Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff, a production of I heart radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren Volgabon here. Britain's longest serving monarch, Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the second, died September eight two at the age
Speaker 1: of ninety six. The monarchy and its modern powers and
Speaker 1: assets are twistingly complex and certainly worth a number of episodes,
Speaker 1: but today let's talk about an element that served to
Speaker 1: humanize the Queen, her love of Corgis. The Queen owned
Speaker 1: pure bred corgies for more than eight decades and for
Speaker 1: stretches in the nineteen eighties she collected packs of up
Speaker 1: to thirteen at a time, most of them bred on
Speaker 1: the premises at Windsor Castle. The small ruddy haired corgy
Speaker 1: breed known as the Welsh pembroke are so closely associated
Speaker 1: with the Queen that many people think it's an official
Speaker 1: royal line that goes back centuries before the article. This
Speaker 1: episode is based on how stuff work. Spoke Kierra Ferrell,
Speaker 1: lie brarian and collections manager at the UK Kennel Club
Speaker 1: back in twenty nineteen. She said that's a question we're
Speaker 1: asked a lot. Is the Corgy of Royal Dog? Do
Speaker 1: they have a long association with the Royal Family? The
Speaker 1: answer is no. The Queen got one when she was
Speaker 1: a young girl and has been devoted to them ever since.
Speaker 1: The Queen's very first corgy was bought in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: three by her father, King George the six, when he
Speaker 1: was still the Duke of York. Elizabeth, then seven years old,
Speaker 1: and her younger sister, Margaret, started out calling the puppy
Speaker 1: the duke and fell for him instantly. By the time
Speaker 1: his nickname had been familiarized to Dukie, he was joined
Speaker 1: by second Corgi, named Lady Jane. They were beloved pets,
Speaker 1: but also a candy marketing tool. The Royal Family soon
Speaker 1: capitalized on those first cuddly corgies to deflect attention from
Speaker 1: a royal scandal. Photo Book titled Our Princesses and their
Speaker 1: dogs was released on December eleven of nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: just days before King Edward the eighth addicated the throne
Speaker 1: to marry the American socialite and Divorcee Wallace Simpson. The
Speaker 1: photo book assured British subjects that their new king, Elizabeth's,
Speaker 1: father wasn't some loud like his brother from. After all,
Speaker 1: he had these adorable daughters with dogs. Dukie and Jane
Speaker 1: were the Princess's close companions growing up, though Jane was
Speaker 1: tragically struck and killed by a car in nineteen forty four.
Speaker 1: That same year, for Elizabeth's Eighteenth Birthday, she received the
Speaker 1: dog that would turn out to launch her lifelong fascination
Speaker 1: with not just corgis but corgy breeding. The dog's name
Speaker 1: was Susan. Generations of the Queen's Corgis have come from
Speaker 1: Susan's line, but the Queen often hand picking matches. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and Susan were inseparable from the start. When she married
Speaker 1: Prince Philip in ninety seven, she snuck Susan with her
Speaker 1: on their honeymoon, and Susan remained by Elizabeth's side when
Speaker 1: her father died in nineteen fifty two, making Elizabeth the
Speaker 1: Queen at the age of five. In press photos from
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, the young Queen is shown with her
Speaker 1: beloved Corgi almost more than her husband. Susan's prominence as
Speaker 1: the Queen's corgy did wonders for the breed's popularity. The
Speaker 1: Kettle Club registrations of pure bred Pembroke Welsh corgis peaked
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty with nine thousand a year. Farrell said,
Speaker 1: it did spark a huge interest in what up to
Speaker 1: then had been a niche breed. Today, Corgi registrations are
Speaker 1: down to about five hundred a year. That's a big
Speaker 1: drop from its heyday. Corgis are known for being lively,
Speaker 1: hardy and highly intelligent. They were originally bred and whales
Speaker 1: as cattle dogs, where they're compact load of the ground
Speaker 1: build enabled them to Nipet the cattle's heels to keep
Speaker 1: them in line. The corgis loud sharp bark also helps
Speaker 1: it seem bigger and more authoritative than it appears. There
Speaker 1: are two breeds of dogs called Corgis, the pembroke and
Speaker 1: the Cardigan. The CARDIGAN is larger and longer than the PEMBROKE,
Speaker 1: with more rounded ears. Of both breeds usually live around
Speaker 1: twelve years. Of course, not everybody is keen on small,
Speaker 1: energetic dogs with Yippy barks that nip at your heels,
Speaker 1: and that's why when somebody comes into the Kennel Club
Speaker 1: looking for a new pet, Farrell advises them to do
Speaker 1: some research about what a breed of dog did historically.
