Prince Charles and Prince William have rushed to be by the Queen’s side amid serious health fears for the nation’s longest-reigning monarch.
Buckingham Palace issued a short but worrying statement on Thursday lunchtime saying doctors are ‘concerned’ for the 96-year-old’s health.
They said the head of state is comfortable and royal physicians have recommended she stays under medical supervision.
Clarence House and Kensington Palace soon announced that the future king, the Prince of Wales, and second in line to the throne, and the Duke of Cambridge had cleared their diaries to dash to the Queen’s Scottish Highlands home.
Sources said Princess Anne is at Balmoral, while Andrew and Edward are on their way to the royal residence.
Prince Harry, despite long-running tension with the monarchy, is also travelling to Scotland after cancelling plans to attend the WellChild Awards on the last day of the Sussex’s mini European tour. Wife Meghan Markle will remain in London, a source said, but could make the trip north later.
The Duchess of Cambridge remains in Windsor to take care of her and William’s children, who had their first full day at their new school on Thursday.
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The Queen pulled out of a virtual Privy Council on Wednesday, a day after appointing Liz Truss as Prime Minister at Balmoral.
A Palace spokesman said: ‘Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.
‘The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.’
The man in charge of looking after the Queen’s health is Professor Sir Huw Thomas, Head of the Medical Household and Physician to the Queen.
Sir Huw has been Head of the Medical Household since 2014 and was knighted last year after being invested with the Insignia of a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
It is likely the Queen wanted to thank Sir Huw personally for his care of her and the royal family.
Sir Huw, who is also professor of gastrointestinal genetics at Imperial College London’s department of surgery and cancer, has previously spoken of how grateful he was to be recognised for his service.
Speaking at Imperial at the time of his knighthood, he said: ‘It’s been a busy couple of years in this role, so I feel very grateful to have been recognised for my service to date.’
He added: ‘You very much become part of that organisation and become the personal doctor to the principal people in it, who are patients just like other patients.
‘With the pandemic, the key priority of the Medical Household is trying to make sure that the people under its care are kept safe.’
Sir Huw has also been involved in delivering some of the younger members of the royal family.
He was part of the team who looked after the Duchess of Cambridge when she gave birth to daughter Charlotte in 2015 and youngest son Louis in 2018 at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, alongside Guy Thorpe-Beeston, surgeon gynaecologist to the royal household, and consultant gynaecologist Alan Farthing, surgeon gynaecologist to the Queen.
Messages expressing deep concern flooded in from political leaders, while the Archbishop of Canterbury said the ‘prayers of the nation’ are with the Queen.
Ms Truss said ‘the whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace this lunchtime’ adding: ‘My thoughts – and the thoughts of people across our United Kingdom – are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family at this time.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was ‘deeply worried’ by the news from Buckingham Palace and added he was hoping for the Queen’s recovery.
He tweeted: ‘Along with the rest of the country, I am deeply worried by the news from Buckingham Palace this afternoon.
‘My thoughts are with Her Majesty the Queen and her family at this time, and I join everyone across the United Kingdom in hoping for her recovery.’
The whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace this lunchtime.
My thoughts – and the thoughts of people across our United Kingdom – are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family at this time.
Former prime ministers David Cameron and Sir Tony Blair were amongst those sending messages of support.
‘I send my heartfelt thoughts and prayers to Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family at this worrying time,’ Mr Cameron wrote.
Sir Tony tweeted: ‘It is deeply concerning to hear today’s news from Buckingham Palace.
‘My thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and her family at this worrying time.’
The Queen has had ongoing mobility issues and looked bright but frail while using a walking stick during Tuesday’s audience with Ms Truss, which followed a visit from outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson as he tendered his resignation.
The Queen’s health has been scrutinised in recent months, with fears growing during her summer retreat at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire.
Members of the royal family are rushing to her side after doctors put her under medical supervision on Thursday over concerns for her health.
It comes as the monarch, 96, has pulled out of key events due to ongoing mobility issues in recent months.
Here is a timeline of the key dates over recent weeks:
– July 21
The Queen travelled to her private Scottish home of Balmoral for the start of her traditional summer break.
