The Queen loves corgis because they’re her ‘alter-egos’ and ‘inner child’, according to expert
THE QUEEN loves corgis because they're her "alter-egos" and act as her "inner child", says an expert.
It has been more than 80 years since the monarch, 93, acquired her first pet dog from the breed which have become synonymous with the royal family.
In 1933, the then-seven-year-old Princess Elizabeth was given a corgi by her father Kind George VI, who gave another to her three-year-old sister Princess Margaret.
Since then, the Queen has owned more than 30 pooches - and her passion for the breed has become legendary.
According to an expert, the dogs have allowed her to enjoy something of a childlike escapism.
"Our pets are kind of like our alter egos," explained Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, on Netflix's 2013 documentary series The Royals in an episode titled 'Royal Pets'.
“They're almost what a psychotherapist would call our inner child.
"I think all of this applies eve more to the Royal Family, particularly to the Queen, than to the rest of us. "If you think about it, she has to be even more repressed and inhibited and reserved and dignified, than the rest of us put together, and very rarely gets any opportunity to express what she's really feeling.
“Her inner brat doesn't get let out very often, does it?”
The programme had earlier explained how the royals have long had dogs as pets.
King Charles II was responsible for making the King Charles Spaniel popular in the 17th century, but the breed were linked to the English monarchy since Queen Mary I's reign in the 16th century.
All the Queen's corgis were descended from a dog called Susan who was given to her on her eighteenth birthday in 1944.
Her final one, Willow, died last year after she stopped breeding them in 2015.
The Queen still has two dogs - Vulcan and Candy - who are a cross-breed between one of her corgis and late sister Princess Margaret’s dachshund Pipkin.
We told you last month that she fed them her own secret-recipe gravy which was served to them by a footman on a silver tray.
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