Increasingly, the world's media are writing that England will soon have a new monarch. The current Queen Elizabeth II is to be replaced by Crown Prince Charles. What does this mean for the country as a whole?

Where the rights and responsibilities that lie with the crowned person have very unique features. About which ones exactly historian Natalya Nikiforova told Pravda.Ru in an interview.

There is a well-known expression - “the role of the English queen”. In fact, this is a purely decorative post, a tribute to tradition. After all, she cannot make decisions on her own. She has purely representative functions.

The monarch makes a traditional speech before the country's parliament, and also heads the British Commonwealth, which includes a number of countries. However, rather, the preservation of a constitutional monarchy in Great Britain is already an integral part of culture.

Of course, scandals (like what happened with Princess Diana) do not paint the entire ruling dynasty of Windsor, but so far there is no alternative to these decorative rulers. And the costs of maintaining the royal court are fully justified by the influence that the monarch has on the minds and hearts of the British, who cannot imagine themselves without the royal dynasty.

Formally, the monarch's powers are extensive, but in practice they are noticeably limited. Suffice it to say that the royal person acts in consultation with the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet, the composition of which is determined by the popularly elected Parliament.

At the same time, the monarch proposes to members of parliament the candidacy of the prime minister himself for approval. This formality takes place in a "kissing hands" ceremony (called Kissing Hands in the UK). However, if there is a majority in parliament, then the monarch is offered a representative of this majority for approval.

If this majority does not exist, then the monarch nominates her candidacy for approval. A similar example is the election of “minority” representative Harold Wilson in 1974.

In addition, the monarch can play a positive role in resolving the parliamentary crisis. For example, he has the right to delay the dissolution of parliament and allow opposition parties to create a coalition government.

At the same time, it is the monarch who appoints and dismisses cabinet members. But again, he does this on the advice of the prime minister. Theoretically, the monarch can dismiss the prime minister himself. The last time this happened was in 1834.

However, now the rights of the royal person in this regard are greatly limited. Formally, she can do this, but practically this is excluded due to special mutually exclusive legal additions in the legislation. Their meaning is to not give the monarch real power, which he can use purely in his own interests.

There are corresponding amendments to the country's Constitution, according to which the head of government is deprived of his post in one of three cases: upon expiration of his term of office, at his own request, or as a result of death.

The monarch has to carry out a number of bureaucratic formalities, for example, meeting every week with the prime minister and other members of the government for consultations.

The monarch has the right to express her wishes to them, but nothing more. The final decision rests with the prime minister and cabinet members.

In fact, in Great Britain, since the mid-19th century, the old system has been in force, the idea of ​​​​which was formulated by the thinker Walter Bagehot: “The sovereign under a constitutional monarchy has three rights: to consult, to encourage and to warn.”

The interaction of the monarch with the autonomous governments of Wales and Scotland follows a similar pattern. The Queen approves the first minister (prime minister) of Scotland, who is proposed to her by the local parliament. In the case of Wales, however, the situation is somewhat different. The monarch appoints the head of government on the advice of the British Prime Minister and members of his cabinet.

True, there are also provisions according to which the monarch remains a rather influential figure. For example, the “oath of allegiance” is taken to him, and not to parliament or the nation. The British monarch heads the armed forces, and it is he who has the right to declare war and make peace. It is no coincidence that in Great Britain there is an anthem with the appropriate title: “God Save the Queen (King).”

The king does not have the right to issue laws, but influences the lawmaking process: when discussing a particular normative act, deputies of both houses of parliament are required to obtain its approval.

Probably, the meaning of such a structure of the country is that the monarch should act as a kind of stopper to the prime minister and parliamentarians if they try to move the country somewhere in the wrong direction.

Queen Elizabeth II is conservative in her preferences; she trusts only things and brands that have been proven over the years. And this applies to all areas of her life, be it her love for a Land Rover car, Earl Gray tea or Corgi dogs. In honor of the Queen's upcoming birthday, which she will celebrate on April 21, HELLO.RU talks about 15 original gastronomic preferences that she has been faithful to for decades.

