The British monarchy has had a Twitter account since April 2009, but it wasn't till today that Queen Elizabeth II sent her first tweet.
It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.
The @BritishMonarchy account then sent a follow-up tweet to its 700,000+ followers to confirm that she did actually tweet it herself.
The last tweet was sent personally by The Queen from her official Twitter account @BritishMonarchy #TheQueenTweets
And then tweeted a picture of her actually using her royal hands to type it at the Science Museum in London this morning.
#TheQueenTweets
This man, Chi, was "in charge" of the iPad she used to tweet – leading some to conclude that the monarch just pressed "send" on the tweet rather than typing it herself.
LOVE Chi who was in charge of the @BritishMonarchy iPad + "ones first tweet"
Within 45 minutes the tweet had almost 4,000 RTs.
It's not the first time the royal family has used Twitter – Prince Charles used the @ClarenceHouse account to announce the arrival of Prince George last summer.
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm
And Prince Harry sent his first earlier this year to promote the Invictus Games.
Hope everyone will get behind #invictusgames. Great opportunity to support and thank the men and women who have given so much. Harry
The queen has always been keen to be seen using new technology – she was the first monarch to send an email, way back in 1976.
In 1976 The Queen became the first Monarch to send an email during a visit to an army base - here it is! #SMInfoAge
And she appeared (accidentally) in this tweeted selfie at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Ahhh The Queen photo-bombed our selfie!! 😄 👑 #royalty #sheevensmiled #amazing #Glasgow2014 @Hockeyroos @AusComGames
But of course, because this is Twitter, it took precisely NO TIME for people to start with the jokes.
As a new Twitter user, the Queen will now forlornly try to start her own hashtag game and attempt to get the attention of Stephen Fry.
Even the presence of the head of state can't tame Twitter's satirical bent.
The Queen should fit in well on Twitter as both have very little to do with the real world.
That was my "Queen on Twitter" joke, a scathing satirical takedown of honour and privilege. I feel like Russell Brand.
But while a lot of people have no time for the monarchy, a huge number of people on Twitter really, really like the Queen.
God, I know Twitter is all fuck the royal family and all that but I do love the Queen. Properly love her. The nation's strict granny.
The Queen wrote a tweet and I love that far more than I ever imagined I would.
@BritishMonarchy @sciencemuseum What a lovely lady u are your majesty, so pleased to be able to follow a wonderful Twitter page.
There was then the crushing realisation that now the Queen is tweeting, Twitter may well be over.
@scottygb @psmith And the inevitable think pieces 'Is Twitter over now that the Queen is tweeting?'...
There were predictably depressing attempts from social media managers of high street brands to piggyback on the news.
@BritishMonarchy Hey Your Majesty, follow back? #TheQueenTweets
John Prescott offered some (rather partisan) advice for the politically neutral monarch.
.@BritishMonarchy @sciencemuseum Welcome to Twitter. Top tip - don't follow @louisemensch. Your timeline will regret it #TheQueenTweets
Other subjects wanted to know the answers to the really big questions.
The moment I have been waiting for. I can finally ask the Queen what her favourite chocolate bar is? @BritishMonarchy
Some just wanted a RT.
. @BritishMonarchy Dear Queen, can you RT my @FourFourTwo Ozil article? http://t.co/qq1cdKemf1 #TheQueenTweets
Or a selfie.
@BritishMonarchy TWEET US A SELFIE BABE XXX
People were pretending to retweet entirely made-up tweets, such as this one:
RT @BritishMonarchy How do I block @piersmorgan?
Welcome to Twitter.
