Queen Elizabeth Wrote Two Letters On Her Death Bed — One Of Them Was For a Non Royal Member

Queen Elizabeth lived an extraordinary life, passing away on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96. The late Queen reportedly was active and carried out her tasks until her final moments. After her death at Balmoral Castle, her last two private letters were allegedly found by her footman in a red box. Royal biographer Robert Hardman revealed in his book that one of the letters was addressed to the now-King Charles.

Hardman, in his book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, wrote of how the monarch’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, was planning the days after her death, when a footman brought in one of the Queen’s iconic red boxes. He told the Daily Mail, “It was the last one that had gone up to the Queen before her death. Like all red boxes, it had just two keys, one for the monarch and the other for her duty private secretary.”

Hardman claims in his book that inside the box, Young found that the Queen had left a sealed letter to King Charles and a private letter to himself. He added, “We 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. Were they final instructions or final farewells? ...[she] had been completing her own last pieces of unfinished business.” Allegedly, she also left behind her list of candidates to join the order of Merit, which happened to be her final royal duty. He explained, “The paperwork had gone up to her two days before so that she could go through the notes and tick her choices. Here it was, completed and returned for Sir Edward to make the necessary arrangements.”

Hardman’s book describes the final moments of the Queen's life in great detail. One excerpt also mentions her last documented words in her diary. As reported by the Telegraph, he penned, “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.” Just two days before her passing, she accepted Boris Johnson's resignation as Prime Minister before appointing his successor, Liz Truss.

While the contents of Queen’s letters to King Charles and her private secretary remain unknown, another of her letters cannot be opened until 2085. Written to the people of Sydney in 1986, the letter is sealed in a vault within the historic Queen Victoria Building. According to Elle magazine, the instructions read, “On a suitable day to be selected by you in the year 2085 AD, would you please open this envelope and convey to the citizens of Sydney my message to them.”