Before her death, Queen Elizabeth wrote two private letters – one to her son, King Charles, and the other to her chief aide.
In an excerpt from royal biographer Robert Hardman’s book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy (released on January 18), d Daily mail on Friday, the author describes how staff discovered two private letters left by the Queen after her death on September 8, 2022.
After the Queen’s death at Balmoral Castle, senior staff, including the monarch’s private secretary Sir Edward Young, were planning the days ahead when a footman brought them one of the Queen’s famous red boxes. The Red Box is a daily paper dispatch from ministers across the UK. There may also be documents and correspondence from representatives from the Commonwealth and other countries around the world.
“It was the last one to go to the Queen before her death,” Hardman writes in the excerpt. “Like all red boxes, it had only two keys, one for the monarch and the other for her duty as private secretary.”
Queen Elizabeth’s last moments before her death revealed in new book
Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth on June 5, 2022.
Chris Jackson/Getty
Inside the box, Young discovered that the Queen had left a sealed letter to Prince Charles and a private letter to herself.
“We’ll probably never know what they said. However, it is clear enough that the queen knew the end was inevitable and planned for it. Were those last instructions or last goodbyes? Or both?” writes Hardman. “Elizabeth II was completing her last unfinished business.”
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The Queen also left behind her shortlist to join the Order of Merit – her last royal duty.
“The Queen always took it extremely seriously,” writes Hardman Daily mailexcerpt. “The paperwork arrived for her two days before so she could review the notes and mark her choices. Here it is, completed and returned to Sir Edward to make the necessary preparations. It was the last document by which Queen Elizabeth II. Even on his deathbed there was work to be done. And she did.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education