84 Regal Facts About Queens That World Has Seen

Empress Catherine the Great founded an orphanage in Moscow to turn Russia's thousands of abandoned children into model citizens. Over 40,000 were admitted in her reign, but it failed disastrously due to 87% of them dying of disease.

2. Queen Elizabeth has owned more than 30 Corgis over her reign.

3. Queen Victoria owned a bulletproof chainmail-lined umbrella.

4. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to be photographed.

5. In July 1878, William McGonagall walked from Dundee to Balmoral, a distance of about 60 miles (97 km) over mountainous terrain and through a violent thunderstorm to perform for Queen Victoria. When he arrived, he announced himself as "The Queen's Poet". The guards informed him "You're not the Queen's poet! Tennyson is the Queen's poet!" (Alfred Lord Tennyson was the poet laureate). McGonagall presented the letter but was refused entry and had to return home.

Despite being “Bloody Mary”, Queen Mary I of England didn’t kill nearly as many people as her father, Henry VIII. Her inflated infamy was mostly Protestant propaganda.

7. The Egyptians, not Julius Caesar, were the fathers of the modern calendar. The Roman calendar was lunar and had 355 days. Egyptians knew it was 365 days because the river Nile would peak on the same day each year. Caesar learned this from his affair with Cleopatra and created the Julian calendar.

8. Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking club in 41 B.C. and were known to take part in elaborate games, contests and walk the streets of Alexandria in disguise, pranking the residents.

9. Due to inbreeding amongst the Ptolemies, Cleopatra had only two pairs of great-grandparents. One of those pairs was the son and daughter of the other.

10. Despite the story that Cleopatra killed herself by letting an asp bite her, she most probably killed herself using a mixture of opium and hemlock.

Cleopatra was 18 when she married her 10-year-old brother named Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator to become co-ruler of Egypt.

12. Cleopatra was not perceived as very beautiful. Plutarch states that it was her wit and charm that drew people to her.

13. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, is said to have bathed in 'ass milk' to preserve the beauty and youth of her skin. Legend has it that no less than 700 asses were required to provide the quantity of milk necessary for her daily bath.

14. The first Queen to rule Egypt was named Hatshepsut. She ruled 18 centuries before Cleopatra.

15. Marie Antoinette's last words were, "Pardon me, sir. I meant not to do it". It was an apology to the executioner for accidentally stepping on his foot on her way to the guillotine.

French Queen Marie Antoinette had a fully functioning peasant village built on the grounds of Versailles. She loved strolling the village in simple shepherdess garb pretending to live a simple life milking cows or sheep, which were carefully maintained and cleaned by the servants.

17. Marie Antoinette syndrome designates the condition in which scalp hair suddenly turns white. The name alludes to the unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette of France (1755-1793), whose hair allegedly turned white the night before her last walk to the guillotine during the French Revolution. She was 38 years old when she died.

18. When W.A. Mozart was 7, he was giving a concert in front of royalty in Vienna. When he slipped, Marie Antoinette helped him up and he immediately proposed to marry her.

19. Duckies ("duckys") was a medieval English slang term for a woman's breasts, used by (among others) Henry VIII in letters to Anne Boleyn (Queen of England).

20. Pianist Jan Ladislav Dussek was the court musician of Catherine the Great and Marie Antoinette, had an affair with a princess and was an acquaintance of Napoleon and Talleyrand.

Lady Jane Grey was executed simply for being related to Henry VIII and for being nominated Queen by her cousin. Even the executioner asked for her forgiveness before carrying out the beheading.

22. The Queen Elizabeth II never gave a press interview, went to an election or publicly expressed a personal opinion.

23. Queen Elizabeth II was once accidentally filmed during an argument with Prince Philip throwing tennis shoes and a racquet at him. The Australian film crew, under mild encouragement destroyed the footage out of respect.

24. Queen Elizabeth II employs somebody to wear her shoes before her to ensure they are comfortable.

25. In preparation for a state visit by Nicolae Ceausescu (Romanian President), Elizabeth II ordered the guest rooms of Buckingham Palace to be stripped of valuables for fears that they'd be stolen. She later described the visit as the worst three days of her life.