, one of Catherine's books
03:56contained the letters H and I
03:58in black enamel on the front cover,
04:00indicating the book was likely given to Jane Seymour
04:03by Henry at some point in the past,
04:05I standing in for J in the Tudor period alphabet.
04:09Unfortunately, the worst thing Henry did to poor Catherine
04:12wasn't even regifting his deceased wife's possessions.
04:16Catherine was murdered at the age of 19 in February of 1542
04:21on a false accusation of adultery
04:23with her distant cousin, Thomas Culpepper,
04:25after a marriage that lasted just over a year.
04:29Number seven, a small wooden chest
04:32engraved with knotted thistles.
04:35A seemingly ordinary oak chest
04:37that belonged to a Scottish amateur furniture collector
04:40from Aberdeen was discovered
04:41to be a magnificent 500-year-old royal relic in 2014.
04:47A devotional prayer book created to commemorate
04:49James IV of Scotland's marriage to Margaret Tudor,
04:52the eldest daughter of Henry VII of England,
04:55the chest's odd engravings,
04:56which included a lover's knot
04:58constructed of intertwined thistles,
05:00matched those in the book
05:02and the older sister of Henry VIII.
05:04After decades of conflict,
05:06the so-called Thistle and the Rose marriage
05:08in August of 1503
05:10brought the Tudor and the Stuart dynasties together.
05:13The chest was reportedly commissioned as a wedding gift
05:16to commemorate the event.
05:19Number eight, hand-spun lace.
05:23For their wedding on November 20th, 1947,
05:27Prince Elizabeth and Prince Philip
05:28received more than 2,500 gifts
05:31from individuals and organizations around the globe.
05:35A piece of cotton lace that Mahatma Gandhi spun himself
05:38and embroidered with the words Jai Hind,
05:40which means victory for India
05:42because India had recently won its independence
05:45from the British Commonwealth,
05:46is one of these more well-known gifts.
05:49The concept was presented to Gandhi by Lord Mountbatten
05:52according to Pamela Hicks,
05:54a close friend of Elizabeth's
05:55and the daughter of Lord Mountbatten,
05:57Philip's uncle and Prince Charles's dependable mentor.
06:00But even so, Queen Mary, Elizabeth's grandmother,
06:03initially took it for a loincloth
06:05and thought it was indelicate.
06:08Aside from misunderstandings,
06:09the couple found significant meaning in the gift,
06:12which Queen Elizabeth presented
06:14to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018
06:17during his visit to the UK.
06:21Number nine, the wine enthusiast's version of a transformer.
06:26A wine cooler made of brass and steel
06:29in the shape of a grasshopper
06:30that can be turned into a drinks table
06:32was given to Queen Elizabeth II
06:34by French President George Pompidou in 1972.
06:38This went on display in 2002
06:41in conjunction with the Queen's Golden Jubilee,
06:43together with some 200 other notable gifts
06:46that Queen Elizabeth had received throughout the years.
06:50Number 10, millions of dollars worth of gifts
06:53from the Persian Gulf.
06:56According to a New York Times report,
06:58the Queen and Prince Philip
06:59received millions of dollars worth of gifts
07:02from their Arab hosts
07:03during the 18-day goodwill tour of the Persian Gulf in 1979.
07:08Among them were a pear-shaped pearl
07:10set in a natural oyster,
07:12a silver model of an Arab ship,
07:14a solid gold palm tree that stood 18 inches tall
07:17and was covered in pearls,
07:19an amethyst-studded tray,
07:21a gold coffee jug shaped like a falcon
07:23with amethyst talons,
07:25and three jeweled gold swords
07:27intended specifically for Prince Philip.
07:30Number 11, gifts from Michelle Obama.
07:35A list of official gifts
07:37received by Queen Elizabeth in 2015
07:40included a gift box
07:41from the former First Lady of the United States
07:44that contained lemon verbena tea,
07:47a candle, two small pots of honey,
07:49and a jar of honey butter,
07:51homemade from the White House kitchen garden,
07:54and a Tiffany & Co. silver honeycomb and bee bud vase.
07:58Number 12, too much salt?
08:02What is that?
08:04The British Virgin Islands governor
08:05also gave the Queen a bag of salt in 2015 as a gift.
08:10This present was a nod to the BVI's custom
08:12of giving its monarch a bag of salt
08:14as a tax on the minerals mined on Salt Island,
08:17one of the islands in the BVI.
08:19In celebration of her 90th birthday,
08:22the people of the BVI also gave this present
08:25to Queen Elizabeth in 2016.
08:29Number 13, something for the woof-woof.
08:33The Queen is known for her affection for dogs,
08:35so it's not unexpected that she's gotten
08:38a lot of presents for or in connection
08:40with her cherished canine pets.
08:42One such present from the British people
08:44came in the form of a crocheted tea cozy in 2012
08:48that featured Her Majesty and her adored corgis.
08:52She also received a crown-shaped dog bed
08:54from a Scottish company called Tuffles Dog Beds in 2012.
08:58When she visited an Australian old mining town in 2000,
09:02she was given a bar of Tilly's Timid Joe dog soap.
