Towards the end of her life, the late Queen Elizabeth was in ‘crippling pain’ every day, a royal expert has claimed, but despite this she continued with her royal duties right until the very end

When the late Queen Elizabeth was approaching the end of her life, she relentlessly experienced “crippling pain” every day, but she never allowed this to get in the way of completing her royal duties.

King Charles – then the Prince of Wales – was ready on hand to deputise for his mother, and royal aides even reportedly encouraged the late Queen to hand over some of her high-profile final duties to her son given the health challenges she was facing. But despite the help available to her, the former monarch refused these offers, putting her duty above her personal comfort right until the end of her life – a royal author has claimed.

The author – Omid Scobie – revealed just how much the late Queen Elizabeth was struggling behind closed doors during her final days in his bombshell book Endgame. The author explained that when Boris Johnson resigned as Prime Minister and Liz Truss took his place, royal aides suggested that Charles invite Truss to form a new government, given the “crippling pain” the late Queen was in.

However, Scobie wrote, the late Queen “defiantly” refused the suggestion, showing her intrinsic commitment to her duties as monarch. The meetings went ahead in Balmoral, so Queen Elizabeth didn’t have to travel to London just two days before her death. “Concerned courtiers suggested to the monarch that she might be better off letting Prince Charles carry out the task in her place,” Scobie wrote. “After all, the heir had already stood in for his mother at the opening of Parliament four months earlier. But this was one duty the Queen—despite the crippling pain she was experiencing in private—would not step aside from. ‘It’s my job,’ she defiantly told aides.

“Her meeting with Truss was short, lasting a little under an hour, and the Queen concluded it by allowing a photograph of the two to be released—the monarch with her walking stick in her hand (a dark wood favoUrite that once belonged to Prince Philip) and a room-lighting smile.”

The meeting with Truss saw the final public photographs of the late Queen taken by Jane Barlow, PA Media photographer, who called it “an honour and a privilege” to snap the last official pictures of the monarch. Barlow also has revealed to the BBC that despite the visible frailty of the late Queen, even in her final days she was in “good spirits” and “very smiley”.