According to chef Darren McGrady, who worked in the Buckingham Palace kitchen for 11 years, Queen Elizabeth II is someone who "eats to live" rather than "lives to eat."

It’s hard to call her a gourmet, because she hasn’t changed her eating habits for many years. For the Queen, there is nothing better than the classics of English and French cuisine. Twice a week, the queen is brought a specially compiled menu, designed in the form of a thick book bound in red. She carefully looks through all the positions and crosses out those that she does not want to see on her table. As former employees of the royal kitchen joke, if this book fell into the hands of Prince Philip, the queen's husband, he would cross out all the points that she left and ask him to cook everything that she crossed out. Their tastes are diametrically opposed.

Elizabeth II eats breakfast twice. Her morning starts with a light snack - cookies and Earl Gray tea without milk or sugar. Afterwards she is served a more substantial breakfast - either something cereal, or toast with jam, or egg dishes. The Queen gives preference exclusively to brown eggs, which are most often used to prepare scrambled eggs with salmon and dried truffle shavings.

She is too modest to order fresh truffles and only enjoys this delicacy at Christmas, when she is sent it as a gift.

Narrated by Darren McGrady, former personal chef to the Queen.

All packaged products that enter the palace kitchen must be marked with a special royal order. The Order is a mark of special distinction and can only be granted to a brand by the Queen, Prince Philip or Prince Charles. There are now about 800 stamps that are marked in this way.

Before dinner, the Queen drinks gin or a glass of Dubonnet, a French aperitif based on fortified wine, with a slice of lemon. Before bed - a glass of champagne.

One of Queen Elizabeth II's favorite hot dishes is venison medallions with a sauce based on whiskey and mushrooms. Her Majesty's other culinary favorites include baked salmon and roast beef.

Venison medallion

It is impossible to find garlic in the kitchen of the royal palace. The Queen does not allow it to be added to the dishes that are served to her and which are treated to guests at her receptions. This is primarily due to the pronounced smell of the product. Also, Queen Elizabeth does not eat sea creatures. Traditionally, since ancient times, British monarchs have been advised to avoid eating various shellfish in order to prevent food poisoning and allergic reactions.

Queen Elizabeth avoids foods high in starch, such as rice, pasta and potatoes. If Her Majesty eats a sandwich, she always asks to cut off the crust of the bread.

Queen Elizabeth II's main weakness is chocolate. Her favorite desserts are chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, chocolate fondant and chocolate sponge cake. She loves the latter so much that she is ready to take him with her all over the country. The fact is that the queen is opposed to the disposal of food: if a cake was made for her, but she only managed to eat one piece and was forced to leave the palace for another residence, then the cake is packaged and sent next.

Her Majesty's favorite chocolate brand is Cadbury. This brand became a supplier to the British Royal Court in 1854 by order of Queen Victoria. Today, the famous chocolate brand supplies exclusive high-cocoa bars to Queen Elizabeth personally at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

A team of 20 chefs works at Buckingham Palace. When the Queen is in residence, ten of them must be present in the kitchen.

For tea, the Queen is always served a tray of buns, each weighing about 50 grams. At the same time, Elizabeth II never eats buns; she crumbles them on the floor for her corgis.

Elizabeth II highly values ​​farm products that are grown on the territory of the royal estates. So, she eats strawberries exclusively of those varieties that grow in her Balmoral residence, and white fragrant peaches are brought to her from Windsor Castle.

Queen Elizabeth II prefers that not only the foods she eats herself, but also those she feeds her pets undergo strict quality control. Thus, royal chef Darren McGrady recalls one of the first tasks in the service of Her Majesty:

I was asked to prepare three carrots. Trim the edges so that they are all exactly the length of your finger. They had to be perfectly neat. I did everything and asked the cook who hired me: “Does the Queen really like carrots that much?” And he replied that these were carrots not for the queen, but for her horse.

