As the longest reigning British monarch in history, during her 70 years on the throne it’s safe to say that the late Queen Elizabeth had amassed her fair share of stories – yet one tale which continues to intrigue royal fans, is the time that she and her mother took part in an exorcism on the Sandringham estate.
The rumour first gained traction after royal biographer Kenneth Rose penned a journal about the mysterious ceremony which reportedly took place at Sandringham House back in the year 2000, in which the Queen took part in a “religious cleansing ritual” in the very same room where her father had died.
The unusual ceremony was deemed necessary after reports from staff indicated strange and frightening phenomena taking place in the bedroom where King George VI had died back in 1952. Unwilling to take any chances with a malevolent spectre, the Queen Mother reportedly decided to stage the ritual and roped in her daughter to help.
Yet while it may sound far fetched and downright theatrical, the ritual was a far cry from the dramatic scenes that often unfold in popular culture, something royal biographer Robert Hardman was quick to point out.
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast: Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Hardman explained that it wasn’t a “conventional exorcism”.
Was the ‘troubled spirit’ Diana?
“There was no dramatic casting out of demons, like you see in films. It was said that the room contained a troubled spirit and that the parson was supposed to bless the space.”
Rose claimed that Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and her lady-in-waiting, Prue Penn, took part in the ceremony, which featured a number of key details such as taking Holy Communion and reciting special prayers to ward off any “restlessness” from spirits who may reside there.
“No one was quite sure who the ghost was supposed to be, despite it appearing in the room where George VI had died,” Hardman noted. “Rose speculated whether it might be the ghost of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, who had died a few years before.”
Queen Mother ‘not superstitious’
“The late Queen had a strong faith, but she was not superstitious,” Hardman said. “She did not have time for these wilder theories – but she did have a strong sense of the spiritual, as does King Charles.”
Incidentally, the King himself has had at least one paranormal encounter that we know of, which also took place at the Sandringham estate.
In his book, Britain’s Ghostly Heritage, author John West claims that Charles, who was then still the Prince of Wales had a terrifying encounter while in the estate’s library – and it was so unnerving it even resulted in him bolting from the room alongside another staff member.
Yet even despite the spooky happenings at the Norfolk based estate, it hasn’t stopped the royals from making their annual pilgrimage to it every Christmas and New Year since 1988.