The final moments of Queen Elizabeth II before her family hurried to her deathbed

The 96-year-old queen was under "medical monitoring" but "remained comfortable" at her Scottish getaway, Balmoral Castle, according to an unusual medical report sent by Buckingham Palace.
 
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It started with a brief but unsettling sentence. Less than 48 hours after being pictured appointing new Prime Minister Liz Truss, Queen Elizabeth II's doctors expressed "alarm" about her condition.

The 96-year-old queen was under "medical monitoring" but "remained comfortable" at her Scottish getaway, Balmoral Castle, according to an unusual medical report sent by Buckingham Palace.

The parliament, where MPs had assembled to hear Truss announce a two-year cap on energy rates, was rocked by the announcement at 12:32 pm (1132 GMT).

Immediately after arriving at Balmoral Castle, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla—who were already residing on the Balmoral estate—were proclaimed by the office of the heir to the throne as having done so.

Princess Anne, a descendant of the queen who was also in Scotland, is thought to have arrived at Balmoral in time as well.

It is believed that both were by the queen's side when she passed away on Thursday afternoon.

However, some family members had to make a drawn-out and ultimately fruitless escape from London.

Prince William, the second in line to the throne, the queen's other two sons, Princes Andrew and Edward, and Edwards' wife Sophie, who was particularly close to the monarch, flew in on a special RAF plane late in the afternoon to a chilly, dreary Aberdeen.

After that, William, who is now the heir, took the wheel and began the 80-kilometer (50-mile) trip to Balmoral.

However, it was already too late when the grim-faced royals stormed through Balmoral's gate shortly after 5:00 p.m.

The prime minister was notified that the queen had passed away that afternoon at 4:30 p.m.

The second son of Charles, Prince Harry, was still travelling from London.

The couple's publicist first stated that he and his wife Meghan will jointly visit Balmoral.

Harry ultimately travelled alone and was still in the air at 6:30 p.m. when the official palace announcement was made to the globe.

He took a long time to get to Balmoral.

Nicholas Witchell, the BBC's royal correspondent, claimed live on air that Meghan, who has made a number of negative remarks about the royal family, decided not to travel because she feared "she would not be too warmly welcomed."

The queen passed away "peacefully," according to the palace statement, but in keeping with royal custom, no cause of death was given.

The Daily Mail publication was informed by sources that "no chronic illness" existed.

Even though the queen had been doing much less work lately, she still met with both the outgoing Boris Johnson and the incoming Liz Truss on Tuesday.

Despite her recent and well-documented "mobility problems," the insiders told the newspaper that the queen had been in high spirits before things suddenly got worse during the night of Wednesday to Thursday.