The Queen's adviser Monty Roberts explains Monarch's decision to have more corgis

Home Top

Pictured: Gunman Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, who killed four Marines and injured one cop after shooting up two Tennessee military centers with a 'high-powered rifle' - before being shot dead
GUILTY! James Holmes faces death penalty after he is found guilty of first-degree murder in Colorado movie theater shooting
'I fought the trolls in the trenches': Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao describes her plight in op-ed as she warns 'trolls are winning the battle for the internet'
EXCLUSIVE: More ammo for Trump: How housing an illegal immigrant for a night in the United States' biggest detention center costs more than a stay at the nearest four-star Hilton Hotel
REVEALED: How Tennessee terrorist posted rambling blog on Islam and his special policeman father was once investigated for terror links
'I used to like her, but I don't trust her': Hillary Clinton's standing plummets among Democrats and fewer than 2 in 5 Americans view her favorably
Hillary Clinton's 'cheapskate campaign' spent $18million and hired hundreds of employees in first three months of presidential race to outpace rivals
'There but for the grace of God': Obama visits federal prison in Oklahoma and says nonviolent drug criminals 'made mistakes that aren't that different from the mistakes I made'
Blame me for putting too many people in jail, says Bill Clinton
Hamptons plans of the rich and famous in chaos as Obama weekend visit to New York GROUNDS all private helicopter flights out of the city so he can see a Broadway show
Grandpa's day out! Bill Clinton plays in the park with Chelsea's baby Charlotte (and a little help from the nanny)
Cut the crunches! Personal trainer insists doing sit-ups every day WON'T give you washboard abs - and can actually do more harm than good
Losing weight really IS impossible: The vast majority of people who pile on the pounds never lose them (at least not in the long run)
Terror hits the high seas: Egyptian navy vessel erupts in fireball as ISIS carries out its first rocket strike on patrol ship in the Med
Inside the mind of an ISIS suicide bomb plotter: Unrepentant mastermind whose explosives killed hundreds of innocent people insists 'I am no butcher... it was jihad'
Ohio man indicted for 'providing material support to Islamic State' after telling FBI informant 'he would behead his non-Muslim son to honor the terror group'
EXCLUSIVE: Family members gather and wipe tears from their eyes at Bobbi Kristina's hospice after police and a lawyer arrived on the scene and a hearse is spotted backing up to a mysterious tent erected outside
Bobby Brown and his wife Alicia Ethridge take inspiration from Buddhism as they 'name their newborn daughter Bodhi'
Mammals went through an 'explosion' of evolution while dinosaurs roamed the Earth
How did Sandra die in jail? Family and friends refuse to believe police story that Chicago civil rights activist killed herself after being arrested during traumatic traffic stop
TLC cancels 19 Kids and Counting in wake of Josh Duggar scandal but announces his sisters Jessa and Jill was be featured in commercial-free child molestation special
Caitlyn Jenner's ESPY Courage Award win is SLAMMED by victim in fatal car crash as she claims former Olympian ' still refuses to accept responsibility for taking a life'
Caitlyn Jenner pictured behind-the-scenes of the ESPYs with her glam squad in new Instagram snap...as social media is forced to censor hate-filled comments
'I struggled with bulimia for years': UFC fighter and ESPY winner Ronda Rousey reveals how sporting success helped her to overcome an eating disorder

This summer marks 12th anniversary of Queen's last litter of corgi puppies
Monarch has had 30 corgis since she was given one as a childhood pet
Queen’s current corgis, Holly and Willow will be the last in the line
80-year-old Monty Roberts reveals her own mortality is behind decision

By Richard Kay, Daily Mail Editor At Large

Published: 19:15 EST, 15 July 2015 | Updated: 07:48 EST, 16 July 2015

261

View
comments

The red-letter day has been in the diary for months, if not years, a date which represents such an extraordinary milestone in our island story.

On September 9, the Queen becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history, the day on which she breaks the record held for more than a century by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.

But while the nation may hope to mark this singular achievement, it is not a day of celebration at Buckingham Palace, which feels it would be unseemly to the memory of Victoria.

Scroll down for video

Corgi and Bess: A young Princess Elizabeth with one of her first ever corgis. Since 1945 she has had over 30 as pets

For the Queen the summer of 2015 has held other, more personal memories. The arrival of her childhood pet corgi, Susan, all those summers ago, and, poignantly, the 12th anniversary this month of the last litter of House of Windsor corgi puppies.

Since 1945, the Queen has had 30 corgis, a good proportion of them direct descendants of Susan, from whom the then Princess Elizabeth was inseparable.

In 1947, hidden under blankets in the royal carriage, Susan was whisked away with the newlywed Elizabeth as she left with Prince Philip for their honeymoon.

The following year, when the Princess gave birth to her first baby, Charles, newspaper columns were full of advice on how Elizabeth could prevent Susan from becoming jealous of the infant prince.

A year later, Susan followed her royal mistress into motherhood, producing a pair of puppies: Sugar, who belonged to Prince Charles, and Honey who, in later years, lived with the Queen Mother. It marked the beginning of a new royal dynasty.

At one stage there were said to be 13 corgis — memorably described by Princess Diana as a ‘moving carpet’ — lolling in the Queen’s private sitting room and nipping the heels of footmen, prime ministers, ladies-in-waiting and diplomats.

Every few years, a fresh litter arrived and older dogs passed on. But the Queen’s current corgis, Holly and Willow, now entering the doggie twilight world, will be the last in the line, together with her pair of dorgis — corgi-dachshund crosses Candy and Vulcan.

It emerged six years ago that the Queen had stopped breeding Pembroke Welsh corgis. Courtiers said that she worried about lively young dogs around her feet and the danger she might trip over one and hurt herself.

