There were rumours of a big Buckingham Palace announcement and Twitter lost the plot

There were rumours flying around of a sudden announcement from the British Royal Family due at 8am on 4 May and social media had a field day.

The Daily Mail reported that all senior Royal staff were summoned to a "highly unusual" meeting at Buckingham Palace, triggering a wave of speculation that 95-year-old Prince Philip had died.

The palace media team were quickly out from their beds denying that there is anything wrong.

"You could safely assume the Queen and Prince Philip are not dead," a press officer told AP in the early hours of the morning.

"There's no cause for alarm," another Royal source told Reuters.

Eventually, the BBC's royal correspondent Peter Hunt poured cold water over the hot and flustered rumour-peddlers, reporting that the meeting is not about the health of the Queen or Prince Philip, and that "such internal royal meetings usually happen about once a year".

The subject of the meeting, expected to begin at around 10am, is thought to be Prince Philip's retirement from Royal duties.

Some people thought the Queen was a master troll.

One guy thought she might give Arsene Wenger a royal nudge.

Another speculated on a lucrative deal which might save the government a bit of cash.

There was a rumour the Queen was off so she wouldn't have to meet a certain American cousin.

Others said she may be taking Brexit a bit too seriously.

Or that Prince Philip had reached an important milestone in his long life.

But for now everyone...