Queen Elizabeth II is Dead

Long live King Charles III

The Timeline

As the whole world knows, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at her Balmoral estate this afternoon, Thursday, September 8, 2022. It is truly the end of an era.

Just on Tuesday, the Queen was photographed frail but bright and smiling in the Drawing Room of Balmoral ready to greet Liz Truss, her 15th Prime Minister, and ask Truss to form a government in Her Majesty’s name.

On Wednesday (yesterday), the Palace announced the Queen’s doctors had advised her to rest, and she postponed a Privy Council meeting.

Today, at 12:30pm, the Palace press released: “Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable at Balmoral.”

Notes were passed among MPs in the House of Commons, and Prime Minister Liz Truss left shortly after, sparking concerns the Queen’s situation was indeed dire.

Just twenty minutes later, royal reporters were confirming that Charles and Camilla had arrived at Balmoral by helicopter from Dumfries House in the Scottish lowlands. I can’t confirm what exact time they arrived. Hopefully it was earlier.

Princess Anne was also already in Scotland carrying out various engagements, and it sounds like she might have been staying at Balmoral with her mother.

It was at first reported that William also flew by helicopter from Windsor to Balmoral, arriving around 10:30am local time, but that turned out to be a false report. Although, perhaps someone confused William for Charles, and Charles arrived at 10:30am. Time will tell.

It became clear to all watching that there was an emergency bulletin out to all the Queen’s children to get to Balmoral. It was quickly reported that Andrew would also fly to Scotland.

The BBC (and other networks) suspended regularly programming and began covering Balmoral live. All BBC reporters were wearing black and the chyron was changed to black, too. Although the watching public understood the BBC might just be taking precautions, the message was still grim.

As the media reported that the Queen’s children were making their way to Scotland, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have been in Windsor for a day and a half, announced through a spokesman that they would leave Windsor and travel to Scotland, too.

Barriers went up at Balmoral as crowds began gathering at both the Scottish estate and Buckingham Palace.

Today was the Cambridge children’s first day of school, and Kate stayed in Windsor with the children. She was photographed leaving her home and heading to do the school run in the three o’clock hour.

Royal fans were tracking air traffic and identified an RAF plane en route from RAF Northolt to Aberdeen. Shorty thereafter, it was reported that 7 members of the Royal Household were aboard the flight. When it landed, however, William, Edward, Sophie, and Andrew emerged. The four hustled into a waiting Range Rover and began the 45 minute drive to the estate. They landed just before 4pm local time.

Unbeknownst to the public, at 4:30pm, Prime Minister Liz Truss was told that the Queen had died. Which means, of course, that she had died some time before that.

Shortly after the royal party departed the Aberdeen airport, Harry and Meghan’s spokesman clarified that only Harry would head to Scotland after all. Although he was in touch with family, we were led to understand he had chosen to make his own travel arrangements.

As dusk started to settle, the royal party that had landed in Aberdeen in such haste finally arrived at Balmoral. The four senior royals were together in one Range Rover tracked closely by their security in a second. With William at the wheel, they swept into the front gates of the estate shortly after 5pm local time.

And then a silence fell. After almost non-stop news of royals on the move throughout the afternoon, all reports seemed to go silent.

At 6:30pm, the royal family announced the Queen had died.

Their official government website immediately switched to a single black landing page with a tribute to the deceased monarch, and the social media channels of the senior royals shifted to indicate their new titles.

Charles issued his first statement as king a short time later:

Prince Harry landed in Aberdeen and arrived at Balmoral about an hour later.

In time, we will get more details about the Queen’s final hours, since it is all historic record. But I suspect when it was time for her to get up, whatever time in the morning that was, they found she had declined precipitously overnight and was in such a serious state that it was clear to the doctors she would almost certainly die.

The Palace does not share details about the Queen’s health that it does not have to. Although they had to explain on Wednesday that on doctors’ orders she was resting—because she had a Privy Council meeting scheduled—the announcement today was simply for the sake of updating the public that her doctors were worried. Such a statement suggested a very dire situation. In some sense, it was meant to prepare the world for the news we knew would follow.

