Queen Elizabeth II was not officially informed for nearly a decade that Anthony Blunt was a Soviet spy, newly declassified documents reveal.

The identity of a Russian spy among Queen Elizabeth II's courtiers was kept from the monarch for almost a decade, but she took the news with her typically calm demeanour

Sir Anthony Blunt, the Royal Family's picture surveyor and renowned art historian, finally admitted that he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s.

Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser’s double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries, newly declassified documents reveal.