Following the retirement of her husband last week, the Queen showed today she wasn’t going to be taking a back seat.
The 91-year-old took to the wheel of her green Jaguar as she was spotted driving home from a Sunday morning service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Park with a security guard, wearing a blue suit and matching hat.
The Queen has a well-documented love of cars and driving, and is regularly spotted behind the wheel on her Sandringham estate and often drives to the church near the Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate.
While she is always chauffeured during royal occasions, the Queen is in fact a capable driver, having learnt to drive while serving as a mechanic in the Women’ s Auxillary Territorial Service during the Second World War.
Over the years she has been photographed on numerous occasions taking to the lanes of her Sandringham estate in a trusted Range Rover.
The monarch is the only person in the UK who is permitted to drive without a licence and is the only person allowed to drive down the 2.6-mile Long Walk in Windsor apart from park rangers.
Last year, the Queen played chauffeur to her granddaughter-in-law Kate in Balmoral, driving the Duchess of Cambridge to a picnic lunch with Prince William.