To me, watching the reports of her family converging in extreme haste on Balmoral, the fact that the news was shared with the members of the British government, the Royal Flight being used from Northolt to Aberdeen, all telegraphed that the Queen was in imminent danger of dying…or already dead. The activity was simply unprecedented and suggested the Palace was certain of a particular outcome.

The Titles

There is always a seamless transition between monarchs: the Queen is dead; long live the King. The moment Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died, Charles became king. Of course, he has had plenty of time to prepare for this day. Although he certainly could have chosen an alternative regnal name, it was confirmed quickly that has chosen to retain his own name and will reign as Charles III. This does not surprise me. I think as the royals try to modernize they want to appear less stuffy, and keeping one’s own name is probably a good starting point in their minds.

As announced many months ago, Camilla is his Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II made William the Duke of Cambridge the morning of his wedding. It was a title she chose to confer at her pleasure. He retains that title.

The title Duke of Cornwall (and the revenue from the Duchy of Cornwall) is different. It falls automatically to the monarch’s eldest child. Therefore, as soon as the Queen died, not only did Charles shift into position as king, but William shifted into position as Duke of Cornwall.

Although the heir is also granted the title Prince of Wales, it is not an automatic title. It must be bestowed by the monarch. I expect Charles to announce that he is conferring the title on William in due course, and hopefully an investiture in Wales will follow. William and Kate will then be styled the Prince and Princess of Wales. Although they will still retain their Cornwall and Cambridge titles, they just won’t use them. Remember, until the Queen died, Camilla was the Princess of Wales, she just chose to be styled by the secondary Cornwall title out of respect for Diana.

For the time being, William and Kate are going to be styled by both their primary titles—Cornwall and Cambridge—before they transition to Wales. Technically, their children should follow suit. That would make them George, Charlotte, and Louis of Cornwall and Cambridge. How the new Cornwalls choose to navigate this for the purpose of school, where the children are doubtless George Cambridge, Charlotte Cambridge, and Louis Cambridge, remains to be seen. If Charles plans to make William and Kate the Prince and Princess of Wales in short order, they might leave their little ones as Cambridges until they switch to Wales.

Harry and Meghan’s title does not change. However, unless Charles has issued new Letters Patent, little Archie and Lilibet should now be HRH Prince Archie and HRH Princess Lilibet of Sussex. I will say that the interpretation of these Letters Patent has not always been crystal clear. I am uncertain how their parents renunciation of active royal life, and the Queen’s earlier determination that the Sussexes could not use their HRHs in public, will affect Archie and Lily. It seems that if their parents have sworn off royalty, and they are raising their children in America as ordinary citizens, senior titles in the British royal family might not be the best option for either party.

We know that there has been private discussion about this within the family. One of Meghan’s primary gripes to Oprah was the alleged denial of a royal title to her children. At the time of their birth, Archie and Lily did not qualify for automatic HRH status. It is unclear if Meghan did not understand that herself, if she did understand it, but was just telling us all a tale, or if she was recounting in a jumbled manner a more complicated discussion the royals had had. I hypothesized at the time that Charles might have suggested he’d issue new Letters Patent when the time came (now) to block the children from being royal—not from any animus toward his grandchildren, but from a keen and longstanding desire to slim the monarchy.

I can say this, under ordinary circumstances, Archie and Lily should now be Prince and Princess respectively. Whether King Charles and Prince William permit that—or whether it already was quietly hashed out when the Sussexes left the firm—remains to be seen.

Wrap Up

These next few weeks will be a busy time, and there will be more updates to report. Just now it was confirmed that the Accession Council—which will formally declare Charles king—will meet tomorrow. The new Counsellors of State are Queen Camilla, the Duke of Cornwall & Cambridge, the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of York, and Princess Beatrice. When King Charles signs off on the plans, the funeral arrangements will be released, but following Operation Unicorn—the protocol under Operation London Bridge for the Queen dying in Scotland—she should lie in state at Palace of Holyroodhouse, then to St. Giles’ Cathedral, and then proceed by train back to London. But more on all that later.

It has been such a crazy day, I haven’t had time to really reflect on the fact the Queen is gone or to pray for her soul. We have just lived (and are living) through the end of an era.

More tomorrow.