In a new book, author Robert Hardman revealed the final moments of Queen Elizabeth’s life.
According to the Telegraph, just before her passing Queen Elizabeth wrote a letter to her son, now King Charles. The letter was reportedly sealed and placed into her red box.
The final box, which she closed on her deathbed, was then delivered to her private secretaries Sir Edward Young and Sir Clive Alderton by the staff at Balmoral. The red boxes were something Queen Elizabeth tackled every day with the exception of Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.
In the book, Sir Edward is quoted as saying they weren’t sure what to expect as he turned the lock” to open the box. “Inside, he found that Elizabeth II had left a sealed letter to the Prince of Wales and a private letter to himself,” Hardman wrote of Edward.
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And although he questioned what the context of the letters was, Hardman writes that the world “will probably never know what they said. However, it is clear enough that the Queen had known that the end was imminent and had planned accordingly.”
Also inside the box was “the last official document ever handled by Queen Elizabeth II,” which was the “approved shortlist of candidates to receive the Order of Merit.” According to the Telegraph the Order of Merit honors “distinguished service in public life and in the gift of the monarch.”
“Even on her deathbed, there had been work to do. And she had done it,” Hardman wrote.
In the end, Hardman adds that despite working until the final end, the Queen “slipped away in her sleep” and “wouldn’t have been aware of anything” when she died, the BBC reported. As Sir Edward wrote in his memo announcing the Queen’s death on September 8, 2022, “Very peaceful. In her sleep. Slipped away. Old age. She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain.”
The biography is “unauthorized” and one that Buckingham Palace said it would not be commenting on.