Five facts about corgis, favourite dog of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth – who bade farewell to her last of the breed this week

Monarch who got first corgi on her 18th birthday saw her last one put down this week, ending a love affair with the breed that often made headlines. We set the record straight about a dog that’s been unfairly painted as ill-natured

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A 90th birthday photograph of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth shows her in the grounds of Windsor Castle with her dogs (clockwise from left) Willow, a corgi, Vulcan, a dorgie, corgi Holly and dorgie Candy. Photo: Annie Leibovitz via AP/Files

Published: 1:01pm, 19 Apr 2018Updated: 5:44pm, 19 Apr 2018

It’s hard to think of any celebrity with a bigger affinity for their pets than Britain’s Queen Elizabeth with her love of corgi dogs.

The monarch’s long-standing love affair with the breed was brought to a sad end this week when her last remaining corgi, Willow, had to be put down at nearly 15 years old after suffering from cancer.

The queen got her first corgi, Susan, on her 18th birthday in 1944, and has had 30 of them in the years since. However, in 2015 she decided to stop breeding them because she did not want to leave any behind after she died.

An undated picture of Queen Elizabeth with her children Charles and Ann and a corgi at the royal estate in Balmoral, Scotland. Photo: AFP

Willow, then, will be the last of the royal corgis. The dogs have helped soften the queen’s sometimes cold and distant demeanour, a fact illustrated brilliantly in Netflix series The Crown, which regularly showed her walking around Buckingham Palace with the little terrors snapping happily at her heels.

But what did Her Majesty see in this breed of dogs, and what are they actually like? We take a look.