Furry friends! Throughout history, the British royal family has been known to be fiercely loyal to their beloved dogs.
One of the earliest — and most famous — examples on record is King Edward VII and his trusty companion Caesar. The king got the wire fox terrier in 1902, one year after he assumed the throne, and they were nearly inseparable; Caesar even attended meetings with politicians! The legend goes that Caesar had a tough time coping with Edward’s death in 1910, refusing to eat and whining outside his late owner’s bedroom. Caesar famously led Edward’s funeral procession by walking behind the king’s coffin.
King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, were notorious dog lovers too. He owned several labradors during his reign, but also had a few corgis with the Queen Mother.
George and Elizabeth passed their love of corgis onto their daughter Queen Elizabeth II, who got her very own named Susan for her 18th birthday in 1944. All of the queen’s subsequent corgis were descendants of Susan. Elizabeth II has also bred dorgis, a mix of dachshunds and corgis.
The current monarch’s last corgi, Whisper, died at the age of 12 in 2018. She is still the proud owner of dorgis Vulcan and Candy.
“I’ve spent the last 33 years being barked at,” Elizabeth II’s grandson, Prince Harry, joked to the BBC in 2017, noting that the queen’s corgis got along swimmingly with his then-fiancée, Duchess Meghan, “straight away.”
Meghan responded, “That’s true. Just lying on my feet during tea. It was very sweet.”
Watch the video above to learn more about Queen Elizabeth II’s pups!
