Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is being laid to rest on Monday in one of the biggest state funerals the world has ever seen.
Her Majesty, 96, passed away at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on Thursday 8 September after 70 years on the throne, setting in motion 11 days of mourning as the nation came together to remember an extraordinary public servant who was a constant presence in the lives of millions of Britons throughout a tumultuous period of world history.
Her funeral today began with her being transported the short distance from Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster in central London – where she has lain in state for five days, attracting huge queues of mourners – to Westminster Abbey on the other side of Parliament Square.
The coffin was escorted by members of her own family, the armed forces and 138 Royal Navy sailors, whose sacred duty it was to tow the 123-year-old gun carriage bearing it to the Abbey.
The service was presided over by the Dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, and attended by over 2,000 guests, including many of the Queen’s former prime ministers and a number of serving world leaders, including US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron, who flew in to pay their respects.
The coffin was draped in the royal standard, upon which the imperial state crown and a large wreath of flowers was laid.
Her Majesty’s eldest son and successor, King Charles III, was responsible for helping to choose the flora that comprised the wreath, the flowers cut from the gardens of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Highgrove House.
They were chosen for their emotional significance and to symbolise key moments of the Queen’s reign and include rosemary, for remembrance, and myrtle grown from a sprig taken from Her Majesty’s wedding bouquet.
Myrtle, an ivory flower, is thought to symbolise a happy marriage.
The wreath also included English oak to symbolise the strength of love, along with pelargoniums, garden roses, autumnal hydrangea, sedum, dahlias and scabious.
The chosen flowers are in shades of pink, deep burgundy, gold and white, so as to reflect the colours of the royal standard, and set in a nest of English moss.
Perhaps the King’s most personal touch of all was to include a handwritten card nestled among the petals, which read simply: “In loving and devoted memory. Charles R.”
Following the conclusion of this morning’s proceedings, Her Majesty’s coffin is being transported on from the Abbey, along Horse Guards Parade and The Mall, passed Buckingham Palace and on to the Wellington Arch at the far end of Green Park.
Big Ben is tolling at one-minute intervals as the procession continues, while gun salutes ring out from Hyde Park.
The state hearse will next join a westward-bound convoy leading the Queen to her final resting place at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, home to the royal family for over a millennia and Elizabeth II’s residence during the Second World War.
A private committal service will take place at St George’s at 4pm this afternoon, presided over by the Dean of Windsor, David Conner, which will see Queen Elizabeth II laid to rest alongside her late husband Prince Phillip, who died in April last year.
