According to an official, the Government had long been gently lobbying Prince Charles’s office to come up with a plan.
From time to time, royal aides would draw up plans for a variety of regency options ranging from ‘regency-light’ (with minimal princely involvement) and ‘reversible regency’, in the event of short-term incapacitation.
Another aide revealed they had “dreaded something happening in public”, so engagements became very tight and very short with limited media.
A new biography of King Charles’s accession to the throne did reveal palace aides grew concerned the Queen could suffer from a “sudden public collapse during an engagement”.
The book, Charles III: New King, New Court, The Inside Story by Robert Hardman, noted that with the Queen Mother living past 100, it was speculated that Queen Elizabeth would do so too. This meant that “regency seemed almost inevitable”.
While Queen Elizabeth II took on fewer engagements as her health declined, Her Majesty never stopped working “even on her deathbed:, according to Hardman’s book.
Her hard-working sentiment was displayed on the late Queen’s 21st birthday, when she announced to the world that she would serve the Commonwealth until the day she died.
She said during a broadcast in 1947: “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
The Queen tragically died on September 8, 2022, at age 96, sending the UK into mourning.
