Queen Elizabeth II was watching television coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks from Balmoral when she received a call informing her that a close friend and confidant, Henry Herbert, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon and known as "Porchey," had died suddenly, author Tina Brown writes in her book The Palace Papers.
Brown, a journalist and royal commentator, said the Queen — who seldom watched afternoon television except for horse racing — was "mesmerised by the calamitous images pouring out of New York City" when the phone call arrived. According to Brown, the 77‑year‑old Earl of Carnarvon suffered a fatal heart attack at Highclere Castle after becoming agitated while watching news coverage of the attacks; his wife, Jeannie Wallop, said he collapsed and later died in an ambulance.
The events of Sept. 11 claimed 2,977 lives, including 67 British nationals, the second‑largest foreign contingent after the United States. Brown wrote that the simultaneous experience of international catastrophe and private bereavement brought into sharp relief the monarch's public responsibilities. "Multiples of human loss on the other side of the Atlantic collided with the Queen's own intimate bereavement at home, but her public duty as sovereign allowed her little time for personal mourning," Brown wrote.
Brown also drew a comparison to the suddenness of Princess Diana's death in 1997, saying the "magical remoteness of Balmoral was pierced by inescapable human pain." She wrote that lessons learned from the royal family's handling of Diana's death affected the way the monarchy responded to the Sept. 11 attacks, prompting a more outwardly responsive posture toward Britain's allies.
In the days immediately following the attacks, royal ceremonial acknowledgments punctuated official condolences. Brown recounts that the next day the Coldstream Guards marched down the Mall to selections by American military composer John Philip Sousa, and that the tribute in the Palace courtyard opened with "The Star‑Spangled Banner," played for thousands of mourning American expatriates who had gathered outside Buckingham Palace. The Queen traveled to London to offer condolences to the U.S. ambassador, William Farish, and to attend a Service of Remembrance at St. Paul's Cathedral. At that service, Prince Philip read from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, including the passage "If God is for us, who can be against us?" which Brown described as "emotionally and diplomatically perfect."
Members of the royal family have continued to mark anniversaries of the attacks alongside British officials. In 2003 Princess Anne opened the September 11 Memorial Garden in Grosvenor Square — dedicated to the British victims and containing a piece of the North Tower — surrounded by an oak pergola and pavilion that bears the words "Grief is the price we pay for love," a phrase drawn from a message the Queen delivered at a New York remembrance service a week after the attacks.
The Queen visited Ground Zero in 2010, where she laid a wreath and met family members and emergency responders. In 2011 Prince Charles and then‑Prime Minister David Cameron laid wreaths at the Grosvenor Square memorial to mark the 10th anniversary. For the 20th anniversary, the Queen issued a message in which she said her "thoughts and prayers — and those of my family and the entire nation — remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty on that day." She noted that her 2010 visit to the World Trade Center site remained "held fast in my memory" and that it underscored the resilience of communities that rebuilt after the attacks.
Brown's account situates the Queen's personal loss alongside the wider diplomatic and commemorative work undertaken by the monarchy in the wake of Sept. 11. Public memorials, royal visits and messages of condolence have formed part of the United Kingdom's engagement with the victims, survivors and allied nations across subsequent anniversaries.
The converging private and public dimensions of that day — a globally significant act of terror and a sudden personal death for the monarch — are presented in Brown's book as an example of how major events can collide in ways that shape leaders' immediate responses and longer‑term commemorative practices.