Queen Elizabeth II appears on the cover of the summer 2016 issue of Vanity Fair magazine with her beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgis and Dorgis¹ to mark her 90th birthday (now here’s a woman who never bought into the mutt vs purebred dog fuss, good for her). The Queen started royal Corgi breeding with her first puppy, Susan, whom she received for her 18th birthday, and personally managed the breeding program over the next fifty years. Her Highness has owned over 30 Corgis during her reign, and her current 12-year-old pair, “Holly” and “Willow,” are the 14th generation descendants of Susan.
Queen Elizabeth and her royal Corgis are nearly synonymous with other. They were once so abundant in the Royal household, that the late Princess Diana jokingly referred to them as ‘the moving carpet.’
The crown coin which commemorated the Queen’s Golden Jubilee shows her with a Corgi.
The Corgis are allowed unrestricted access to any part of any royal residence. So it probably wasn’t a complete surprise when “Berry,” one of the Corgis, “photobombed” a picture taken of England’s Rugby World Cup-winning squad with their monarch.
England’s Rugby World Cup-winning squad celebrates with the Queen – and Berry, the corgi.
IMAGE: KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/PA WIRE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
And, of course, who could forget the Corgis’ appearance with James Bond in The Queen’s spectacular entrance to the Summer Olympics?
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For more of the Vanity Fair photos taken by Annie Leibovitz (the first woman to have her work exhibited as a collection at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.) click here.
- The Vanity Fair piece suggests that the Dorgi were planned breedings, but sources vary. By all accounts, the first Dorgi was the result of a “forbidden romance” between Princess Margaret’s Dachshund, “Pipkin,” and one of the royal Corgis (source: Daily Beast).