The Queen's surprisingly bad manners at the table revealed by former Royal Footman

The Queen has a surprisingly bad manner when it comes to eating during shooting lunches, says one of her former Royal footmen.

• The Queen is said to 'put her elbows on the table' when eating during shooting lunches.
• Her Majesty used to do it to make her guests feel comfortable, former Royal Footman Steven Kaye claimed.
• This royal news comes after Meghan Markle shares heartache of leaving Archie with nanny moments before fire broke out in his nursery

The Queen has some surprisingly bad manners at the table, claims a former Royal Footman.

It's no secret that the Queen won't allow mobile phones at the dinner table and she's known to have a morbid rule when it comes to eating sandwiches, but she is also known to break the rules.

Steven Kaye worked for the Queen for three years and during his time in service, he witnessed the Queen's surprisingly bad table etiquette when it came to attending shooting lunches.

He reveals to Slingo, just what her Majesty was like behind closed doors, and explained, "What I found interesting is that she sat with her elbows on the table as she was eating. I just didn’t expect that. 

“You’ve always had that etiquette rule, ‘elbows off the table’, but if it’s good enough for the Queen, then it’s good enough for all of us. 

"I think it’s her way of making her guests feel relaxed. She’d always sit there and pick at the food with her elbows on the table. But she would never do that at a state banquet, obviously.”

Mr Kaye revealed that Her Majesty's table manners were only relaxed during the shooting lunches at Sandringham in a "very large log cabin" he added, "So we’d have to get the fire going, lay the food out, put the bar up and make sure everything was perfect."

And if having her elbows on the table while she was eating isn't enough to surprise you, the Queen once went missing during a shoot - only to turn up hours later when the sniffer dogs had arrived.

He recalled, "Once we thought the Queen had gone back to the house for lunch because it was ready for one o’clock, but there was no Queen [at the cabin]. Two o’clock arrives, three o’clock arrives, no Queen. 

“Me and my colleague footmen - there’s always this unwritten rule that you’re allowed to have a drink on duty as long as you don’t take it too far - we’d had a couple of beers waiting for them and the sniffer dogs finally arrive about 4pm and it’s getting dark."

But the search was called off when the monarch "walks in, she has a pheasant in one hand and a gun in the other"

Mr Kaye described how she puts them in the corner and put the dogs in this pen.

and added, "I’ve made her a gin and dubonnet - it’s one part gin, two parts dubonnet and an ice and a slice, she’d always have one of those at five o’clock."