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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff, a production of I heart radio. Hey,

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Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren Volgabon here. Britain's longest serving monarch, Queen

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth the second, died September eight two at the age

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Speaker 1: of ninety six. The monarchy and its modern powers and

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Speaker 1: assets are twistingly complex and certainly worth a number of episodes,

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Speaker 1: but today let's talk about an element that served to

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Speaker 1: humanize the Queen, her love of Corgis. The Queen owned

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Speaker 1: pure bred corgies for more than eight decades and for

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Speaker 1: stretches in the nineteen eighties she collected packs of up

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Speaker 1: to thirteen at a time, most of them bred on

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Speaker 1: the premises at Windsor Castle. The small ruddy haired corgy

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Speaker 1: breed known as the Welsh pembroke are so closely associated

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Speaker 1: with the Queen that many people think it's an official

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Speaker 1: royal line that goes back centuries before the article. This

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Speaker 1: episode is based on how stuff work. Spoke Kierra Ferrell,

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Speaker 1: lie brarian and collections manager at the UK Kennel Club

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Speaker 1: back in twenty nineteen. She said that's a question we're

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Speaker 1: asked a lot. Is the Corgy of Royal Dog? Do

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Speaker 1: they have a long association with the Royal Family? The

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Speaker 1: answer is no. The Queen got one when she was

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Speaker 1: a young girl and has been devoted to them ever since.

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Speaker 1: The Queen's very first corgy was bought in nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: three by her father, King George the six, when he

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Speaker 1: was still the Duke of York. Elizabeth, then seven years old,

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Speaker 1: and her younger sister, Margaret, started out calling the puppy

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Speaker 1: the duke and fell for him instantly. By the time

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Speaker 1: his nickname had been familiarized to Dukie, he was joined

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Speaker 1: by second Corgi, named Lady Jane. They were beloved pets,

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Speaker 1: but also a candy marketing tool. The Royal Family soon

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Speaker 1: capitalized on those first cuddly corgies to deflect attention from

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Speaker 1: a royal scandal. Photo Book titled Our Princesses and their

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Speaker 1: dogs was released on December eleven of nineteen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: just days before King Edward the eighth addicated the throne

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Speaker 1: to marry the American socialite and Divorcee Wallace Simpson. The

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Speaker 1: photo book assured British subjects that their new king, Elizabeth's,

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Speaker 1: father wasn't some loud like his brother from. After all,

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Speaker 1: he had these adorable daughters with dogs. Dukie and Jane

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Speaker 1: were the Princess's close companions growing up, though Jane was

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Speaker 1: tragically struck and killed by a car in nineteen forty four.

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Speaker 1: That same year, for Elizabeth's Eighteenth Birthday, she received the

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Speaker 1: dog that would turn out to launch her lifelong fascination

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Speaker 1: with not just corgis but corgy breeding. The dog's name

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Speaker 1: was Susan. Generations of the Queen's Corgis have come from

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Speaker 1: Susan's line, but the Queen often hand picking matches. Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: and Susan were inseparable from the start. When she married

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Speaker 1: Prince Philip in ninety seven, she snuck Susan with her

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Speaker 1: on their honeymoon, and Susan remained by Elizabeth's side when

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Speaker 1: her father died in nineteen fifty two, making Elizabeth the

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Speaker 1: Queen at the age of five. In press photos from

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, the young Queen is shown with her

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Speaker 1: beloved Corgi almost more than her husband. Susan's prominence as

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Speaker 1: the Queen's corgy did wonders for the breed's popularity. The

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Speaker 1: Kettle Club registrations of pure bred Pembroke Welsh corgis peaked

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty with nine thousand a year. Farrell said,

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Speaker 1: it did spark a huge interest in what up to

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Speaker 1: then had been a niche breed. Today, Corgi registrations are

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Speaker 1: down to about five hundred a year. That's a big

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Speaker 1: drop from its heyday. Corgis are known for being lively,

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Speaker 1: hardy and highly intelligent. They were originally bred and whales

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Speaker 1: as cattle dogs, where they're compact load of the ground

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Speaker 1: build enabled them to Nipet the cattle's heels to keep

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Speaker 1: them in line. The corgis loud sharp bark also helps

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Speaker 1: it seem bigger and more authoritative than it appears. There

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Speaker 1: are two breeds of dogs called Corgis, the pembroke and

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Speaker 1: the Cardigan. The CARDIGAN is larger and longer than the PEMBROKE,

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Speaker 1: with more rounded ears. Of both breeds usually live around

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Speaker 1: twelve years. Of course, not everybody is keen on small,

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Speaker 1: energetic dogs with Yippy barks that nip at your heels,

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Speaker 1: and that's why when somebody comes into the Kennel Club

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Speaker 1: looking for a new pet, Farrell advises them to do

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Speaker 1: some research about what a breed of dog did historically.

