Before she became Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth was a mom of two youngsters.
A handwritten letter signed by the history-making monarch to her midwife, Helen Rowe (called “Rowie” in the message), is up for bid via RR Auction. The note is dated Oct. 4, 1950, less than two months after the then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip became parents of two. The future King Charles became a big brother with the birth of Princess Anne in August of that year.
Elizabeth, then 24, penned the letter from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the beloved residence that the British royal family traditionally retreats in the late summer and early fall. It’s also where Queen Elizabeth died in Sept. 2022 at age 96.
“We are all getting on very well up here and I am feeling very much stronger already,” the royal wrote. “It was lovely to be on the hill again the second day I was here, but the third day, the Jeep which takes one everywhere over the ground missed picking me up and I had to walk down to the road, with the result that I strained my knee on something, which has been very effective in keeping me within bounds! However, the air is so good that I feel better every day, and though I still go to sleep in the afternoon, I don’t do it so often now.”
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She continued with updates on her two children: “Charles is getting fatter as he has an enormous appetite and takes a great deal of exercise. I find it extremely difficult to explain it away when he looks at something he can’t reach and then turns his back meaningly on me and says, ‘Mummy, lift!’ He enjoyed the train journey far more than Anne, who wasn’t too keen on the rattling to begin with, but she has steadily been putting on weight up here and has got lovely pink cheeks after she has been out. The sugar in her foods is gradually going up, and she doesn’t seem to be nearly so ravenous, often sleeping right up to bottle time.”
“The children’s grandmother is spoiling her eldest quite openly and will do so with Anne if she got a chance!” Elizabeth added, concluding that she hoped to see her midwife at Princess Anne’s christening.
The four-page note was signed, “Yours very sincerely, Elizabeth.”
RR Auction
The highest bid for the handwritten and signed note was $1,149 as of June 28.
Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction, said in a statement: “A wonderful letter from the princess, touching on the health of her two young children: Charles, a month shy of his second birthday, and Anne, who was only one month and 19 days old when this letter was written.”
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RR Auction
Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne in 1952 when Charles was 3 (making him heir apparent) and Anne was 1. The Queen and Prince Philip went on to welcome two more children: Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.
The Fine Autograph and Artifacts auction by RR Auction, which concludes on July 10, also includes a signed photograph of Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, as children and an oversized color portrait of Queen Elizabeth adorned in her crown jewels, signed in 1968.
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