The Queen is known for keeping her composure in front of the most challenging situations and she has maintained her political neutrality for most of her reign. However, she is reported to have broken with the royal rule of offering no insight into her position on matters of state when the legacy of the United Kingdom came under threat. Royal commentators have claimed Her Majesty would have been “desperately sad” to see the Union break down in 2014 and the thought of Scotland leaving prompted her into letting voters know her mind.
Channel 5’s Secrets of the Royal Palaces narrator Samantha Bond said: “Despite any feelings she might have, the Queen must hold an impartial position. Her personal views are not supposed to feature.
“But the threat of the breakup of the United Kingdom called for desperate measures, as David Cameron later admitted.
“David Cameron later insisted that he hadn’t asked her to do anything unconstitutional. On Sunday September 14, with four days remaining before the vote, the Queen stopped to speak to the crowd.
“As the Queen exchanged a few words with the crowd, she made an unusual comment before leaving.”
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Royal commentator Emily Andrews said: “The Queen said, ‘I hope the people think very carefully.'”
Ms Andrews claimed the Queen’s personal secretary had met with aides to Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss whether Her Majesty could branch out from her usual role ahead of the referendum.
She continued: “Their private secretaries decided that the Queen could perhaps say something in a very non-political way to maybe suggest what her thoughts were.”
Prime Minister Cameron was reported to have been keen to ensure the Queen would let voters know her thoughts on Scotland’s plans to become independent after polls suggested the Yes vote had pulled ahead of the unionist campaign.
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Broadcaster Susie Boniface said: “David Cameron was very keen the Queen should intervene in some way. Didn’t want to do anything she was uncomfortable doing, but she could, he said, raise an eyebrow so much as a quarter of an inch, it might make a huge difference.
“Her job is to remain politically impartial and to do what her Government instructs her to do.
“That is impossible, it’s a Catch-22. On the one hand, she has to do what he tells her, on the other hand he’s telling her to do something that is unconstitutional and is putting her in an invidious position.”
Despite the alleged break from the protocol of neutrality most royals abide by, royal correspondent Simon Vigar suggested the move may have been motivated by Her Majesty’s close links to Scotland.
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Mr Vigar said: “The Queen cares deeply about Scotland. She would be desperately sad if the United Kingdom actually split up.”
Her Majesty is herself of Scottish descent as her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
The Queen still spends part of her summer at the Scottish residence of Balmoral and the Royal Family is known to have a special bond with the nation.
With SNP plans to hold a new independence referendum in the event of a victory at the polls in May, speculation arose about plans to have the Earl and the Countess of Wessex relocate to Edinburgh in a bid to show the monarchy’s commitment to Scotland.
