Queen Elizabeth's Last Private Diary Entry Has Been Revealed

She wrote the "practical and factual" note two days before her death.

A royal biographer is shedding light on Queen Elizabeth’s head space just days before her death. According to an excerpt from Robert Hardman’s updated biography, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, the late monarch was still focused on running the Crown and keeping up with her royal responsibilities when she passed away on Sept. 8, 2022. The queen famously kept a personal diary where she recorded each day’s happenings, and her final diary entry written two days before her death was "factual and practical."

Per Hardman, Queen Elizabeth wrote, “Edward came to see me,” in her last diary entry on Sept. 6. The brief note seemingly referenced a bigger political situation: Edward was the late queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, who was helping her prepare for the induction ceremony of former Prime Minister Liz Truss, as well as Truss’s colleagues.

“It could have been describing another normal working day starting in the usual way — ‘Edward came to see me’ — as she noted the arrangements which her private secretary, Sir Edward Young, had made for the swearing-in of the new ministers of the Truss administration,” Hardman wrote in an excerpt, per The Telegraph.

“It transpires that she was still writing it at Balmoral two days before her death,” he continued of the U.K.’s longest-reigning monarch. “Her last entry was as practical as ever.” That same day, Truss came to visit the queen at Balmoral.

Meeting with Truss in September ended up being Queen Elizabeth’s final public engagement, as she passed away at her Balmoral estate at 96 just days later. Meanwhile, Truss ended up resigning from her duties just one month later in October, after which King Charles III approved the appointment of her replacement, Rishi Sunak.

It’s fitting that Queen Elizabeth spent her final days at Balmoral, as Charles recently got emotional while opening up about how much his late mother loved the royal family’s compound in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Addressing the Scottish Parliament on Sept. 30, Charles said, “Speaking from a personal perspective, Scotland has always had a uniquely special place in the hearts of my family and myself. My late mother especially treasured the time spent at Balmoral, and it was there, in the most beloved of places, where she chose to spend her final days.”