Queen ‘spent a night in hospital after cancelling Northern Irish trip’ 

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The Queen spent the night in hospital for tests after dramatically cancelling an historic trip to Northern Ireland marking 100 years since the partition of the island. 

Royal doctors ordered Her Majesty, 95, to rest and advised her to miss a trip to the province, sparking speculation about the reason for the eleventh-hour cancellation.

It is understood the trip to an unnamed hospital in London on Wednesday afternoon was expected to be for a short stay for some preliminary investigations, so was not announced by the Palace at the time, as well as in order to protect the Queen’s medical privacy.  

Buckingham Palace said that the monarch stayed at the hospital overnight for the first time in eight years before she was discharged and returned to Windsor Castle at lunch today, where she is expected to recuperate for the rest of the week.

The Queen was understood to be in ‘good spirits’ and back at her desk at Windsor reading her official government red boxes. It is believed that her medical team acted out of caution to have her admitted yesterday and that the overnight stay was for practical reasons. 

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: ‘Following medical advice to rest for a few days, the Queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations, returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today, and remains in good spirits.’ 

The nation’s longest reigning monarch, whose husband the Duke of Edinburgh died just six months ago, has had a busy schedule since returning from Balmoral at the start of October. Including her return from the royal estate in Aberdeenshire, where she spent the summer, the Queen has travelled nearly 1,000 miles since the start of the month.

Last week, she was forced to start using a walking stick in public for the first time, a stark reminder of her advancing years. And on Tuesday evening she hosted a major Global Investment summit at Windsor Castle, where she looked bright and cheerful as she carried out her royal duties.  

Her admission is understood not to have been related to coronavirus. Buckingham Palace has not commented on whether the 95-year-old head of state has received her booster Covid jab, but given her age it is likely she has had it. 

Last year, the Queen carried out 136 engagements in person or via videolink over 130 days, with only Princess Anne (148 over 145 days) and Prince Charles (146 over 141 days) completing more. 

The Queen is expected to rest at Windsor Castle and aides said there were no plans to cancel her attendance at events for the UN climate summit in Glasgow at the end of this month.

She is likely to continue to hold private meetings at Windsor Castle next week but has no public engagements.

The Queen still keeps a busy diary of events and audiences and deals with her daily red boxes of official papers. 

Since she returned to Windsor from her summer break at Balmoral, the Queen has carried out 15 engagements, listed in the Court Circular, including her audiences, plus an additional trip to Ascot.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said the Queen’s autumn schedule had been more crammed than expected, but last-minute cancellations were inevitable in the future.

‘Every now and again there will be this reminder that she is 95 and she can’t do what was expected of her 10, 20 years ago,’ Mr Little said.

The Queen held two audiences this week via video link from Windsor Castle, greeting the Japanese ambassador Hajime Hayashi and the EU ambassador Joao de Almeida, followed by the investment summit in the evening.

Among those at the Windsor reception for billionaire business leaders, presidential envoys and tech entrepreneurs were Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, US climate envoy John Kerry, Poppy Gustafsson, chief executive of cyber security firm Darktrace, and Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. 

Royal sources had insisted there was no cause for concern, and stressed that the decision was made purely as a ‘precautionary’ measure.

There was no suggestion that the Queen had fallen ill and it was understood that her decision was not linked to Covid. It is understood she has received her booster jab.

But the monarch, who will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee next year, continues to stoically meet hundreds of work commitments each year – 30 years after most people have retired – and does suffer from recurrent back pain.

On Tuesday she hosted a summit for global investors and politicians at Windsor Castle, standing and shaking hands for around 40 minutes, the Mail was told.

A source said she was on ‘sparkling form’, welcoming guests including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and US presidential envoy John Kerry, telling Mr Kerry: ‘I saw you on telly the other night doing [Prince] William’s Earthshot Prize thing.’

As part of her planned trip to Northern Ireland, she had been expected to stay at Hillsborough Castle and undertake a series of public engagements there yesterday, staying overnight to attend a service to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland today.

It is highly unusual that such a major engagement would be cancelled at the last minute, suggesting staff are taking no chances with the head of state’s health, even if it is just precautionary.

Royal commentator Joe Little said the Queen’s age meant last-minute cancellations might become more frequent. The managing editor of Majesty magazine said: ‘When you get to the age of 95 and you have a role such as the Queen has, there is an inevitability about last-minute cancellations. Unfortunately, I think this is just how it’s going to have to be from time to time.’

He added: ‘Mentally, the Queen is pin-sharp as ever and when she makes speeches she speaks well. Every now and again there will be this reminder that she is 95 and she can’t do what was expected of her ten, 20 years ago.’

Mr Little said he believed the Queen would carry out fewer public engagements to mark her Platinum Jubilee than she did for her Diamond Jubilee.

And he said he did not believe she would agree to allow Charles to take over duties as a prince regent unless there was a ‘sharp deterioration’ in her health.