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Speaker 1: She said. What was their job? Are Those traits going

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Speaker 1: to suit your lifestyle? Can you give them the exercise

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Speaker 1: that they need and the space that they need? If

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Speaker 1: it's not the dog for you, there's lots of other

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Speaker 1: dogs to choose from. The Queen didn't mind the rowdy

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Speaker 1: energy of her corgies. In fact, she bread fruits specifically,

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Speaker 1: along with the preference for Red Coats. Her cousin lady

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Speaker 1: Margaret Rhodes, told Vanity Fair for a long feature on

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Speaker 1: this subject back that the Queen loved taking her roll

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Speaker 1: king pack of Corgies for long walks in the Scottish countryside.

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Speaker 1: While the rest of the Royal Family are certainly doggy

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Speaker 1: by nature, that's earl's term, not mine. They weren't all

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Speaker 1: huge fans of the Queen's corgis. Prince Harry told the

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Speaker 1: BBC in I've spent the last thirty three years being

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Speaker 1: barked at. His older brother Williams, said as much in

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Speaker 1: a twelve interview quote. They're barking all the time. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how she copes with it. The breed's Bark

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Speaker 1: nous and its association with a now bygone era likely

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Speaker 1: contributed to the steep drop in the corgis popularity over time.

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Speaker 1: In the situation became dire enough that the Kennel club

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Speaker 1: put the pembroke Welsh corgy on its vulnerable native breeds list,

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Speaker 1: which calls attention to breeds with fewer than three hundred

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Speaker 1: registrations a year. But then Netflix released its hit TV

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Speaker 1: series the crown, in which dramatizes the life of young

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth as she marries and becomes the Queen, including lots

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Speaker 1: of scenes with her corgis. That Farrell noted that corgy

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Speaker 1: registrations increased by six in seventeen and then jumped by

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Speaker 1: in she said, while the numbers are still relatively low,

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Speaker 1: there's been a clear increase in registrations and I think

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Speaker 1: we can attribute that to the depiction of the Queen

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Speaker 1: and her Corgis in popular culture. In the United States.

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Speaker 1: The breed continues to be very popular. The American Kennel

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Speaker 1: Club currently ranks the pembroke Welsh Corgi at number thirteen

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Speaker 1: out of a hundred and ninety three breeds in terms

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Speaker 1: of popularity. In two thousand two the queen made the

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Speaker 1: difficult decision, following the deaths of both her sister and

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Speaker 1: the Queen Mum, that she would stop breeding Corgis so

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Speaker 1: that none of them would outlive her and be forced

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Speaker 1: to grieve her loss. Farrell explained that a lot of

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Speaker 1: older pet owners are forced to make the same difficult

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Speaker 1: choice not to take in a young dog. For working

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Speaker 1: dogs that are bred to have a close relationship with

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Speaker 1: a particular shepherd, the separation can be hard on the animal.

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Speaker 1: Farrell said, Corgis like their person and the Queen is

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Speaker 1: their person. However, after the death of her husband, Prince

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Speaker 1: Philip Her son, Prince Andrew Gifted Elizabeth with a new

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Speaker 1: corgy to keep her other corgy company. She also had

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Speaker 1: a Dorgy, a cross between a Corgi and a Docksin,

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Speaker 1: and a Cocker Spaniel. At the time, one monty Roberts,

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Speaker 1: who served as a horse and dog breeding adviser to

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Speaker 1: the Queen, told Vanity Fair how devastated the Queen was

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Speaker 1: after a previous Corgy, Monty, died in at the time

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Speaker 1: he asked the Queen about breeding a replacement for Monty.

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Speaker 1: Robert said to Vanity Fair I have no right to

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Speaker 1: try to force her into continuing to bring on young

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Speaker 1: puppies if she doesn't want to. That isn't my right.

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Speaker 1: But it still concerns me because I want her to

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Speaker 1: believe in her existence until she's no longer here, because

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Speaker 1: she's just too important to the world to contemplate checking out.

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Speaker 1: For me, the Queen can't die. Today's episod out is

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Speaker 1: based on the article how Queen Elizabeth fell in love

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Speaker 1: with corgies on how stuff works dot com, written by

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Speaker 1: Dave roose. Brain stuff is production of I heart radio

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff works dot com, and it's

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Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart radio.

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