09:05The soap cost 40 pounds and was advertised
09:08as having the power to kill fleas and other vermin.
09:13Number 14, a model of her firstborn son with postman Pat.
09:19The Kingdom of Jordan presented Her Majesty
09:21with a ceramic statue of Prince Charles
09:24and postman Pat in 2016 to celebrate her 90th birthday.
09:29The animated series by the same name,
09:31concerning the adventures of a fictional postman
09:33from a fictional English village
09:35is intended for preschoolers.
09:39Number 15, a horse of a different color.
09:44Joachim Gock, the German president,
09:46gave the Queen an acrylic painting
09:47by Nicole Liedenfrost in 2015,
09:50in which Her Majesty is shown as a young child
09:53riding a horse while being cared after by her father.
09:56The horse is primarily blue
09:58in the impressionistic painting,
09:59with hints of pink, yellow, and green.
10:02"'It's a strange color for a horse,'
10:04Business Insider claims the Queen exclaimed,
10:07along with, "'That's supposed to be my father, isn't it?'
10:12Number 16, the statue of the great Canadian
10:15who was a soldier, a doctor, and a poet.
10:19This one is pretty poignant and not at all odd.
10:22It is a homage to a great Canadian.
10:25Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, 1872 to 1918,
10:29was not only a soldier and a doctor,
10:31but also a poet and the author
10:33of the tragic evocative wartime poem,
10:35"'In Flanders Fields,' which begins,
10:37"'In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
10:40"'between the crosses, row on row.'
10:43Brigadier General James Selby,
10:45Colonel Commandant, Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery,
10:48gave the Queen a statuette of McRae in October.
10:51The sculpture, a scale model
10:53of the one installed in Ottawa in May of 2016,
10:56shows McRae composing his poem.
11:01Number 17, the Queen Elizabeth Land.
11:05A chain of beacons was lit across the globe in 2002
11:09to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee,
11:11celebrating 50 years as monarch.
11:14These beacons were placed as far north
11:16as 300 miles from the North Pole
11:18and as far south as Antarctica.
11:21What can top that?
11:23She received more than 120,000 gifts
11:26during her Diamond Jubilee in 2012,
11:28which commemorated her 60 years as monarch,
11:31and a 437,708-square-kilometer area of Antarctica,
11:37which was named in her honor.
11:39The size of Queen Elizabeth Land
11:41is almost twice that of the UK.
11:45Number 18, an empty plot of land
11:48on a private Caribbean island.
11:51After getting married,
11:52Princess Margaret and her new spouse,
11:54who is now known as the Earl of Snowdon,
11:57took the royal yacht Britannia
11:58on a six-week Caribbean tour as their honeymoon.
12:02Colin Tennant, a British socialite and aristocrat,
12:05gave the couple a piece of land on Mustick,
12:07a two-square-mile private island
12:09in the Grenadines during that time.
12:11Colin Tennant's wife, Anne Coke,
12:13served as Margaret's lady-in-waiting.
12:16Le Joliot, also known as the Beautiful Waters,
12:19is a private villa that Margaret later built on the plot.
12:22If you have $21,000 to spare,
12:25you can stay there for a week.
12:29Number 19, although it wasn't strictly a bizarre present,
12:33the Brits thought it was
12:34because they never grasped its significance.
12:37On November 20th, 1947,
12:40Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip exchanged vows.
12:43The events of the wedding day are described in a story
12:46written by Lord Mountbatten's daughter,
12:48Pamela Hicks, for The Telegraph.
12:50She claims that when her parents met Mahatma Gandhi,
12:53he informed them he wanted to offer
12:55Prince Elizabeth a wedding gift,
12:57but couldn't since all of his belongings were elsewhere.
13:00Mountbatten responded by suggesting
13:02that instead of delivering the crown jewels,
13:05he should give a fabric made from the yarn he had spun,
13:08and Mountbatten traveled to Britain with the wedding gift.
13:11When Queen Mary first saw the gift,
13:13she thought it was Gandhi's loincloth
13:15and described it as the most indelicate present.
13:18It is said that the royal couple never used the gift
13:21since they didn't know how to use it.
13:24Number 20, typical kids' favorite gifts.
13:29Prince Charles received a packet of fairy dust
13:32during a November trip around Australia and New Zealand,
13:35making it one of the more outlandish gifts
13:37listed officially for 2015.
13:40Prince Harry also received many unusual gifts
13:43when he visited New Zealand in May.
13:46Among the presents that the people of New Zealand
13:48gave to Harry were a packet of Jaffa cakes,
13:51a bag of pineapple lumps, a chocolate fish,
13:54a jar of Marmite, and Weetabix cereal.
13:59Number 21, an African forest elephant from Cameroon.
14:05Among the many presents that Queen Elizabeth II
14:07received from various nations,
14:09animals are among the most unusual.
14:12The government of Cameroon sent the queen
14:15to the African forest elephant as a gift in 1972.
14:18The London Zoo received a donation of an elephant
14:20by the name of Jumbo.
14:22Jumbo's meals during his travel to the UK
14:25included bananas, avocados, and sugar.
