The Queen has a secret escape hatch under the carpet at Windsor Palace

When it comes to the royal family, fans are just as interested in the smaller details about their lives behind closed doors – whether it’s Prince George’s favourite Disney film, what Prince William and Kate Middleton order when they fancy a takeaway or the ingredient that the Queen has banned from her kitchens.

Recently, it was reported that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have secret tunnels and panic rooms in their home.

And it turns out that they’re not the only ones. At her Windsor Castle residence, the Queen has a very nifty trap door, neatly tucked away underneath a carpet in one of her offices, which means she would be able to escape the castle at a moments notice should she need to.

During the BBC documentary, The Queen’s Palaces, the monarch’s secret escape route was filmed and presenter Fiona Bruce revealed more about the 11th century castle’s history, with passages being big enough to ‘accommodate a whole army of men’.

She said: ‘This is an office just tucked away in a corner of Windsor Castle. But look under here. As if by magic, just lift these and the medieval castle emerges.

‘If you’re a soldier in Windsor Castle under siege you need a way to get out. And this is the secret passage. This is exactly what it looked like in the 1200s.

‘It’s wide enough to accommodate a whole army of men. You can just imagine them rushing down the stairs, and it leads out onto the street. This is the clever bit – they’d then be able to sneak up on the enemy and attack them from behind.’

So now you know!

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