But what was not clear was that she also no longer wanted any new four-legged companions to replace those that died.

Queen Elizabeth as young girl plays with Corgis back in 1940

Corgis have been a regular sight at the feet of the Queen for more than 70 years

Corgis have an average lifespan of 12 to 13 years, though some can reach 18. This month, Holly and Willow turned 12, while their mistress is 89.

Now Monty Roberts, the Californian cowboy who inspired the Hollywood film The Horse Whisperer, has disclosed what many have suspected: the Queen does not wish to leave any of her beloved pets behind when she dies.

Inevitably, perhaps, it has taken a plain-speaking American to give this first intimation of the Queen’s sense of her own mortality.

While neither blunt nor disrespectful, 80-year-old Roberts (after whom the Queen named Monty, the corgi that appeared in the 007 film clip she made with actor Daniel Craig for the London Olympics) has been an informal adviser to the Queen on her horses and her dogs for more than a quarter of a century.

In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Roberts says that when Monty died in 2012, he offered to find her a replacement puppy.

‘I said: “I want you to tell me the best breeder of corgis that you revere. Who’s doing the best job? Because I want a puppy to be named Monty, to be a replacement.”

The Queen pictured with two of her beloved corgis on the Estate at Balmoral Castle

‘But she didn’t want to have any more young dogs. She didn’t want to leave any young dog behind. I understood we would discuss it further at a later date.

‘Well, we never did, and I have no right to try to force her into continuing to bring on young puppies if she doesn’t want to.’

But for now, life for Holly, Willow, Candy and Vulcan will continue as usual. Each day starts with a brisk walk with a footman in the Buckingham Palace gardens. These days, because of their size and age, the pack is relatively easy to handle.

The period when former royal butler Paul Burrell, then a Palace page, was knocked unconscious when nine leashed corgis pulled him over on the steps of Sandringham House are long past.

Often the dogs are taken to the Queen’s private sitting room when she is having breakfast and clamour for scraps, slices of toast and marmalade, fed to them from the table. Whenever possible, the Queen feeds the corgis herself — there is a menu in the Palace kitchen — and it can include steak, poached chicken, liver and rabbit.

She also likes to take them on a daily constitutional which also serves as a kind of meditation. Prince Philip has referred to this as his wife’s ‘dog mechanism’ therapy.

No world figure has been as identified with a particular animal as the Queen has with her corgis.

Over the years they have brought a warmth to her public image, being photographed at her side receiving statesmen in formal situations, or on a tartan picnic rug with the Royal Family at Balmoral, or being bundled up the steps on to a royal flight.

In a life governed by protocol, they are also a simple way to break the ice with strangers. Although woe betide those who try to curb the snuffling of the dogs at their feet. Dog discipline is the Queen’s domain alone. Staff have lost count of the number of servants whose doggy duties include being armed with blotting paper to mop up accidents and soda syphons to squirt dogs off ankles, and visitors bitten by corgis.

Loyal companion: The Queen pictured with one of her dogs in the garden in March 1953

The Queen and her corgis wave off George H. W. Bush in 1989

It all started with the royal clock-winder Leonard Hubbard, who in 1954 was left with an inch-long gash to his leg. Shortly afterwards, Grenadier Guardsman Alfred Edge had to be treated in hospital after his wound went septic, while one policeman had his trousers ripped and a chunk taken out of his knee.

Some got off lightly. Artist Howard Morgan told me how, while painting the Queen Mother, his foot accidentally collided with one corgi — propelling the creature through their air like a furry rugby ball.

Fortunately, the Queen Mother was perfectly relaxed and the corgis gave him a wide berth for each subsequent sitting.

When there were no human diversions, the dogs have been known to fight among themselves, sometimes fatally.

For years the Queen has travelled with her beloved companions. Pictured: At Sandringham

In 1989, one dog called Ranger led a group of corgis that killed Chipper, the Queen’s favourite dorgi. And in the early 1990s, when the Queen’s family was riven by divorce and separation, her dog family was at each other’s throats, too.

When the Queen intervened in a fight between her dogs and those of the Queen Mother, she was left needing three stitches to a bite on her hand.

For the Queen, though, her dogs have been a refuge from what has often been an isolating position, as well as providing her with an unending source of love and affection. ‘My corgis are family,’ she once said.

This love affair began more than eight decades ago when the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth of York, played in Hyde Park with a corgi belonging to Viscount Weymouth, a future Marquess of Bath.

Elizabeth was enamoured, and started clamouring for one of her own. Three were delivered to the Yorks’ London home, 145 Piccadilly, and Dookie — a corgi with a deep chestnut red coat and stump of a tail — was chosen.

By the time her father became King, another corgi, Jane, had joined the menagerie. But it was the arrival of Susan, an 18th birthday present, that was to secure Elizabeth’s corgi line.

When Susan died at Sandringham in 1959, the Queen wrote to her estate manager with precise instructions for the burial in the pet cemetery there, which was created by Victoria.

She drew a sketch of the headstone and the inscription. After the dates of birth and death, it was to say: ‘For almost 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen.’

Over the years, her grandchildren helped in the naming of new puppies, but if she hoped it would encourage the next generation to share her love for corgis, she was disappointed. It is possibly for this reason she does not wish any of her pets to outlive her.

Just why the Queen has shared so much of her life with corgis is her own secret. Some have suggested it is the breed’s untamed characteristics as much as its elements of domesticity.

Perhaps the key is in their unruliness and the contrast with the well-oiled and often highly formal life she has to lead.

In that sense, her fierce loyalty towards them could be seen as something of a rebellion against stiff convention. Whatever the reasons, when her reign ends, it will certainly mark the end of a very special friendship.