Her Throat

One hundred years ago, the Royal Family was not the friendly, approachable, and easily slanderable affair that it is today. In the year 1900, if anyone heard you say "I saw the Queen chasing pigeons around the market square and stuffing them up her blouse", you would be dragged into her palace, where Stephen Fry would go "barp!" at you, disapprovingly. You would have your head cut off - but not before the Queen teased you and said "Shall I cut his head off or shan't I?" and then pretending to ask God, and then saying "God said I should cut your head off because he hates you."

Because of this readiness to cut heads off, royalty developed leathery pouches of skin around their neck. The enormous "give" in this skin means that the axe can seemingly pass all the way through the neck, where it was in fact, simply carried around the neck in a conveyor belt of tough neck.