The Queen has original eating habits related to fruits. For example, she eats a pear like a soft-boiled egg. First, he cuts off the top part of the fruit, and then eats the pulp with a spoon. A banana never peels. Instead, he cuts it into small slices and eats it with a fork. This is primarily due to the aesthetic side of the issue.

The Queen strictly monitors the seasonality of the products offered to her on the menu. She can eat strawberries all summer, but if she is offered dishes with strawberries in January, she will definitely cross them off the menu, fearing that pesticides may get into the fruit.

During gala dinners and receptions at Buckingham Palace, a footman stands behind Her Majesty, who closely monitors her actions. If Elizabeth II put down her knife and fork, it means that the meal is over and it’s time to change plates. It doesn’t matter whether the guests managed to finish their portions.

Queen Elizabeth II can safely be counted among the centenarians of our planet. A proper balanced diet helps her stay in shape even at such an advanced age. In addition, a significant role in maintaining health and longevity is played by the complete abstinence of certain foods that cause significant harm to our body. Official The chef of the royal family, Darren McGrady, in one of his interviews revealed some of the secrets of the royal menu and identified 9 foods that the Queen never eats.

1. Pasta (pasta)
Even when Her Majesty is hungry, she will never allow herself lunch or dinner in the form of harmful starches or carbohydrates. This means giving up pasta completely.
Instead, she will eat a large portion of salad, baked fish or chicken with two types of vegetables as a side dish.
According to experts, Elizabeth's menu is one of the healthiest among celebrities. If you are showing signs of eating too many carbohydrates, you can safely follow the Queen's example.

2. Potatoes
The Queen's diet also lacks potatoes. After all, this product contains a lot of starch, which is harmful to health.
However, be careful with this point: you still shouldn’t completely give up your favorite product.

3. Steak rare
Do you think that rare steak is a royal dish? Then you are deeply mistaken, and the Queen would definitely not agree with you.
Her Majesty prefers her meat well done, says McGrady. As a side dish, the Queen chooses vegetables or vegetable salads, spinach, broccoli or zucchini.

4. White chicken eggs
The royal chef also confirmed the fact that Elizabeth completely abandoned white chicken eggs, choosing exclusively quail or brown chicken eggs for her diet.
Scrambled eggs made from these eggs, combined with salmon and truffle, are Her Highness’s favorite breakfast at Christmas.
Unlike us, Europeans tend not to refrigerate eggs, and prefer brown eggs to white ones because they think they taste better.
This is perhaps the strangest item on this list. The color of the eggs depends on the color of the chicken and is not an indicator of quality at all. White chickens lay white eggs, while dark ones produce brown eggs. Elizabeth II has gone overboard here. Or is this some kind of chicken racism?

5. Garlic and onion
The Queen does not eat dishes that contain onions or garlic. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the royal breath must always remain fresh. And even if these two products initially appear in the original recipe of a dish, they have to be excluded when preparing the dish.
McGrady once even joked about this: Her Majesty will not eat anything with a lot of garlic or onions, so as not to provoke a burp.

6. Crispy bread
It is known for certain that, at the request of the Queen, the crust of the bread must be cut off before serving.
Elizabeth prefers sandwiches without that delicious crispy crust. At the same time, the Queen likes sandwiches with tuna, olive oil, thin slices of cucumber, and bell pepper. But the crust is out of the question. This part of the bread is simply excluded from the royal menu.

7. Out-of-season fruits, vegetables or berries
Out-of-season foods are also not included in the royal diet. Anything grown out of season is taboo for Her Majesty. This means that Queen Elizabeth II will not eat vegetables, fruits and berries unless they are grown naturally. She follows the principle of healthy eating, so she consumes such products strictly according to the season of their appearance in nature.
It is best to exclude artificially grown products from your menu, since, according to experts, they do not benefit the body.
McGrady says the following:
You can send strawberries to the queen every day in the summer, and she will never say a word and will eat them with joy.
However, try to include strawberries in her menu in January, and she will immediately say that she refuses to eat genetically modified strawberries.
Don't you know what grows seasonally? Then be sure to look at the guide to seasonal foods and stick to this list.