Her doctor’s advice will strengthen calls for her and her advisers to reconsider the number of engagements she undertakes. She has made schedule ‘tweaks’ and has handed over more arduous public duties such as investitures to other senior royals.

But there are some duties that only the reigning monarch can conduct. In recent weeks she has travelled to Holyrood and Cardiff to attend the opening of the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, taken part in a tree planting at Balmoral and launched the Commonwealth Games baton relay at Buckingham Palace.

Last week she used a walking stick for the first time at a public event – at a service for the centenary of the Royal British Legion. She has also taken part in several audiences at Windsor.

A royal source said: ‘With her Platinum Jubilee on the horizon, many are thinking that perhaps her private office needs to look at the diary again.’

Another source said: ‘No one is saying that she should take a step back, but perhaps another slight step to one side might be in order.’

At the weekend, the Queen enjoyed a day at the races at Ascot, and on Monday held a virtual audience with the new governor-general of New Zealand.

Last week, she travelled to Cardiff to deliver a speech at the ceremonial opening of the sixth Welsh Senedd in Cardiff. 

The monarch has been pictured out and about at the Royal Windsor Horse Show and Ascot in the months since, and still enjoys riding her own ponies. 

Earlier today, security sources had speculated whether the health scare was something of a ‘smokescreen’ with the centenary event becoming a ‘political hot potato’ after details of the Queen’s itinerary were leaked by Irish newspapers. 

The Irish Times previewed the Queen’s visit at the end of September and a leading security expert pointed out that details of the trip had been widely reported in Belfast. He said that revealing where the Queen would be ‘was as dangerous as it gets’. 

In the past, details of Royal visits to Northern Ireland were kept under wraps until the last moment. Off-record briefings would be given to the media on condition that the news would be embargoed until the visit was underway.  

There had also been confusion over the last-minute nature of the trip’s cancellation, especially as President Higgins’s invite rejection and the leaking of the Queen’s visit took place several weeks ago.  However, the revelation tonight appears to have laid those rumours to rest. 

The Queen’s husband of 73 years the Duke of Edinburgh died in April at the age of 99.  As well coping with the duke’s death, the Queen and the royal family have endured some of their most turbulent times in modern history in recent years. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plunged the monarchy into crisis with their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, while Philip was in hospital.

Harry and Meghan accused an unnamed member of the family of racism towards their son Archie before he was born, and the institution of failing to help the suicidal duchess.

The pair quit as senior working royals in 2020 in favour of more freedom and the ability to earn their own money in the US.

Harry said he felt let down by Charles and that ‘there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened’ in their relationship, and his long-standing rift with William has continued.

In the aftermath of the Oprah broadcast, the Queen issued a statement saying ‘while some recollections may vary’, the issues would be taken ‘very seriously’, but dealt with privately as a family.

The scandal that engulfed the Queen’s second son the Duke of York, who was forced to step back from public duties in November 2019, moved up a gear this year.

Andrew had faced mounting pressure and calls to answer the FBI’s questions following his ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

His friend Ghislaine Maxwell is to go on trial, charged with recruiting girls for Epstein. Maxwell denies the charges against her. Then in August 2021, Virginia Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by Epstein, started legal action against Andrew for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 and still a minor under US law.

Lawyers for Ms Giuffre filed the civil suit seeking unspecified damages at a federal court in New York.

She alleges she was sexually abused by Andrew at Maxwell’s home in London, Epstein’s New York mansion and at other locations including Epstein’s private Caribbean island Little St James.  Andrew categorically denies he had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Ms Giuffre. 

Despite the royals’ problems, there have also been times of celebration, with the Queen welcoming a host of new great-grandchildren.

Princess Eugenie gave birth to her first child, a son called August, in February 2021 and Zara Tindall welcomed her third, Lucas, who was born at home on the bathroom floor the month after.

Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet, who the Queen has yet to meet in person, arrived in June, and Princess Beatrice, who wed during the pandemic in a secret lockdown ceremony, had her daughter Sienna in September. 

On Tuesday evening, the Queen welcomed billionaire business leaders, presidential envoys and tech entrepreneurs to Windsor Castle for a reception. 

Mr Gates was among the guests invited to the Queen’s Berkshire home after the day-long conference in London aimed at encouraging foreign funding by showcasing the best of British innovation.

The Queen was joined by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge at the reception, and met some of the leading figures in the castle’s green drawing room before the royals mingled more widely.  Neither the royal family nor the guests were wearing masks. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to be introduced first, but he appeared after the Queen began welcoming her guests and took his place at the end of the line.

In a foreword for the Global Investment Summit’s official brochure, the Queen said she was ‘proud’ of how the UK is moving towards a sustainable future but ‘there is still much more to do’.

The head of state also urged nations to ‘rise to the challenge’ and avert the problems associated with climate change.

It comes after the monarch appeared to suggest last week she was irritated by a lack of action in tackling climate change.

In an overheard exchange following the opening of the Welsh Senedd she appeared to express her exasperation just a few weeks before world leaders gather in Glasgow for Cop26.