The second anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death on 8 September falls on a Sunday and, as was the case last year, King Charles will be at Balmoral Castle’s local Crathie Kirk for prayers and reflection. Balmoral is where his late mother spent the last weeks of her long life: it was where she felt at peace, among the pine forests and heather-clad hills in which she and her family find solace away from their public lives.
The King has said it is his favourite place on earth and although he spends far more time at Birkhall, the Queen Mother’s home on the Balmoral estate, the castle has a huge place in his heart. He has created a maze a short walk from the castle in the shape of a Scottish thistle with a dovecot at its centre. It is the third maze he has had done: the first is at Dumfries House, the second at Sandringham, and Balmoral is the latest. He says he was inspired by his childhood experiences exploring the old Sandringham maze that was later removed.
This year, as last, the King’s family, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, have been joining him at Balmoral. The monarch hopes that his grandchildren will come to love Balmoral as much as he does. While Prince George will be learning to shoot, as his father did before him, in an unchanging routine the ladies and youngsters will join the party for picnic lunches on the hills.
The Princess of Wales – whose courtship with William was partly conducted at his small house on the 55,000-acre Balmoral estate – can get her strength back in the hill walking she so enjoys. Balmoral is a romantic spot, as it was there that Philip Mountbatten RN proposed to the young Princess Elizabeth in 1946, the year before they were married. Years later, Lady Diana Spencer was staying on the estate with her sister Jane (who was married to Robert Fellowes, then the Queen’s assistant private secretary) when she first became close to Prince Charles.
Robert went on to become the Queen’s private secretary and guided the monarch through some of the most volatile periods of her reign, including the annus horribilus of 1992. Sadly, he passed away on 29 July at the age of 82. His children Laura, 44, who is a godmother to Princess Charlotte, Alexander, 41, and Eleanor 38, are first cousins of William and Harry and they spent many holidays together.
Besides having Diana as a sister-in-law, Fellowes’ maternal grandfather was a Ferguson and Sarah, Duchess of York’s great-great grandfather. This could have made it awkward when he had to reprimand Fergie for her errant behaviour while she was married to Andrew: she nicknamed him ‘Bellowes’ – a name Diana adopted.
Fellowes felt obliged to offer his resignation to the Queen when he discovered Diana had colluded with Andrew Morton on the book Diana: Her True Story, despite her repeated assurances to him to the contrary. The Queen refused to accept it and thus he continued to work for Her Majesty, writing much of the historic address she gave live on TV on the eve of Diana’s funeral in 1997. Two years later he retired from royal service, taking the title Baron Fellowes of Shotesham, in the County of Norfolk.
