Queen Elizabeth was hugely admiring of her grandchildren and their achievements. Photo / Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth was hugely admiring of her grandchildren and their achievements. Photo / Getty Images
Each and every one of Queen Elizabeth II's eight grandchildren has been described as her "favourite" over the years.
Yet they all enjoyed an incredibly close bond with the woman they knew simply as "Grannie".
As the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex led a poignant grandchildren's vigil around Queen Elizabeth's coffin on Saturday night with their cousins - Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn - stories have once again begun to emerge about the remarkable relationship they all shared behind palace walls.
Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Princess Eugenie of York, Princess Beatrice of York, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall, Lady Louise Windsor at their grandmother the Queen's vigil. Photo / Getty Images
Like the time when the late Queen asked Prince Harry to record the first voicemail message on her new mobile phone. Ever the joker, according to royal author Phil Dampier, Harry spoke the following words into the handset: "Hey, wassup? This is Liz. Sorry I'm away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip, press one. For Charles, press two and for the corgis, press three!" The late monarch's private secretary Robin Janvrin got the shock of his life when he heard it, but she just laughed, having always shared her grandson's wicked sense of humour.
A few years later, in 2016, she agreed to star in an amusing video responding to Barack and Michelle Obama's Invictus Games challenge with the words: "Oh really, please."
Harry said afterwards: "I think it was almost as though you could see that look in her face, at the age of 90, thinking, 'Why the hell does nobody ask me to do these things more often?"
With the Duke of Edinburgh often playing pranks on his grandchildren, mischief is the word that appears to characterise the relationship between the oldest and youngest members of the House of Windsor.
In a documentary aired after Prince Philip died in April last year, both Harry, 38, and William, 40 revelled in the fact their grandparents used to love it when "things went wrong" on royal engagements. "You can imagine they live a life where everything has to go right the whole time, so when things go wrong, they both chuckle an awful lot," said William. "Everyone else gets mortally embarrassed, but they love it."
As her grandson and heir, the Prince of Wales had a special relationship with his late grandmother, which would see him regularly pop over to Windsor Castle for afternoon tea when he was a pupil at nearby Eton College.
The Queen apparently used to love it when "things went wrong" on royal engagements. Photo / Getty Images
As well as helping him to manage his grief following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 - when he was a boarder at the elite school - the late Queen also used their one-to-one sessions to subtly prime him for his role as future king, helping to instil in him her own unwavering sense of duty. Inherently shy like Queen Elizabeth, it is fair to say William has modelled his subtly statesmanlike yet unstuffy approach to royal life in her image.
As her oldest grandchildren, and the children of her only daughter, Princess Anne, the late Queen was always incredibly close to Peter Phillips, 44, and Zara Tindall, 41. She took great pride in Peter being head boy at Gordonstoun, Prince Philip's alma mata, and of him representing Scotland at rugby at a junior level. Of course, she was also proud of all of Zara's equestrian achievements having won the Eventing World Championship in 2006 before winning a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. But the thing she always used to delightedly tell friends about her granddaughter was that she was a qualified physiotherapist.
Having been home schooled, Queen Elizabeth was hugely admiring of her grandchildren being educated to degree level (and equally proud of Harry's 10 years of service in the British Army, which saw him complete two tours of Afghanistan).
The 10-year age gap between the King, 73, and the Princess Royal, 72, and their younger siblings the Duke of York, 62 and the Earl of Wessex, 58, meant that the late Queen saw much more of her York and Wessex grandchildren when they were little than their older cousins because she was spending less time overseas.
When William and Harry were growing up in the 80s and 90s, royal tours would take months - but by the time Lady Louise and Viscount Severn came along in the Noughties, life had slowed down a little.
With Andrew being so close to his late mother - in both a familial and geographical sense, living at Sunninghill Park in Berkshire and then Royal Lodge, Windsor - his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, saw a great deal of granny. Even when Andrew divorced the Duchess of York in 1996, Queen Elizabeth remained on good terms with "Fergie", apparently making the point to Philip, who wasn't much of a fan thanks to her front page indiscretions: "Whatever you say about her, she's a good mother."
Princess Beatrice and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, appear to be in stitches while attending the Ascot Races with the Queen. Photo / Getty Images
In 2012, Beatrice, 34, oversaw the refurbishment of a two-storey thatched cottage that the late Queen and her sister Princess Margaret used to play in when they were little.
"And we have been lucky enough to play here, and cousins and second cousins," she revealed at the time. "It's a real family treat. It's the most glamorous Wendy house ever."
In 2012, when asked what it was like to have the Queen as a grandmother, a clearly doting Eugenie, 32, replied: "Whenever Granny walks into a room, everyone stands up, stops, and just kind of watches her because, obviously, it's huge when she walks into a room. And I find that incredible. I kind of go, 'Ah'."
In 2003, the Countess of Wessex nearly died giving birth to Lady Louise, now 18, after suffering a placental abruption. According to royal author Ingrid Seward: "The Queen went to see her in hospital, which was unheard of. She rather took Sophie under her wing, maybe from that moment on."
With the Wessexes' Bagshot Park home just 11 miles from Windsor Castle, Louise and James, 14, saw so much of their grandparents at weekends that staff would speak of "stepping over tricycles" to gain entry. The Wessexes also regularly holidayed with the late Queen and Prince Philip as the Countess confirmed to me in an interview with Telegraph magazine in June last year.
"The poor Queen has had to put up with us staying on much longer than anybody else in Scotland and Norfolk," she said. "Because the children were interested in ponies and things – it was a natural draw for us to be there."
Reflecting on her beloved father-in-law's death two months earlier, she added: "We were very lucky that the children did have so much contact."
As they bowed their heads in sorrow to remember their cherished grandmother on Saturday night, Queen Elizabeth's eight grandchildren will have been gratefully holding on to that touching sentiment.
