The rare moments Queen Elizabeth II lost her temper

Queen Elizabeth's cool façade fell away during a photocall with legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz in 2007 when she was asked to remove her tiara for a shot. 

The footage, shown in the BBC documentary A Year with the Queen, captured the moment that Annie seemed to offend the late monarch.

"It would look better…less dressy…because the garter robe is so…" Annie could be heard saying, after suggesting that the tiara should come off.

"Less dressy? What do you think this is?" the Queen replied, before gesturing to her ornate clothing. "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much."

Annie opened up about the tense moment with Vogue in 2022, and maintained that Elizabeth had been incredibly professional throughout the shoot.

"At one point when things had calmed down – after the misunderstanding about her wearing the tiara or not wearing the tiara – she settled into the shoot and became quiet," the photographer explained.

"She then said, 'I think Princess Margaret would have been a much better subject.' That moment of vulnerability – it makes me cry right now to think of it…that there was this moment in the middle of the session when she thought that maybe she was not a good enough subject, that she kind of questions herself. We got to see all sides of her that day."

Ever the supportive spouse, Elizabeth arrived in Windsor Great Park to watch her husband, Prince Philip, on a carriage ride, before she snapped at the photographers who clamoured around her.

The 2002 documentary H.M The Queen: A Remarkable Life looked back on the strained moment, and showed footage of the mother of four asking the photographers to disperse before shouting: "Do you mind!"

Queen Elizabeth's family members were not immune to her temper, as her grandson, Prince William, confirmed to Sky News in 2016. 

He recalled a day from his childhood when he was riding on quad bikes at Balmoral Castle with his cousin, Peter Phillips, and teasing his other cousin, Zara Phillips. "Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost, and the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her," William said.

"I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt. She came charging over and gave us the most almighty b******ing, and that stuck in my mind from that moment on that I really should be a little bit more careful about what I'm doing and try not to kill my cousins."

Another moment that drew Elizabeth's ire occurred in 2016 at the Trooping the Colour procession. William, dressed in his finest royal garb, had crouched down to speak to his son, Prince George, as the family watched the parade go by.

Queen Elizabeth could then be seen telling William to "stand up", an instruction which he sheepishly followed.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's decades-long romance was legendary, but like all couples, the pair didn't always see eye-to-eye at times, as evidenced by a moment that was reportedly captured on camera during their royal tour to Australia in 1954.

According to royal author Robert Johnson in his book The Windsor Legacy, a camera crew waited outside Elizabeth and Philip's lodgings to film a segment with them, only to witness the Prince storming out before she followed, "hurling a tennis racket and shoes" in his direction.

She then brought him back inside the cottage, and came out to meet the film crew as composed as ever. "Sorry for the little interlude. It happens in every marriage. Now, what would you like me to do?" Elizabeth reportedly said to the team. 

The moment was even recreated in The Crown, with Claire Foy portraying the Queen and Matt Smith playing her husband.

While Elizabeth was generally known to be a sweet-natured and even-tempered child, she did reportedly lose her cool with her French teacher, and even resorted to spilling an inkpot over herself.

Royal nanny Marion Crawford wrote in her book The Little Princesses that one day, she heard "curious sounds" coming from the room where Elizabeth was being tutored by "Mademoiselle", and she decided to investigate.

"I found poor Mademoiselle shattered and transfixed with horror," Marion recalled, adding that "Lilibet, rebelling all of a sudden, and goaded by boredom," had poured a "big ornamental silver inkpot" on her own head.

The former nanny noted that Elizabeth had "ink trickling down her face…slowly dyeing her golden curls blue," but assured that this was out of character as "the rest of [Elizabeth's] life was measured and obedient and considerate".