The Strange Way Queen Elizabeth Is Woken Up In The Morning
Queen Elizabeth II officially wakes up each morning at 8:30 a.m. Though that may seem normal enough, her snooze button is definitely not. According to The Crown Chronicles, bagpipes play each morning at 9:00, meaning it's pretty much impossible for the monarch to ever accidentally oversleep.
After getting up, the queen takes a bath and gets her hair styled before eating breakfast alone. Despite having a world-class personal chef, she prefers simpler fare in the morning and usually eats cereal like Special K with some dried fruit. Her exception to the rule is Christmas morning, when she has scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and grated truffles.
The one other change to the routine is on Queen Elizabeth's birthday. On the festive occasion, her late husband, Prince Philip, would always sweetly ensure that a flower was added to her breakfast tray (via Cosmopolitan). While getting ready and eating her breakfast, the queen also reportedly listens to the radio to get updated on some daily news, per Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
After breakfast, work begins
Not unlike most of the population, the queen begins work after breakfast. According to The Crown Chronicles, this begins with reading several newspapers so that she is aware of national and international matters. This makes sense, as she is the head of state for 16 governments and the leader of the Commonwealth, which is comprised of 53 countries across the globe.
Next comes answering letters from the public, which can number around 300 each day. Even if she cannot reply to each letter, she tells her ladies-in-waiting how to answer so that there is a personal touch to each response. Then, the queen tackles the "red boxes" that have been made infamous thanks to Netflix's "The Crown." These boxes are filled with matters of government and state, including letters from diplomats, Cabinet documents, and more. The queen must "read, approve, and sign" all of them. She receives a red box every day except Christmas, and they are even used when she is traveling abroad.
Once it is 11:00 a.m., the queen usually begins her daily meetings, which can include discussions with ambassadors, leaders of industry, or members of the British Armed Forces. She usually has meetings until 1:00 p.m., at which point the monarch has lunch. The rest of the day is filled with other duties, such as public engagements or travel.