Queen Elizabeth is a class act, and she always manages to look suitably sophisticated when she attends an event, her outfits almost always including a hat and a Launer purse.
The hat is there for flair, but the Queen uses her purse as more than just a place for her lipstick and mint lozenges- she uses it to silently signal her staff.
If the Queen moves her purse from one hand to the other while talking to someone that means she's "ready to wrap up her current conversation", at which point the person will be discreetly led away.
When the Queen puts her purse on the table at dinner it means she wants the event to end in five minutes, while putting her bag on the floor means she wants to be rescued from her current conversation.
But the most urgent gesture of them all is the spinning of her ring, which signals to her staff that the Queen needs to be rescued immediately. She really needs to invest in a ring of invisibility!
-Via Bazaar