Why late Queen’s handbag was a secret signal you didn’t want to be on the other end of
Topics: Royal Family, The Queen
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images/Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Topics: Royal Family, The Queen
Queen Elizabeth II’s successful 70-year reign was not without its secrets, as the late monarch allegedly utilised accessories to convey messages to her staff.
During the later years of her life, the Queen - who died in September 2022 aged 96 - was rarely snapped at public events without a handbag.
Despite Queen Elizabeth possessing an unrivalled selection of leather goods, her go-to was a classic patent black mini number from heritage British brand, Launer.
According to Launer’s CEO, Gerald Bodmer, the Queen ‘didn’t feel fully dressed’ without the accessory but would be extremely picky about the bags she wore.
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“But if the Queen doesn’t like what we’ve made her, she won’t wear it,” he told the Daily Mail in 2018. “She definitely knows what she wants.”
But it turns out Elizabeth’s signature item wasn’t just for show.
Instead, royal historian Hugo Vickers once revealed she used her Launer handbags to extract herself from sticky situations.
“It would be very worrying if you were talking to the Queen and saw the handbag move from one hand to the other,” he previously revealed to PEOPLE.
The critic explained that the cue would signal to her ladies-in-waiting that she wanted to halt her current activity and move on from the conversation.
“It would be done very nicely,” Hugo continued. “Someone would come along and say, ‘Sir, the Archbishop of Canterbury would very much like to meet you.’”
One of Elizabeth’s former royal footmen, Ian Scott Hunter, also revealed his employer would use lipsticks to deliver coded instructions.
Appearing on a special episode of Antiques Roadshow, he said: "I believe there’s etiquette that ladies do not make their faces up in public.
“But, she had her bag over the side and she would take her lipstick out and put it on with no mirror or anything, and that was a signal to the ladies that she was ready to leave.
“So, of course, they would all get their bits and bobs together and Her Majesty stands up, so they're all ready and prepared.”
The royal household, which is now headed up by Elizabeth’s son King Charles III, is subjected to many rules, including members being expected to carry a particular item of clothing when setting out on tours.
Protocol dictates that members of the Royal Family are required to take a black outfit with them on excursions in the unfortunate circumstances that someone dies.
One of the most recent times when the Windsors were required to action the outfit was in 1992 when Princess Diana's father, John Spencer, died.
The 8th Earl of Spencer died, aged 68, while the then-Princess of Wales was on a skiing trip.
Upon her return to the UK, she was photographed wearing black attire-a symbol of mourning and a remark of respect for the dead.