Royal Family

Queen Elizabeth II’s ‘peaceful’ final moments before death detailed in just-revealed memo from her private secretary

The Queen passed away peacefully.

The late monarch’s final moments were recorded by her devoted private secretary Sir Edward Young reports the Daily Mail.

“Very peaceful,” Young wrote. “In her sleep. Slipped away. Old age. She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain.”

The document was lodged in the Royal Archives and has not been made public until now.

Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8 2022 at the age of 96 at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Royal expert Katie Nicholl told Page Six exclusively in Sept. 2022 that it was always the Queen’s wish to die at Balmoral.

Elizabeth’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley told Nicholl in a 2020 interview that the Scottish estate was where the late Queen felt most at peace.

According to The National Records of Scotland, she died from “old age.”

The monarch died on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96. Getty Images

The note, along with other fascinating details surrounding the royal’s death is included in Robert Hardman’s upcoming book, “‘Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story.


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The royal reporter writes that her eldest son, Charles had sat with his mother for an hour, along with his wife Camilla, and then had gone out alone to forage mushrooms and clear his head.

The Queen’s son, Charles had sat with his mother before her death. PA Images via Getty Images

He received the news that she had died as he was driving back to Balmoral Castle.

Others who were by the Queen’s bedside included Princess Anne and the Queen’s senior dresser and trusted confidante, Angela Kelly, along with the Rev Kenneth MacKenzie, a minister, who read to her from the Bible.

After her death, a footman brought a locked red box of paperwork found by her deathbed.

The Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young wrote that the Queen just “slipped away.” PA Images via Getty Images

In it, were two sealed letters: one to her son and heir, Charles, and the other, addressed to Young.

The box also contained her final royal order: her choice of candidates for the prestigious Order of Merit for ‘exceptionally meritorious service’ across the Commonwealth.

“Even on her deathbed, there had been work to do. And she had done it,” Hardman writes of the Queen’s legendary work ethic.