METRO
Queen Elizabeth II worried that spending her final days at Balmoral would make it ‘difficult’ to organise her funeral, Princess Anne has told a documentary.
But the late monarch was persuaded to put her own comfort before her lifelong concern with duty and others and step back from the ‘decision making process’, according to the BBC film charting King Charles’s first year on the throne.
It is the first time the Royal Family has spoken about arrangements for her death.
Queen Elizabeth, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died peacefully at Balmoral on September 8 last year, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
It appears she did not want her passing in Scotland to cause added issues for those implementing London Bridge – the codename for the arrangements for her lying in state, vigils and a grand state funeral.
Different plans were in place if the Queen had died at any one of her main royal residences, from Sandringham to Windsor Castle, and even overseas.
The arrangements for Scotland were given the codename Operation Unicorn.
Anne reveals the late Queen’s thinking during her last days, saying: ‘I think there was a moment when she felt that it would be more difficult if she died at Balmoral.
‘And I think we did try and persuade her that that shouldn’t be part of the decision making process.’
She concluded with a laugh: ‘So I hope she felt that that was right in the end, because I think we did.’
Elizabeth’s only daughter said it was ‘serendipity’ she was at Balmoral before her mother’s death.
She revealed she ‘weirdly felt a sense of relief’ when the Imperial State Crown was removed from her coffin at the end of her funeral – symbolic of her role passing to Charles.
Anne tells the documentary: ‘My mother’s funeral in St George’s, he takes the crown off the coffin – I rather weirdly felt a sense of relief, somehow that’s it, finished. That responsibility being moved on.’
The 90-minute documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year, to be screened on Boxing Day, is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and features contributions from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and close friends, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals for the coronation.
The past 12 months have been a period of momentous change for Charles who has completed a number of firsts from carrying out his first overseas state visit to Germany to hosting South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa for the inaugural inward state visit of his reign.
Charles waited all his life to fulfil his destiny and be crowned King, and at the age of 75 his Carolean era is in its infancy compared with the seven decades of the late Queen’s reign.
Talking about the succession, Anne goes on to say: ‘To be honest I’m not sure that anybody can really prepare themselves…