8. Whole banana
The Queen will never give up her favorite bananas, but there is only one “but”: she will not allow herself to eat bananas in the usual way we are all familiar with.
In her opinion, bananas should be eaten in such a way that from the outside it looks as aesthetically attractive as possible.
Queen Elizabeth II doesn't eat bananas like a monkey. Instead, she uses a fork and knife to cut out the top and bottom of the banana, then cuts the peel to remove the fruit. Then she cuts the banana into small slices. Then carefully, threading slice by slice onto a fork, he puts them into his mouth.

9. Sweet tea
Like any true British woman, Queen Elizabeth II cannot live without good milk tea. As a rule, the British choose the classic option - Earl grey.
The Queen drinks this drink without sugar. This is how tea benefits both our figure and our health in general.
If you want to follow this old English tea tradition, skip the sugar. Just add milk to this drink, as the British do, and enjoy its taste.
If you still lack sweetness, drink tea with your favorite dark chocolate or dried fruits.

Here are the basic principles of the royal menu. Now that you know about them, you can also follow her example to stay in shape for as long as possible.

Queen Elizabeth II. Photo: www.pinterest.com

The British newspaper The Telegraph reported that twice a week, court chef Mark Flanagan offers Elizabeth a menu, where she marks the dishes she would like to eat and crosses out the ones she doesn’t want.

At the same time, according to the Queen’s former chef Darren McGrady, Elizabeth can hardly be called a gourmet. Like most of her subjects, the Queen of England “eats to live,” unlike her husband, Prince Philip, who “not only loves to eat delicious food, but is also ready to talk about food all day long.”

“When she's in charge of dinner,” McGrady says of Elizabeth, “she's extremely disciplined. Starch-containing dishes are excluded from her menu.”

So what dishes does the Queen of England prefer? In this article we will take a detailed look at its typical menu, indicating specific varieties and brands of products: from morning tea to an evening glass of champagne.

What does the Queen of England eat?

Choosing foods can be a daunting task for a royal. Fortunately, Her Majesty is helped by a whole team of professionals to cope with it, even when it comes to purchasing from Waitrose (a chain of English supermarkets for the upper middle class).

Queen Elizabeth's Breakfast

Typical Queen Elizabeth morning tea. Photo: businessinsider.com

So, Queen Elizabeth starts her day with the traditional tea and a couple of cookies. Her Majesty prefers freshly brewed black tea with bergamot ( Earl Gray), without sugar and milk, which is poured into a bone china cup.

Elizabeth then moves on to breakfast, which usually includes cereal flakes and fruits.

Queen Elizabeth's typical breakfast: cereal with fruit. Photo: recipe4living.com

Her Majesty's favorite cereal brands include: Special K, Kellogs, Quaker Oats And Weetabix.

Cereals are stored in special brand containers Tupperware, which, according to the Queen, help preserve the freshness of products.

Periodically, the British monarch has breakfast toast with jam. The latter is purchased from an English manufacturer Wilkin & Sons.

Queen Elizabeth's favorite marmalade toast. Photo: harvesttotable.com

Also occasionally Her Majesty orders for breakfast omelette with smoked salmon and truffle.

Queen Elizabeth's favorite omelette. Photo: 10awesome.com

In this case, the omelet must be made from chicken eggs with a brown shell - it is their taste that the Queen prefers.

Queen Elizabeth's Lunch

Queen Elizabeth's favorite Dubonnet aperitif. Photo: fatnancysnewdiet.com

Before dinner, Her Majesty treats herself to gin or a sweet aperitif Dubonnet with ice and a slice of lemon. If we talk about gin, then it is very likely that this Gordon's- a long-time supplier to the royal court.

According to former royal chef Darren McGrady, the Queen's typical dinner is very simple. Typically this is fish with vegetables: Her Majesty prefers sea ​​flounder from Dover with spinach or zucchini.

