Queen Elizabeth II’s remaining diary entry, written simply two days earlier than her loss of life, has been revealed.
Throughout her record-breaking 70-year reign, the beloved royal — who died in Sept. 2022 at age 96 — saved a personal diary to jot down key occasions in her life all through the years.
She carried that custom via to her remaining days.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman found Her Late Majesty’s handwritten entries whereas researching up to date chapters for his e book about King Charles.
In response to the writer, the late monarch’s remaining entry was made at Balmoral, the place she died on Sept. 8, two days after assembly Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was new to the position on the time.
In her diary, she recorded that her non-public secretary, Edward Younger, had come to see her. She additionally wrote down some highlights about swearing in new Privy Council members.
“It transpires that she was still writing it at Balmoral two days before her death,” Hardman wrote. “Her last entry was as factual and practical as ever.”
“It could have been describing another normal working day starting in the usual way — ‘Edward came to see me’ — as she noted the arrangements which her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had made for the swearing-in of the new ministers of the Truss administration,” he added.
The late queen’s journal recorded her actions, somewhat than her ideas and emotions, Hardman provides.
Elizabeth famously as soon as informed society diarist Kenneth Rose, “I have no time to record conversations, only events.”
Queen Elizabeth II was not the one monarch who saved a handwritten journal throughout her prolonged reign.
Queen Victoria, who died in 1901, wrote over 60 million phrases in varied dairies she had saved for practically 70 years.
Elizabeth took inspiration from her father, King George V, who additionally saved a diary throughout his life.
What’s extra, King Charles has adopted swimsuit, Hardman notes.
A senior courtier informed The Telegraph that whereas the monarch, 75, “doesn’t write great narrative diaries like he used to,” he does “scribble down his recollections and reflections” of the day.
Nonetheless, the king’s writing fashion is “not quite as self-analytical, humorous and readable as the journal he kept as a prince.”
