If you knew nothing else about Queen Elizabeth throughout her lifetime, you probably knew about her love for corgis. And if you didn’t know, well the fact that she owned more than 30 over the course of her life should be enough to convince you.
Legend has it that the Queen’s fascination with the dog breed began when she was a 7-year-old princess. She requested to have one after seeing her friend’s Pembroke Welsh corgi. Their energy and spirit is supposedly what captivated the young princess and even though the dog was mostly bred in Wales, her father, King George VI located a breeder in England.
Princess Elizabeth was gifted a corgi, Susan, for her 18th birthday in 1944. After which, she bred Susan with another dog in 1949 creating the royal family’s “dog dynasty” as majority of the pups owned by the royal family were descendants of Susan; at least14 generations.
Susan passed at 15 and Willow, the last surviving dog of the royal family, died in 2018. The queen stopped breeding in her 90’s because she didn’t want to leave any behind after she passed.
Although there are no more Susan-descendant corgis, the queen still had a few furry friends running around the palace; 2 corgis and a dorgi.
Muick, one of the corgis, was gifted to her after the passing of Prince Phillip. The second corgi was gifted to her in June of 2021. She also had a dorgi, a dachsund and corgi mix.
Plans for her remaining dogs have not been revealed. It seems as if the family will take on that responsibility.