Queen Elizabeth's favorite dinner is Dover flounder with spinach. Photo: tripadvisor.com

The Queen is also partial to grilled chicken with salad. McGrady explained that when she dines alone, Elizabeth has a strict “no starch” rule. This means that there are no dishes with potatoes, rice or pasta on the royal table.

Afternoon tea

The Queen sacredly honors customs and therefore does not refuse traditional English tea, known as “ afternoon tea" Usually small dishes are served for the tea ceremony. sandwiches with cucumber, smoked salmon, egg and mayonnaise, or with ham and mustard. To reduce calories, the crusts are cut off from the bread. Afternoon tea is also accompanied by round mini sandwiches with jam - they are called “ jam pennies” as they are cut into rounds the size of a one penny coin.

A typical Queen Elizabeth afternoon tea. Photo: moorhallhotel.co.uk

As a complement to tea, butter cookies of the brand are served McVitie, traditional English muffins – scones- and cakes. According to McGrady, the Queen's particular favorite is sponge cake with honey and cream, as well as chocolate sponge cake, which was served at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Chocolate cake served at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Photo: www.pinterest.com

Queen Elizabeth Dinner

For dinner the Queen prefers fillet beef, venison, pheasant or salmon from the royal estates of Sandringham and Balmoral.

Celtic steak. Photo: Food.com

Although the former court chefs did not mention any condiments, it can be assumed that condiments and ketchup for royal dishes were purchased from Lea & Perrins, HP Sauce And Heinz– all of them are official suppliers of the royal court.

Queen Elizabeth's dessert

Queen Elizabeth's favorite white peach dessert. Photo: hglivingbeautifully.com

The royal dessert usually includes strawberries– also from Balmoral – or sweet white peaches from the greenhouses of Windsor Castle.

In addition, the Queen loves chocolate and is extremely unpretentious in this regard. She likes both expensive brands and brands sold in regular stores.

Such luxury chocolate producers as Charbonnel and Walker, Bendicks And Prestat received orders for deliveries to the royal court. However, chocolate from affordable brands Cadbury And Nestlé can also be found in the royal household.

Besides the chocolate sponge cake mentioned above, the Queen has a weakness for chocolate mousse and chocolate cake with ganache cream.

Champagne for the Queen

Queen Elizabeth is not averse to drinking champagne before bed. Photo: bittertwisted.co.uk

Elizabeth traditionally ends her busy day with glass of champagne. Information leaked to The Independent suggests that the Queen selects champagne from one of eight royal suppliers, including names Bollinger, Lanson And Krug.

Of course, Her Majesty will not refuse fine wines, however, in the ranking of royal preferences, wines are still inferior to champagne.

Drink like the Queen - what kind of alcohol does Elizabeth II like?

The former chef of Buckingham Palace spoke about the gastronomic and alcoholic habits of Elizabeth II. It turned out that the Queen loves chocolate and drinks it four times a day - but only her favorite!

There is only one person on the planet who can afford to do whatever she wants, and the world can only watch with emotion and not even blink - this is Queen Elizabeth II. The same rule applies to food preferences: if the Queen wants something, you better just get it.

In April 2017, the chef of Buckingham Palace first told reporters about Her Majesty's gastronomic preferences. For example, the Queen eats one piece of her favorite chocolate biscuit every day.

Now Food & Wine has managed to find out what cocktails Elizabeth II prefers. The answer surprised the audience a little. The Queen is as consistent in her relationship with alcohol as she is in desserts - only her favorite drinks, but every day. The main question is quantity: four servings every day.

Photo: Getty Images

The drinking schedule of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain looks like this:

1. Just before lunch, the Queen drinks a glass of Dubonnet gin with plenty of ice and a squeeze of lemon.

2. During lunch, she eats a piece of chocolate, washing it down with a glass of red wine.

3. Also during lunch, Her Majesty drinks a Martini Dry cocktail.

Please note that all this happens before 13:00! Then, however, there follows a long pause.

4. Before going to bed, the Queen drinks a glass of champagne.