Queen Elizabeth’s unbeatable wit — Candid moments which left everyone shocked

As part of royalty, Queen Elizabeth and most of her ilk are expected to operate with unfaltering diplomacy at every level.

While being the United Kingdom’s ruler as well as the great Commonwealth, Elizabeth II was long thought to be the master of leading by example in that department.

However, even the late monarch had her fun; throughout her reign, there have been moments when the Queen kicked back and let her real opinions take the front seat — albeit, with an air of sophisticated wit, still.

Following are some of the moments Queen Elizabeth left people aghast:

A Hollywood moment

When Queen Elizabeth II met Hollywood royalty Marilyn Monroe in 1956, two different worlds collided in broad daylight.

Dressed in a stunning gold lamé gown, the late actress descended upon London’s Empire Theatre for a screening of the 1956 war movie, The Battle of the River Plate.

Though Marilyn adhered to the protocol of arriving at the designated venue before her majesty, Elizabeth’s agemate still decided to forgo one unspoken rule; that of modesty.

The Queen, used to meeting people dressed modestly in her presence, only gave a subtly telling head-to-toe look-over to the iconic star’s choice of wardrobe.

Their brief moment however, went on to be captured on celluloid and developed into a legend which lives on as one part of Queen Elizabeth’s witty legacy.

American politics and British diplomacy

Queen Elizabeth’s uncompromising nature did not even spare presidents and first ladies, as the Kennedys could certify.

When President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy, made the Queen’s acquaintance at Buckingham Palace back in 1961, tensions flew between the political pair and British royalty.

While the Queen reluctantly bypassed the royal tradition of no divorcées at state dinners for Jackie’s once divorced sister Lee Radziwill and her husband, Polish Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, she did manage to “get her revenge” another way.

The First Lady’s friend and writer Gore Vidal claimed that two of her most desired guests, Princess Margaret and Princess Marina, were not invited to the Palace banquet at the Queen’s behest.

“No Margaret, no Marina, no one except every Commonwealth minister of agriculture they could find,” she told her literary confidant.

Moreover, while Jackie Kennedy described Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Phillip, as “nice but nervous”, she reportedly thought of the monarch herself as “pretty heavy-going”.

According to Vanity Fair, “Two of Jackie’s confidantes recorded some catty gossip about the Queen, fueled by a clash of traditional British and modern American sensibilities which made for a strained atmosphere even before the guests arrived.”

The outlet also reported about the unofficial but fierce style battle between the two ladies, as the American President’s wife frequently graced the pages of Vogue at the time and has went down in history as one of the best dressed first ladies and women of all time.

“Jackie in an ice blue sleeveless shantung silk evening dress with a boat neckline, from New York boutique Chez Ninon, looking a whole generation more modern than her hostess,” the publication stated.

Netflix’s The Crown also dramatised the meeting in the second season of the series, prefacing it with a sequence where the Queen received news that her upcoming guest, the First Lady, thought her to be “incurious, unintelligent and unremarkable”.

Motherly banter

Even her own son was not exempt from Queen Elizabeth’s cutting remarks, even if they were humorous.

When the future king of England, Prince Charles’ first wife, Princess Diana gave birth for the first time in 1982, the Queen paid the couple a visit while accompanied by her unmistakable bantering spirit.

Upon seeing her grandson, Prince William, at the hospital, biographer Andrerw Morton reported that Elizabeth memorably quipped, “Thank goodness he hasn’t got ears like his father.”

Annus horribilis

In 1992, Queen Elizabeth delivered a speech which came to be known as the “annus horribilis” address.

Recounting the year which had proven to be extremely disastrous for her rule, as three of her children’s marriages ended under much public scrutiny and a fire partially engulfed Windsor Castle, the Queen dubbed the year with the Latin phrase, which translates to “a horrible year”.

However, whether the public picked up on her wry humour at the time or not, it was later noted that the late British ruler attempted a play on words and changed the phrase to suit her meaning at the time.

The real Latin term, which Elizabeth switched for her own, is actually mirabilis, which means “amazing, wondrous, remarkable, or wonderful.”

As historian and royal biographer Robert Lacey also observed, “It’s not correct Latin. Classical scholars regard it as a joke on the expression ‘annus mirabilis’. This was her joke that she opens the proceedings with, and suddenly everybody’s on her side, she’s acknowledged the problem, but she’s moved on.”