The attached letter was written on January 24, 1960, by Queen Elizabeth II of England to President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States.

The Queen’s handwriting was upright, had large capital letters, and left wide spaces between the words and lines.

These wide spaces between the lines and words indicate a considerable degree of reserve and caution and even shyness.

Her straight down strokes without return strokes to the baseline reveal a desire for solitude. She preferred to isolate herself from people in order to avoid confusion and conflict in her life. The Queen had few close friends and found it easy to do without them. Even in the midst of crowds, she felt detached and lonely. She understood that the people were not cheering for her personally as much as they were showing respect for her position. Because she was so used to isolating herself, at least psychologically, she came to actually fear physical contact and closeness.

Queen Elizabeth’s writing was vertical rather than slanting to the right or left and this showed that she was very proud, protective, independendent, restrained, skeptical, and that she weighed her words carefully and kept herself at a safe personal distance from others, especially on an emotional level. As a result she frequently appeared to be snobby, indifferent, rigid, emotionally detached, and was perceived as being “a cold fish.”

In fact, she was very poised and unresponsive emotionally. She had a good sense of humor and a dry wit. She functioned well in emergencies and was a contented loner.

Her capital letters were large and this showed her to be dignified, idealistic, religious, honorable, and formal with a taste for art, music, and poetry. She realized that she was a special person and felt a strong responsibility to perform her duties well.

The Queen used arcade formations (cover stroke on President) and these arcades suggest that she was trustworthy, cautious, had stable values, was secretive, traditional, and reinforced the perception that she was shy. Because she had such a strong sense of traditional values, accepting change was difficult for her.

Elizabeth II was bright and had an exploratory mind. She had high expectations of herself and those around her and showed her disappointment when these expectations were not met, but she did it priuately.

P.S. The Queen was writing to President Eisenhower to give him her recipe for scones.

Even though the Queen is still very much alive the past tense was used in this analysis because the letter was written many years ago.

If you would like to have your handwriting analyzed, send a sample of your writing on unlined paper. Please state your age and sex and any specific questions you would like addressed in the analysis. Send to: James Murray, Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302. Your name will not be used.