Queen Elizabeth had plenty of iconic moments throughout her 70 year reign but there are some that stick with you more than others and her final balcony appearance is one of these. She last took to the Buckingham Palace balcony at the end of her Platinum Jubilee weekend in June 2022, a few months before she passed away.
The Queen was visibly moved looking out at the cheering crowds and we apparently might never have got this moment had it not been for King Charles. In his newly-released biography, Elizabeth II, author Robert Hardman suggests that Queen Elizabeth had been happy to watch the Platinum Pageant on TV but Charles thought plans should change.
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Hardman adds that the Queen’s private secretary Sir Edward Young “sped down to Windsor to press the point in person”. Her Majesty was persuaded to make the trip to London and before long the “Royal Standard suddenly appeared on the flagpole” above Buckingham Palace.
The monarch is said to have “arrived through the back gate” and she went out onto the balcony where she’d stood so many times before, wearing green and “unaided but for her stick”. She was accompanied by King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Wales family.
“Poor weather late in the day had ruled out the usual flypast by the Red Arrows. But no matter. On this occasion, the Queen herself had been the grand finale,” Hardman writes.
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There had been uncertainty over whether we could see Queen Elizabeth on the balcony more than once during the jubilee weekend. Though there’s no way the nation could’ve known how last minute the change of plans was – or how King Charles helped persuade her to make this balcony appearance which turned out to be her last.
“The Queen was totally overwhelmed by the number of people waiting to see her – she had tears in her eyes before she stepped out on the balcony,” a source alleged at the time.
Throughout her reign Queen Elizabeth mostly took a “the more, the merrier” approach to balcony appearances, including not only her immediate family but her cousins and their children and grandchildren too. Nowadays this would be unthinkable and the Queen sent a powerful message with her pared-back selection of royals in June 2022.
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Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales helped with this and though you might not have noticed, the pair stood back at a certain point with Charlotte and Louis. This left only the monarch and her three direct heirs in the royal line of succession together.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl discussed this on True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat, claiming, “If you’re going to take one image away from the weekend, it has to be (this one). A Jubilee isn’t just a moment to reflect on the 70 years, but to look forward to the future.”
All things considered, King Charles had a point when he felt his mother should be part of things. She clearly realised it too and her final balcony appearance of the hundreds she’d made during her lifetime remains a significant royal moment to this day.
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