Lto Queen Elizabeth serving her subjects to the last. In a touching moment of Charles III: The Coronation Year, a documentary about Charles’ first year on the throne (will be broadcast in England by BBC on Boxing Day), daughter Anna reveals her mother’s last thoughts. She who had confided in her that she feared dying in Balmoral, Scotland, because this would have complicated the preparations for her funeral in London.
Queen Elizabeth’s premonitions
Thanks to a series of interviews with Royal seniors and leading collaborators at court, the BBC has managed to reconstruct the entire year of Charles the king, also offering an unprecedented glimpse of the behind the scenes of the Coronation celebrated last May 6th. However, it is Anna’s revelations about her mother that have moved the English. Perhaps the sovereign felt it: that would be her last summer.
Queen Elizabeth no longer wanted to leave
Before leaving for Balmoral, the residence she loved most of all and where she had spent her summer holidays for decades, Elizabeth had had serious doubts about his usual trip to Scotland. Already fragile and with increasingly serious mobility problems, last year he wanted to give it up. And in the end she was convinced to go only at the insistence of her family: “We tried to make her understand that her fears should not influence her decisions” explained Anna.
Anna with her mother Elizabeth in Glasgow, Scotland, June 2021(Getty Images)
Anna close to her mother, but only by chance
In her final moments, on September 8, Queen Elizabeth had the comfort of the closeness of his daughter Anna. But the princess had no idea that those would be the last hours spent with her mother: «I found myself at Balmoral that day just by chance» Anna reveals. «I was actually passing through. I had spent a few days on the west coast of Scotland and, seeing as I would be passing through Balmoral on the way home, I decided to stop».
Greetings to Queen Elizabeth
Then when it was time to say goodbye, witnessing the solemn removal of the Imperial State Crown From Elizabeth’s coffin during the funeral in Windsor, Anna admits that she felt a strange sense of relief: «I said to myself: “That’s it, it’s over. All her responsibilities pass to others.”».
Anna’s admiration for her “rival” Camilla
Putting aside an ancient rivalry that dates back to his youth, when Anna had an affair with Andrew Parker Bowlesdestined instead to marry Camilla for the first time, the princess defined the help that the current queen offers to her brother as incredible: «I have known her for a long time and I think her understanding of her role and her contribution to the king’s work is truly remarkable. It’s not a role that comes naturally to her, but she still does it very well».
A tender moment between Carlo and his son William
In the documentary there are many previously unseen scenes taken from the Enthusiasm ceremony, which took place on 6 May in Westminster, London. When, during the rehearsals at Buckingham Palace (where a “copy” of the abbey had been recreated to avoid complicated movements for the Royals) a rather anxious William had had difficulty buttoning his father’s cloak. But Carlo immediately tried to put him at ease with a joke that made the heir burst out laughing: «Don’t worry, at least you don’t have sausage fingers like me!».
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