That the Queen is a deeply religious committed Christian has never been in doubt, and her commitment to her faith runs much deeper. She was christened in the chapel at Buckingham Palace on 26 May 1926 by the then Archbishop of York and confirmed when she was fifteen years old in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle by William Temple, Fisher’s predecessor as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

From a very early age, she was brought up to say her prayers both in the morning before breakfast and in the evening before going to bed. This tradition was instilled by her mother and continued by her nanny Clara Knight. Both Elizabeth and later Margaret never missed kneeling at the foot of their bed with their hands clasped in prayer. It was as much part of their daily life as brushing their hair and getting dressed.

Going to church on Sunday has been part of her routine throughout her life, wherever she happens to be. At Windsor, she has St George’s Chapel, which was founded in 1348 by King Edward III as the mother church to the Order of the Garter. The chapel is large and impersonal and extremely ornate, with seventy-six heraldic statues representing the Queen’s Beasts on its roof, standing on pinnacles. The chapel has often been used for royal weddings, and the union of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 received a blessing there from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Queen and Prince Philip are not frequently seen on Sundays at St George’s, as neither of them enjoy sermons. Philip has instructed the Dean of Windsor that sermons must be limited to not more than twelve minutes long.

Much more intimate is the private chapel in the castle. It was destroyed by the fire in 1992 and rebuilt with only twenty-five seats. The new organ had to be designed to fit into a very small triangular loft. In the grounds of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park there is another chapel, Queen Victoria’s Chapel, or the Royal Chapel, where the Queen and Prince Philip regularly worship. When the Queen Mother was still alive, it was a Sunday ritual to attend the service at the Royal Chapel and retire afterwards to Royal Lodge for some stiff pre-lunch drinks. Like her daughter, Queen Elizabeth had a traditional and uncomplicated faith and derived a great deal of support from it.

The Queen takes communion only three or four times a year in the old Low Church tradition, and according to her former deputy private secretary, Sir Kenneth Scott, ‘She prefers simplicity to pomposity, so when she’s at Windsor she’ll go to the little chapel in the park rather than St George’s, which she considers rather pompous. In Edinburgh, too, she doesn’t go to St Giles’. She prefers the Canongate Kirk as she liked the minister who made her laugh.’