What Is The Queen Like? Elizabeth II Sends Secret Messages With Her Handbags

A woman's handbag is more than just a fashion accessory; but for the queen, it has a little more significance. Queen Elizabeth II uses her handbags to communicate with her staff and send secret messages!

Royal historian Hugo Vickers said that the queen uses her handbags to send secret signals to her staff. If the queen wants to signal that she is ready to finish her conservation with someone then she will transfer her handbag from one hand to the other. If she wants to leave a conversation or a situation quickly she would place her bag on the table or on the floor and also swing her wedding ring while keeping the bag down.

"It would be very worrying if you were talking to the Queen and saw the handbag move from one hand to the other. Someone would come along and say, 'Sir, the Archbishop of Canterbury would very much like to meet you," Vickers told People.

Apart from her handbags, the queen uses a discreet buzzer while having official meetings at the Buckingham Palace. She presses the buzzer to convey to her staff that they would open the doors and take the guests out.

Here are some quick facts about the queen's handbags; what brand she prefers, what she carries around with her and the meaning behind it:

1. The queen's favorites include Launer's Royale and the classic black patent leather Traviata handbag (23cm x 20cm x 10cm), which is priced at £1,550 (about $1,900). The Traviata has been made with longer handles to make it easier for the queen to shake hands. These bags also have a matching wallet and mirror.

2. The queen is said to have more than 200 Launer handbags and they each one of them practically have their own language. She uses them for sending secret signals as well as to carry personal items. So what does the queen do when she is not enjoying a conversation? She puts her handbag down on the floor and that means she wants to be rescued by her lady-in-waiting.

3. A royal expert at the palace said that the queen also carries good-luck charms from her kids that include cute miniature dogs and some family photos in her bag.

4. According to Glamour.com the queen also carries a pen, lipsticks, a small mirror, mints, reading glasses, and a crisply ironed £5 ($6.10) or £10 ($12.19) note for the church collection plate on Sundays.

5. To avoid communication blunders and to hang her handbag properly, the queen always carries a portable hook and a suction cup so she can hang her bag from the bottom of the table.

Sally Bedell Smith, author of "Elizabeth the Queen" wrote in her book that the queen's handbag holds a lot of secrets. While writing a piece for The Lady Magazine, Smith wrote: "At the end of a luncheon or a dinner, even a banquet set with silver gilt and antique porcelain, she has the somewhat outré habit of opening her bag, pulling out a compact and reapplying her lipstick."

"When First Lady Laura Bush made a similar cosmetic fix during a Washington ladies’ luncheon, she cheerily commented, 'The Queen told me it was all right to do it,'" Smith wrote, The Telegraph reported.