Queen Elizabeth II feared at the end of her life that she would die at her Scottish castle, Balmoral, because it would create complications for her funeral, her daughter Princess Anne said in a documentary.
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“I think there was a point where she felt that if she died at Balmoral it would be more difficult,” the royal princess said in this BBC film, set in the year of King Charles III's coronation December 26th.
“And I think we tried to convince them that it shouldn't be part of the decision-making process,” she added.
After 70 years of reign, a record for the British monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II breathed her last on September 8, 2022 at her Scottish Balmoral Castle.
Her death was followed by a long period of carefully choreographed national mourning with another organization in case she died in one of their homes.
The sovereign lived at Windsor Castle near London at the end of her life, but spent her late summers at Balmoral, where she rode and where the family took part in hunts, or at Christmas at Sandringham in the east of England.
After the Queen's coffin was presented to the public at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, it was transported to London on board a military aircraft. The coffin was then placed on public display in Westminster Hall, the oldest hall of the British Parliament, until the funeral on September 19th.
In the documentary, Princess Anne recalls the moment and the strange feeling of “relief” she felt when the crown was removed from the coffin and “that responsibility” passed on to the new King Charles III. was transferred.