King Charles was foraging for wild mushrooms at the moment his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died, and did not tell his son Prince Harry that she had died before the news was made public by the BBC.
A new book, Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story (published as The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy in the US) by royal biographer Robert Hardman detailing the queen’s final hours says that although Charles knew his mother was dying, he misjudged how much longer she had left to live, hence his decision to go foraging for mushrooms in the woods around her home in Balmoral, Scotland, while her life ebbed away.
The same lack of extreme urgency characterized his contact with sons Prince William and Harry on Sept. 8, 2022, Hardman says. Although he contacted both his sons and urged them to travel to Scotland, he did so under the impression that the queen “had days, not hours, to live.”
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It had previously been claimed, in a book by royal writer Robert Jobson, that Charles went to gather mushrooms but was summoned back to Balmoral and got to his mother’s bedside in time to be with her when she died.
However, according to the new timeline published by the Daily Mail, which is serializing Hardman’s book this weekend, Charles had gone out to nearby woodland to “gather mushrooms and clear his head” and “received the news that she had died as he was driving back to Balmoral when his most senior aide took a call.”
The Mail says Charles pulled over to take the call, and that this was when Charles “was addressed for the first time as ‘Your Majesty’ before calmly putting the car into gear and driving on.”
The Daily Beast has previously reported on how the queen’s death “caught her family… largely by surprise,” with a friend of the family saying: “Everyone knew, intellectually, that she could die at any moment, but on Wednesday no one expected her to die on Thursday.”
Hardman reveals that Charles and Queen Camilla spent an hour with Queen Elizabeth before she died.
Hardman’s book also confirms long-standing rumors that the queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, was by her side in her final hours, alternating with her daughter Princess Anne and “the Rev Kenneth MacKenzie, a long-serving minister at nearby Crathie Kirk, who read to her from the Bible.”
Kelly, a dock worker’s daughter who rose to become the queen’s most trusted confidante, was swiftly ejected from the royal circle by Charles, who did not share his mother’s affection for her, after the queen’s death.
Queen Elizabeth waits in the Drawing Room before receiving Liz Truss for an audience, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, Britain September 6, 2022.
Jane Barlow/Pool via ReutersThe new book also confirms the claim made by Prince Harry in his book, Spare, who said he learnt of the queen’s death from a news alert on his phone while descending into Aberdeen airport, as opposed to hearing it direct from his father, as the palace insisted at the time. Harry landed at 6.47 p.m., 17 minutes after the official announcement was made.
Hardman writes: “The king did try to repeatedly call his younger son to break the news to him personally, but Harry was already in the air and he could not get through.”
The suspicions of those who who think Harry was not given information in as timely a manner as he might have been will persist given that the queen’s time of death was officially recorded as 3.10 p.m., that Prime Minister Liz Truss was told the news at 4.30 p.m., and that Harry’s privately chartered plane did not take off until 5.35 p.m.
The offices of Charles and Harry have been approached for comment on the issue by The Daily Beast. A source previously told The Daily Beast that the queen’s actual time of death was at 2.37 p.m. This may not contradict the time recorded on the death certificate, since the official time of death is established when a medical certification is made.
The Mail says the new book “boasts unrivaled access to the Royal Family, their close friends, staff past and present, top politicians and previously unseen papers in the royal archives.”
One example of such papers is a memo written by Sir Edward Young, Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary, who was at Balmoral when she died, in which he said of her death: “Very peaceful. In her sleep. Slipped away. Old age. She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain.”
The book also claims that she left two sealed letters in a locked box by her bed, one of which was addressed to Charles and the other to Young.
