In his new biography of Queen Elizabeth, royal author Robert Hardman chronicles her incredible 70-year reign, including the late Queen’s final days. Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 in September 2022, making her final major public appearance that June during her Platinum Jubilee. Before her health continued to decline, Hardman says the late Queen expressed one last wish for her 12 great-grandchildren.
In an excerpt from the book shared in the Daily Mail, Hardman wrote that the late Queen hoped to gather the Royal Family one last time in Scotland. As was tradition for decades, Queen Elizabeth traveled to Balmoral Castle one last time that summer, and she wanted all 12 of her great-grandkids, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, to be there for a “happy” time.
“The Queen wanted all the great-grandchildren to come up to Balmoral at some point over that summer, even if the Sussexes might not be able to make it,” Hardman wrote.
The author continued that a “friend of the family” told him it was important for Queen Elizabeth that her youngest family members could spend time with her before she died. “She wanted to make sure that they all had a really happy memory of her,” he wrote.
Former royal butler Grant Harrold recently shared that “all sorts of crazy fun things used to happen up there” at Balmoral, and the late Queen certainly would have gone out of her way to make sure her family enjoyed their final summer together.
“She'd make sure that every summer they were there, and it was part of the annual break and there were lots of different activities and things going on,” Harrold shared. “There were numerous visits, like Highland Games and the Ghillies balls. It was a real fun time for them to be up there and it went on for certainly for two months—but a bit longer for The King.”
Although Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet weren’t able to make the trip to Scotland with their parents, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Wales family traveled to Balmoral that summer to spend time with Her Majesty.
Along with George, Charlotte and Louis, the late Queen’s other great-grandchildren included Sienna Mapelli Mozzi (Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s daughter), August Brooksbank (Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s son), Savannah and Isla Phillips (Peter Phillips and ex-wife Autumn Kelly’s kids), and Zara and Mike Tindall’s children, Mia, Lena and Lucas.
Queen Elizabeth gained two more great-grandkids after her death when Beatrice’s youngest daughter, Athena, and Eugenie’s youngest son, Ernest, were born.
