What Does Queen Elizabeth II Carry in Her Purse?
Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II has reigned for longer than any other British monarch in history, breaking the previous record set by her great-grandmother Queen Victoria. But to many, she is an enigmatic sovereign, though she has been quoted as saying, “I have to be seen to be believed.”
In her more than 63 years on the throne, with Prince Phillip by her side, she’s achieved a number of “firsts”, including the first royal transatlantic phone call (a conversation with her parents in 1939), and the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations. She also is the first British monarch to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.
Among her groundbreaking achievements (the number of countries she’s visited, 173; the number of people hosted at Garden Parties, more than 1 million; the most widely-traveled Head of State) are a number of other lesser-known but equally fascinating tidbits.
