The late Queen recognised that she would not live to see 100 – as her mother had done – and so made a touching family decision in the very final year of her life
The late Queen reigned for a remarkable 70 years – but in the final 12 months of her life, she realised her time was coming to an end.
Her Majesty peacefully passed away on 8 September 2022 at the age of 96. She spent her last days at her favourite residence, Balmoral Castle. A close friend of the family told royal author Robert Hardman that the late Queen had been suffering from “multiple conditions” in her final year. “She had come to realise that the medical prognosis meant she was not going to emulate her mother and reach 100, so she had been determined to make the most of that [final] year,” they said.
“She made sure she had all the family up over the summer, so that the young ones in particular would always be left with happy memories of her.” The Queen would annually travel to Scotland to spend her summer break at Balmoral, where she would be joined by her loved ones. It meant they could enjoy time together as a family, away from the pressures of the public eye and their royal duties.
Elsewhere in his book, Charles III: New King. New Court, Hardman revealed that the monarch became concerned about causing additional difficulties when she did pass away. He wrote that she remained “endearingly reluctant to cause unnecessary inconvenience to others” and was worried about the logistics should she die at Balmoral.
Her daughter Princess Anne confirmed her mother’s concerns in the BBC documentary, Charles III: The Coronation Year. She revealed that the Queen felt it would be “more difficult” if she died at Balmoral, and was concerned about causing issues for other people, even at the end of her life. “We did try and persuade her that that that shouldn’t be part of the decision-making process,” Anne recalled. “I hope she felt that that was right in the end, because I think we did.”
Indeed the Queen was at Balmoral when she passed away at 3:10pm. Of her family members, only Charles, Camilla and Anne were able to spend time with her before her death. By chance, the siblings were both in Scotland at the time of their mother’s sudden deterioration and were able to be with her well ahead of the rest of the family. Buckingham Palace announced at 12.50pm that Prince William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie had started to make their way to Scotland at 12:50. They landed at 3:50, 40 minutes after her death.
With William at the wheel, they drove to Balmoral, but arrived at 5.06pm, nearly two hours after her passing. Prince Harry, meanwhile, left Luton airport onboard a private jet at about 5.30pm. He was still in the air when the announcement of the queen’s death was made by Buckingham Palace at 18:30, with news organisations around the world immediately relaying the announcement that: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.”
