Queen Elizabeth’s private letter about King Charles and Princess Anne as children up for auction
Queen Elizabeth II had already welcomed two of her four children when she took the throne in 1952.
Now, a letter from the late monarch about some of her early days of motherhood is up for grabs through RR Auction.
Addressed to her midwife Helen Row, called "Rowie," in the message, the letter is dated Oct. 4, 1950, just two months after she welcomed her daughter Anne, and when King Charles was almost 2.
"We are all getting on very well up here and I am feeling very much stronger already. 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," the letter begins.
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Queen Elizabeth was writing to Rowe from Balmoral Castle, the royal family’s residence in Scotland.
She continued, "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 letter concludes saying, "The children’s grandmother is spoiling her eldest quite openly and will do so with Anne if she got a chance!"
Queen Elizabeth also invited Rowe to the upcoming christening for Anne, and mentioned "Bobo," her nanny and dresser, who "is back from her holiday but is just as thin!"
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The four-page handwritten note, on Balmoral Castle letterhead, was signed, "Yours very sincerely, Elizabeth."
Bobby Livingston, executive VP at RR Auction, described the note in a statement, saying, "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."
The current bid price is $3,000, with the auction set to close on July 10.
Other items are available as well, including a signed photo of Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, as children, and an autographed oversized color photo of the queen in her crown jewels in 1968.
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The auction also boasts artifacts from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, like signed letters and photos from the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.