Queen misses church after hospital stay a week ahead of Cop26 duties

The Queen will continue her medically-ordered rest this week after missing a church service at the weekend in order to focus on her recovery.

The 95-year-old monarch remains at Windsor Castle but decided against attending the Sunday service at All Saints church at Royal Lodge on the estate.

She is still hoping to be able to host world leaders in a week’s time at a reception at the Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow – where the UK will be encouraging the rest of the world to sign up to strict carbon reductions in order to limit global temperature rises. 

The Queen is due to attend with Prince Charles and Camilla and Prince William and Kate.

Last week, she was forced to cancel a two-day visit to Northern Ireland and had to make an overnight stay at the King Edward VII Hospital in London, where Buckingham Palace said she underwent some preliminary tests.

It was her first overnight stay in a medical setting in eight years.

While she missed prayers at the All Saints chapel, she does have access to a private chapel adjacent to her apartments at the castle.

The Sun reported that the Queen was “knackered” due to a preference for late-night television as well as her busy schedule of official engagements in October.

Buckingham Palace initially kept the Queen’s stay in hospital a secret but was forced to reveal them after a leak to the Sun newspaper.

The monarch, who is head of the Church of England, is a devout Christian and regularly attends a service each week, although during the Covid crisis she opted for private prayers with a chaplain.

Buckingham Palace has not denied she missed the church service but aides have pointed to the orders from doctors to rest.

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