Did you know that the Queen had quite a few musical dedications, including one from the Beatles?
May God save the Queen! In our case, the Lord has summoned her back. And as the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom passed away, we were all left baffled. It seemed like the Queen had been there forever, and she would continue to reign forever, despite the fact that she was already 96 years old. She ascended the throne back when she was only 25 years old, and she has held the title for 70 years! A feat that was very hard to achieve and something that was truly extraordinary.
However, there is not much known about the royal. Despite having such a long life, the public does not know much about her. It comes with the territory; after all, she was a royal figure, and a lot of what was known about any of them was carefully curated to fit the title. Yet, there are some Easter eggs here and there about Queen Elizabeth II that we should look at, and we are sure that they are going to put a smile on your face.
Let us know if you knew about these surprising facts about the Queen before or if we surprised you!
Queen Elizabeth II: 5 Shocking Facts Everyone Should Know
#1 Early bagpipe morning
You probably wouldn’t be caught setting up your alarm sound to be a bagpipe song. While they are nice to hear in some settings, being the sound that wakes you up would be a bit too sudden and loud. However, that is not the case for the Queen! Not only was there a royal bagpiper, but she had him play every day at 9 a.m. for 15 minutes to signal that she had to start the day and wake up!
This is supposedly a tradition that was started back in the mid-1800s by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. And this isn’t happening just in one place: the royal bagpiper is set to play outside the monarch’s window no matter if they’re at Buckingham Palace or at her beloved Balmoral vacation home in Scotland!
#2 A very surprising nickname behind closed doors
If you were a citizen of England, you wouldn’t be caught dead calling her anything else but her royal designations, as it was very easy to just call her the Queen if you mentioned the monarch. Though we are sure some others would call her by other names, we doubt anyone used something more surprising than her nickname, given by her husband: “Cabbage.”
Yes, you read that right. The leafy green vegetable served as a pet name for the royal during her long marriage to Prince Philip (it lasted for 74 years until the death of her husband). It was revealed by the British biographer Robert Lacey that this was the affectionate name her husband used behind the closed doors of Buckingham Palace. Many suppose it’s a literal translation from the French “mon petit chou,” which literally means “little cabbage” despite its usage as “my little sweeties.”
Either way, it’s a cute nickname and a testament to their love, despite him being her third cousin, originally from Corfu, Greece, whom she met at a royal wedding back in 1934.
#3 She was quite a trickster
If there’s one thing people all over the world know about Queen Elizabeth, it is her fashion flair and her amazing hats. The monarch had a style that was hard to replicate, and she never pulled away from wearing bold colors; she even had a personal milliner, Rachel Trevor-Morgan, who was in charge of making each and every headpiece for her. It is said that the hats were not only due to her preference but also because they made her stand out—anyone could tell it was her if she was out and about!
However, she seemed to have a funny bone as well and didn’t pull back from making jokes, and she had some tricks up her sleeve. Since she was so easily recognizable, she didn’t want people to know and spread around the color-coordinated outfit she was about to adorn for an important event. This is exactly why she planted decoy hats all over her estate so that people would not be able to tell which one was the one she chose to wear and keep the accessory secret.
#4 She did, in fact, not have a driver’s license
If you’re of royal descent, you’re definitely going to have an array of chauffeurs at your beck and call. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, was known for driving around in her beloved Range Rover or Jaguar while wearing a pair of chic sunglasses and a Hermès head scarf. It was one of her pleasures.
Yet, she did not have an official license. If anything, she learned to drive when she insisted on joining the Second World War, back in 1944, when she was just 18 years old. That’s where she also became a mechanic for the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she quickly climbed the ranks and served until the end of the war.
What’s more, not only was she not required to have a license or a license plate on her car, but she also did not need a passport in order to travel. We guess that when you are the Queen of England, you’re easily one of the most visible and easily recognized figures on the planet. It’s kind of hard for someone else to pass for you!
#5 Did you know of little Lilibet?
You may be thinking of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s daughter, Lilibet Diana, who was named in honor of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana. But what you may not have known is that the monarch, which was born and christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of York, was said to have not been able to pronounce her name properly, which ended up with her calling herself Lilibet.
It went beyond just that; the whole royal family knew her as that when she was little. She went as far as to sign a letter to her grandmother Queen Mary, “Love from Lilibet.” We think this was just adorable, which just makes the fact that her grandson named her little girl after her grandmother even cuter.