14:28Sadly, it passed away in 1988.
14:33Number 22, a cocker spaniel.
14:37William and Kate, like Harry and Meghan,
14:40asked for donations to go to a fund in their names.
14:43Among the causes they contributed money to
14:46were the Zoological Society of London,
14:48the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary,
14:50and an anti-bullying initiative.
14:53Nonetheless, James, Kate's brother,
14:55couldn't help but surprise the happy couple with Lupo,
14:58a black cocker spaniel puppy
15:00who has since become a cherished member of the family.
15:05Number 23, one ton of peat.
15:09When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981,
15:14they received many traditional gifts,
15:16including paintings, jewelry, a four-poster bed,
15:19and an art deco Cartier clock.
15:22Charles' interest in agriculture was picked up
15:24by a local village council in Somerset in southwest England
15:28who opted to send the prince one ton of high-quality peat
15:31for use on his Gloucestershire estate.
15:35Number 24, a really lovely rug.
15:39When Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth II's daughter,
15:42married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973,
15:45the members of the British cabinet all pitched in
15:47and bought the couple a rug.
15:49Like many office pooled gifts,
15:51every member of the cabinet contributed an equal share,
15:54which private papers later revealed
15:56to be just 10 pounds and 53 pence each.
15:59The princess wrote each member a personal note,
16:02thanking them most warmly for a really lovely rug.
16:05When it was revealed that President Nixon
16:07and the U.S. government had sent the couple
16:09a solid crystal bowl and four gold candlesticks,
16:12Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister,
16:15Sir Robert Armstrong, wryly commented,
16:17"'This makes an old Persian rug look pretty crummy.'"
16:22Number 25, a book on French romances
16:25and an essay on warfare.
16:28The Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot,
16:31who traveled with Margaret of Anjou from Normandy to London,
16:34gave her a collection of illuminated French poems,
16:38folk tales, romances, and political treatises
16:40when she wed Henry VI of England in 1445.
16:44The Talbot-Shrewsbury book, as it is now called,
16:47also includes several lengthy treatises on warfare,
16:50husbandry, and hunting,
16:52as well as a comprehensive enumeration of the laws
16:55governing the Order of the Garter.
16:57Given that Elizabeth frequently had to rule
17:00in place of Henry,
17:01it was probably the ideal bedtime book
17:03for the ambitious new Queen of England.
17:06Number 26, a pair of koalas.
17:11When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
17:13got married in May of 2018,
17:15they asked that the guests donate
17:17to one of seven carefully chosen charities
17:19instead of giving them gifts.
17:21These organizations included an HIV charity,
17:24a coastal ecology charity,
17:26and a fund for kids whose parents died in the line of duty.
17:30That did not stop a few well-wishers from doing both,
17:33among them the New South Wales Regional Parliament.
17:36Gladys Berejiklian, the Premier of New South Wales,
17:39also named two baby koalas at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney
17:43in the couple's honor
17:44as a gift from the people of New South Wales,
17:47in addition to donating
17:48to a nearby conservation foundation in their honor.
17:53Number 27, a bespoke James Bond-style cigarette lighter.
17:58The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's ban
18:01on receiving personal gifts
18:02were also broken by French President Emmanuel Macron,
18:05who gave them a custom gift set
18:07from S.T. DuPont's 007 Collections
18:10that included two engraved James Bond-style pens
18:12and a matching cigarette lighter.
18:15A DuPont travel case was given to the royal pair
18:17when Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
18:20were married in 1947
18:22by the French President at the time, Vincent Auriol,
18:25and the custom has continued ever since.
18:29Number 28, box of goodies.
18:32Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth received gifts
18:35from the British public despite rationing.
18:37The royal couple also received 500 tins of pineapple,
18:41two dozen purses, 12 bottles of slow gin,
18:44and 131 pairs of nylon stockings
18:47in addition to a package of apples from their orchard.
18:52Number 29, a pair of solid silver kiwis.
18:56Many Commonwealth nations donated wedding gifts
18:59to Princess Margaret, Elizabeth II's younger sister,
19:02and social photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones in 1960
19:06as a gesture of goodwill.
19:08Two solid silver kiwis,
19:10one with an egg between its legs, were among them
19:13and were given to the newlyweds
19:14on behalf of the New Zealanders.
19:17The models were auctioned off for charity
19:19in London in 2006, four years after Margaret's passing.
19:23Despite an initial estimate of less than $1,000,
19:26they ultimately sold for 36,000 pounds,
19:29which is equivalent of more than 51,000 pounds
19:32or roughly $66,000 today.
19:37Number 30, a Land Rover.
19:41A Land Rover Defender 110 utility wagon
19:44was one tangible gift that was given to William and Kate
19:46and got immediately donated to charity.
19:49As the organization's sponsor,
19:51Prince William wrote the names
19:52of 50 different mountain rescue teams
19:54from all over the nation on slips of paper
19:57and requested Prince Harry to choose one at random.
20:00In the end, a team from Powderdale
20:02in the English Lake District won the automobile.
20:07What do you think about this?
20:09If you could give anything to a royal, what would it be?
20:12Let us know in the comment section below.
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