– July 28
The Prince of Wales represents the Queen at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and reads a message from the Queen put in the Commonwealth Games Baton.
– August 8
The Queen’s traditional welcome to Balmoral Castle by a guard of honour is reportedly held in private inside the grounds, with a source saying: ‘This is a change in line with events being adapted for Her Majesty’s comfort.’
– September 3
The Queen misses the Braemar Gathering, the popular Highland Games event, and the Prince of Wales officially opens a new structure celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
It is understood the decision was taken for the comfort of the head of state.
– September 6
The Queen receives Boris Johnson at Balmoral Castle as he leaves office before she greets Liz Truss to ask her to form a government and become Prime Minister.
The historic audience is the first time the 96-year-old monarch carried out the key duty at her retreat in Aberdeenshire, rather than at Buckingham Palace.
– September 7
The Queen postpones her Privy Council meeting after being advised by royal doctors to rest.
– September 8
Buckingham Palace announces that the Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral, with royal doctors saying they are concerned with her health.
Members of the royal family, including the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, rush to be by her side.
During her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Queen only travelled to Buckingham Palace twice, first for her Trooping the Colour balcony appearance and then for a finale after the pageant.
She secretly spent a night in hospital for tests in October and was ordered by doctors to rest for the next three months, missing the Remembrance Sunday Cenotaph service and Cop26 climate change talks.
The Queen caught Covid in February. After experiencing mild cold-like symptoms, she said the virus left her ‘very tired and exhausted’.
She is the only British monarch to have celebrated a Platinum Jubilee.
Her reign has stretched from the post-war years into a new millennium and a radically altered 21st century.
In her twilight era, she has been setting her affairs in order, using her Jubilee message to endorse her daughter-in-law, the Duchess of Cornwall, once a royal mistress, as a future queen to be crowned at the Prince of Wales’s side when he becomes king.
Balmoral has long been one of the Queen’s favourite places and she is said to never be happier than when staying there.
She travels to the estate in Aberdeenshire each summer, with members of her family invited to spend time with her while she is there.
Balmoral Castle was handed down to her through generations of royals after being bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852.
The Queen’s traditional annual stay at the main property – after a break at Craigowan Lodge on the estate in July – usually stretches through August and September and into October.
This year she travelled to Balmoral on July 21 and remained at the estate to appoint a new prime minister there for the first time in her reign on Tuesday.
The 96-year-old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, traditionally holds audiences with outgoing and incoming premiers at Buckingham Palace but this year stayed in Scotland.
Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson and his successor Liz Truss made the 1,000-mile round trip to Aberdeenshire for the key audiences this week.
It came after the Queen broke with convention earlier this summer when inspecting a guard of honour to officially mark taking up residence at her Scottish home.
Traditionally she inspects the guard of honour at the gates of Balmoral but this year she held the event privately within the estate’s grounds for her ‘comfort’, sources said.
Balmoral, like Sandringham, is a private residence of the Queen rather than a royal residence belonging to the Crown.
Princess Eugenie, the Queen’s granddaughter, once described Balmoral as the most beautiful place on the planet.
‘Walks, picnics, dogs – a lot of dogs, there’s always dogs – and people coming in and out all the time,’ she said.
‘It’s a lovely base for Granny and Grandpa, for us to come and see them up there; where you just have room to breathe and run.’
Years of royal memories have been forged at Balmoral, including family barbecues – where the Duke of Edinburgh did the cooking and the Queen the washing-up.
After Philip and Princess Elizabeth married in 1947, they spent part of their honeymoon at Birkhall – a grand hunting lodge on the Balmoral estate.
The Queen was staying with her grandsons William and Harry at Balmoral when their mother Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
The Queen also faced a run of royal troubles in her Jubilee year.
She stripped her son, the Duke of York, of his military roles, with Andrew giving up his HRH style before agreeing to pay millions to settle a civil sexual assault case.
Her beloved consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, to whom she was married for 73 years, died in April 2021.
The royal family’s website appeared to temporarily crash following the news of the Queen’s ill health.
An error message appeared on screen reading: ‘Gateway time-out.’
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