How Did Queen Elizabeth II Fall in Love with Corgis?

When Queen Elizabeth II died in September of 2022, she left a legacy that includes at least a couple of Welsh Pembroke corgis. Learn about her history with this breed in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/queen-corgis.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain stuff, a production of I heart radio. Hey,
brain stuff, Lauren Volgabon here. Britain's longest serving monarch, Queen
Elizabeth the second, died September eight two at the age
of ninety six. The monarchy and its modern powers and
assets are twistingly complex and certainly worth a number of episodes,

(00:25):
but today let's talk about an element that served to
humanize the Queen, her love of Corgis. The Queen owned
pure bred corgies for more than eight decades and for
stretches in the nineteen eighties she collected packs of up
to thirteen at a time, most of them bred on
the premises at Windsor Castle. The small ruddy haired corgy

(00:46):
breed known as the Welsh pembroke are so closely associated
with the Queen that many people think it's an official
royal line that goes back centuries before the article. This
episode is based on how stuff work. Spoke Kierra Ferrell,
lie brarian and collections manager at the UK Kennel Club
back in twenty nineteen. She said that's a question we're

(01:06):
asked a lot. Is the Corgy of Royal Dog? Do
they have a long association with the Royal Family? The
answer is no. The Queen got one when she was
a young girl and has been devoted to them ever since.
The Queen's very first corgy was bought in nineteen thirty
three by her father, King George the six, when he
was still the Duke of York. Elizabeth, then seven years old,

(01:28):
and her younger sister, Margaret, started out calling the puppy
the duke and fell for him instantly. By the time
his nickname had been familiarized to Dukie, he was joined
by second Corgi, named Lady Jane. They were beloved pets,
but also a candy marketing tool. The Royal Family soon
capitalized on those first cuddly corgies to deflect attention from

(01:51):
a royal scandal. Photo Book titled Our Princesses and their
dogs was released on December eleven of nineteen thirty six,
just days before King Edward the eighth addicated the throne
to marry the American socialite and Divorcee Wallace Simpson. The
photo book assured British subjects that their new king, Elizabeth's,
father wasn't some loud like his brother from. After all,

(02:14):
he had these adorable daughters with dogs. Dukie and Jane
were the Princess's close companions growing up, though Jane was
tragically struck and killed by a car in nineteen forty four.
That same year, for Elizabeth's Eighteenth Birthday, she received the
dog that would turn out to launch her lifelong fascination
with not just corgis but corgy breeding. The dog's name

(02:37):
was Susan. Generations of the Queen's Corgis have come from
Susan's line, but the Queen often hand picking matches. Elizabeth
and Susan were inseparable from the start. When she married
Prince Philip in ninety seven, she snuck Susan with her
on their honeymoon, and Susan remained by Elizabeth's side when
her father died in nineteen fifty two, making Elizabeth the

(02:59):
Queen at the age of five. In press photos from
the nineteen fifties, the young Queen is shown with her
beloved Corgi almost more than her husband. Susan's prominence as
the Queen's corgy did wonders for the breed's popularity. The
Kettle Club registrations of pure bred Pembroke Welsh corgis peaked
in nineteen sixty with nine thousand a year. Farrell said,

(03:23):
it did spark a huge interest in what up to
then had been a niche breed. Today, Corgi registrations are
down to about five hundred a year. That's a big
drop from its heyday. Corgis are known for being lively,
hardy and highly intelligent. They were originally bred and whales
as cattle dogs, where they're compact load of the ground

(03:43):
build enabled them to Nipet the cattle's heels to keep
them in line. The corgis loud sharp bark also helps
it seem bigger and more authoritative than it appears. There
are two breeds of dogs called Corgis, the pembroke and
the Cardigan. The CARDIGAN is larger and longer than the PEMBROKE,
with more rounded ears. Of both breeds usually live around

(04:04):
twelve years. Of course, not everybody is keen on small,
energetic dogs with Yippy barks that nip at your heels,
and that's why when somebody comes into the Kennel Club
looking for a new pet, Farrell advises them to do
some research about what a breed of dog did historically.
She said. What was their job? Are Those traits going

(04:25):
to suit your lifestyle? Can you give them the exercise
that they need and the space that they need? If
it's not the dog for you, there's lots of other
dogs to choose from. The Queen didn't mind the rowdy
energy of her corgies. In fact, she bread fruits specifically,
along with the preference for Red Coats. Her cousin lady
Margaret Rhodes, told Vanity Fair for a long feature on

(04:46):
this subject back that the Queen loved taking her roll
king pack of Corgies for long walks in the Scottish countryside.
While the rest of the Royal Family are certainly doggy
by nature, that's earl's term, not mine. They weren't all
huge fans of the Queen's corgis. Prince Harry told the
BBC in I've spent the last thirty three years being

(05:10):
barked at. His older brother Williams, said as much in
a twelve interview quote. They're barking all the time. I
don't know how she copes with it. The breed's Bark
nous and its association with a now bygone era likely
contributed to the steep drop in the corgis popularity over time.
In the situation became dire enough that the Kennel club

(05:32):
put the pembroke Welsh corgy on its vulnerable native breeds list,
which calls attention to breeds with fewer than three hundred
registrations a year. But then Netflix released its hit TV
series the crown, in which dramatizes the life of young
Elizabeth as she marries and becomes the Queen, including lots
of scenes with her corgis. That Farrell noted that corgy

(05:54):
registrations increased by six in seventeen and then jumped by
in she said, while the numbers are still relatively low,
there's been a clear increase in registrations and I think
we can attribute that to the depiction of the Queen
and her Corgis in popular culture. In the United States.

(06:15):
The breed continues to be very popular. The American Kennel
Club currently ranks the pembroke Welsh Corgi at number thirteen
out of a hundred and ninety three breeds in terms
of popularity. In two thousand two the queen made the
difficult decision, following the deaths of both her sister and
the Queen Mum, that she would stop breeding Corgis so

(06:36):
that none of them would outlive her and be forced
to grieve her loss. Farrell explained that a lot of
older pet owners are forced to make the same difficult
choice not to take in a young dog. For working
dogs that are bred to have a close relationship with
a particular shepherd, the separation can be hard on the animal.
Farrell said, Corgis like their person and the Queen is

(06:58):
their person. However, after the death of her husband, Prince
Philip Her son, Prince Andrew Gifted Elizabeth with a new
corgy to keep her other corgy company. She also had
a Dorgy, a cross between a Corgi and a Docksin,
and a Cocker Spaniel. At the time, one monty Roberts,
who served as a horse and dog breeding adviser to

(07:21):
the Queen, told Vanity Fair how devastated the Queen was
after a previous Corgy, Monty, died in at the time
he asked the Queen about breeding a replacement for Monty.
Robert said to Vanity Fair I have no right to
try to force her into continuing to bring on young
puppies if she doesn't want to. That isn't my right.

(07:41):
But it still concerns me because I want her to
believe in her existence until she's no longer here, because
she's just too important to the world to contemplate checking out.
For me, the Queen can't die. Today's episod out is
based on the article how Queen Elizabeth fell in love

(08:02):
with corgies on how stuff works dot com, written by
Dave roose. Brain stuff is production of I heart radio
in partnership with how stuff works dot com, and it's
produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart radio.
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