A year ago, at 3.10 pm at Balmoral Castle, Dr Douglas Glass, pharmacist in Scotland for the Royal Household, signed the death certificate of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Wilson, who died on 8 September “of old age” at the age of 96 . More than three hours later, at 18.30, the news would be given to the world: Queen Elizabeth II, the most loved and longest-lived sovereign in British history, was dead, and her son Charles was the new king. According to UK law, the time of death is the one in which the certificate is signed, and therefore we do not know the real moment, or even the cause, of her sudden disappearance.
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THE END
Despite the age and frailty he had shown in the September 6 images when he appointed his 15th prime minister, Liz Truss, to office, no one suspected that his end was imminent. Elizabeth had agreed to bring the outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the new one for the handover, a tiring appointment that had engaged her for almost two hours. She hadn’t even given up on awarding her longtime communications secretary, Donald McCabe, with the Royal Victorian Order. But on the 7th the virtual meeting with the Privy Council had been canceled and the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had called the premier’s cabinet secretary, Simon Case, to tell him that Her Majesty was not well. The Queen had been ill for some time: she was losing her sight and hearing, she often got confused, felt constant pain and spent most of her time in a wheelchair. According to some rumors, which biographer Gyles Brandreth has confirmed, she was suffering from a serious bone disease and she was taking powerful painkillers. But Liz Truss was focused on her first government commitments and she didn’t really think they could concern the Sovereign’s disappearance. But she had remembered that many of her dresses were still in the Greenwich house and she had sent someone to get her a black one. None of her family members seemed concerned. On the evening of September 7, Princess Anne was at Balmoral, but she hadn’t felt the need to give up a commitment to a charity for the following morning. Charles was at Dumfries House, a very dear Palladian villa in Ayrshire. He was hosting for dinner Jenna Bush, daughter of the former American president, who was supposed to interview the then Duchess Camilla for NBC. The dinner, she and her husband Henry Hager later recounted, took place in a serene and joyful atmosphere, which did not give any omens foreboding.
THE NEWS
The following morning, according to what was told by the Hagers, Carlo received a telephone call at around 12.20 in his study, and everyone was asked to remain silent. Soon after he went out, and there was the sound of a helicopter landing to pick him and Camilla up. At Northolt military airport, not far from Windsor, a jet carrying Prince William, Prince Andrew and Edward and Sophia of Wessex was waiting to depart. The flight was scheduled for 1.30pm, but the plane remained on the runway until 2.40pm, blocked by yet another family dispute. Prince Harry, who was in London with Meghan due to her commitments, had asked William for a lift for him and his wife and had publicly announced that both would go to Balmoral. William had called his father, who had telephoned Harry telling him that he was welcome, but that Meghan’s presence was not welcome. Furious, Harry had finally chartered a private plane, departed Luton at 5.30pm and was still flying when the Queen’s death was announced to the world.
THE LAST GREETING
At the time of her passing, the only family members close to Elizabeth were Charles and Anna, the two children of the happy photos taken by Cecil Beaton of the family before she ascended the throne. We don’t know if they exchanged any words, nor will we ever know. The most plausible hypothesis is that a traumatic event took place in the late morning of 8 September, perhaps a fall, as some sources say, which put an end to her suffering and the weariness of a life spent serving the nation. William arrived with the others at 5.06pm. Harry alone at 19.52: no one said hello and later in his room he booked a scheduled flight with his mobile phone. The Rev Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, had spent a few days at Balmoral in early September. Elizabeth had spoken to him about faith and about her father and mother, as people sometimes do who feel the end is near. She then she’d gone to a window and looking at the lovely scenery towards the River Dee which she loved so much, she’d said, ‘Who wouldn’t want to be here?’
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on The Messenger
2023-09-07 19:46:24
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