Speaker 1: She said. What was their job? Are Those traits going
Speaker 1: to suit your lifestyle? Can you give them the exercise
Speaker 1: that they need and the space that they need? If
Speaker 1: it's not the dog for you, there's lots of other
Speaker 1: dogs to choose from. The Queen didn't mind the rowdy
Speaker 1: energy of her corgies. In fact, she bread fruits specifically,
Speaker 1: along with the preference for Red Coats. Her cousin lady
Speaker 1: Margaret Rhodes, told Vanity Fair for a long feature on
Speaker 1: this subject back that the Queen loved taking her roll
Speaker 1: king pack of Corgies for long walks in the Scottish countryside.
Speaker 1: While the rest of the Royal Family are certainly doggy
Speaker 1: by nature, that's earl's term, not mine. They weren't all
Speaker 1: huge fans of the Queen's corgis. Prince Harry told the
Speaker 1: BBC in I've spent the last thirty three years being
Speaker 1: barked at. His older brother Williams, said as much in
Speaker 1: a twelve interview quote. They're barking all the time. I
Speaker 1: don't know how she copes with it. The breed's Bark
Speaker 1: nous and its association with a now bygone era likely
Speaker 1: contributed to the steep drop in the corgis popularity over time.
Speaker 1: In the situation became dire enough that the Kennel club
Speaker 1: put the pembroke Welsh corgy on its vulnerable native breeds list,
Speaker 1: which calls attention to breeds with fewer than three hundred
Speaker 1: registrations a year. But then Netflix released its hit TV
Speaker 1: series the crown, in which dramatizes the life of young
Speaker 1: Elizabeth as she marries and becomes the Queen, including lots
Speaker 1: of scenes with her corgis. That Farrell noted that corgy
Speaker 1: registrations increased by six in seventeen and then jumped by
Speaker 1: in she said, while the numbers are still relatively low,
Speaker 1: there's been a clear increase in registrations and I think
Speaker 1: we can attribute that to the depiction of the Queen
Speaker 1: and her Corgis in popular culture. In the United States.
Speaker 1: The breed continues to be very popular. The American Kennel
Speaker 1: Club currently ranks the pembroke Welsh Corgi at number thirteen
Speaker 1: out of a hundred and ninety three breeds in terms
Speaker 1: of popularity. In two thousand two the queen made the
Speaker 1: difficult decision, following the deaths of both her sister and
Speaker 1: the Queen Mum, that she would stop breeding Corgis so
Speaker 1: that none of them would outlive her and be forced
Speaker 1: to grieve her loss. Farrell explained that a lot of
Speaker 1: older pet owners are forced to make the same difficult
Speaker 1: choice not to take in a young dog. For working
Speaker 1: dogs that are bred to have a close relationship with
Speaker 1: a particular shepherd, the separation can be hard on the animal.
Speaker 1: Farrell said, Corgis like their person and the Queen is
Speaker 1: their person. However, after the death of her husband, Prince
Speaker 1: Philip Her son, Prince Andrew Gifted Elizabeth with a new
Speaker 1: corgy to keep her other corgy company. She also had
Speaker 1: a Dorgy, a cross between a Corgi and a Docksin,
Speaker 1: and a Cocker Spaniel. At the time, one monty Roberts,
Speaker 1: who served as a horse and dog breeding adviser to
Speaker 1: the Queen, told Vanity Fair how devastated the Queen was
Speaker 1: after a previous Corgy, Monty, died in at the time
Speaker 1: he asked the Queen about breeding a replacement for Monty.
Speaker 1: Robert said to Vanity Fair I have no right to
Speaker 1: try to force her into continuing to bring on young
Speaker 1: puppies if she doesn't want to. That isn't my right.
Speaker 1: But it still concerns me because I want her to
Speaker 1: believe in her existence until she's no longer here, because
Speaker 1: she's just too important to the world to contemplate checking out.
Speaker 1: For me, the Queen can't die. Today's episod out is
Speaker 1: based on the article how Queen Elizabeth fell in love
Speaker 1: with corgies on how stuff works dot com, written by
Speaker 1: Dave roose. Brain stuff is production of I heart radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff works dot com, and it's
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart radio.
Speaker 1: visit the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.