How Much Do You Know About Queen Elizabeth's Corgis?

By Hedy Phillips

Queen Elizabeth II is a known Corgi-lover. But then again, aren't we all? To celebrate Queen Elizbeth's Corgi love, Spoonflower pulled together a few fun facts about the queen and her pups.

  1. The queen has owned more than 30 Corgis (but none, as far as we can tell, with a name longer than two syllables).
  2. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are her favorite breed.
  3. She has loved Corgis since she was a small child, after first encountering those owned by the children of the Marquess of Bath.
  4. The first Corgi she ever owned was called Dookie, which her father, the future King George VI, brought home for his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret in 1933.
  5. When Elizabeth was 7, she picked Dookie from a choice of three Corgi pups, reportedly because of his longer tail – "So that we can see whether he's pleased or not."
  6. When still young princesses, Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, invented the "dorgi," by cross breeding Elizabeth's Corgi, Tiny, with Margaret's Dachshund, Pipkin.
  7. On her 18th birthday in 1944, the future queen was given a Corgi named Susan.
  8. She was so fond of Susan that she took her on honeymoon after marrying Prince Philip in 1947.
  9. Susan founded a Corgi dynasty, producing at least 10 generations of royal Corgis.
  10. Susan became one of several royal Corgis to bite royal servants, when she nipped Leonard Hubbard, the Royal Clockwinder, as he was entering the Royal Lodge Windsor in 1954.
  11. Holly and Willow, the queen's current Corgis, are the last two remaining of a once 13-strong pack.
  12. Holly and Willow seem likely to be the queen's last Corgis, after the announcement last year that she had ended her breeding program.