<P> One of the Queen's hobbies--besides ordering executions--is croquet; however, it is Wonderland croquet, where the balls are live hedgehogs and the mallets are flamingoes . This is presumably with the aim that the birds' blunt beaks should strike, but, as Alice observes, it is complicated by the fact that they keep looking back up at the players - as well as the hedgehogs' tendency to scuttle away without waiting to be hit . The Queen's soldiers act as the arches (or hoops) on the croquet grounds, but have to leave off being arches every time the Queen has an executioner drag away the victim, so that, by the end of the game in the story, the only players that remain are the Queen herself, the King, and Alice . </P> <P> Despite the frequency of death sentences, it would appear few people are actually beheaded, the King of Hearts, quietly pardons many of his subjects when the Queen is not looking (although this did not seem to be the case with The Duchess), and her soldiers humor her but do not carry out her orders . The Gryphon tells Alice, "It's all her fancy: she never executes nobody, you know ." Nevertheless, all creatures in Wonderland fear the Queen . In the final chapters, the Queen sentences Alice again (for defending the Knave of Hearts), and she offers a bizarre approach towards justice: sentence before verdict . </P> <P> Modern portrayals in popular culture usually let her play the role of a villain because of the menace the character exemplifies, but in the book she does not fill that purpose . She is just one of the many obstacles that Alice has to encounter on the journey, but unlike other obstacles, she makes a higher potential threat . </P> <P> The Queen is believed by some to be a caricature of Queen Victoria, with elements of reality that Dodgson felt correctly would make her at once instantly recognizable to parents reading the story to children, and also fantastical enough to make her unrecognizable to children . The reference is explicit in Jonathan Miller's 1966 television version where she and the King of Hearts are portrayed without any attempt at fantasy, or disguise as to their true natures or personality . </P>

Who was the queen of hearts based on