Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral marks culmination of national mourning

Queen Elizabeth II has begun the journey to her closing resting place at Windsor after a momentous state funeral at Westminster Abbey, attended by world leaders and British residents mourning the nation’s longest-serving monarch.

Crowds thronged the route of the Queen’s coffin because it made its method from the abbey by means of the guts of ceremonial London to Wellington Arch, earlier than being taken west to Windsor for a ceremony of committal. Later the Queen might be buried there together with her late husband, Prince Philip.

The state funeral, the primary held in Britain since Winston Churchill’s loss of life in 1965, got here on the finish of 10 days of nationwide mourning in Britain, a interval that noticed the nation come collectively to mark a dislocation in its historical past but additionally a second of unity and continuity.

The Queen’s coffin was on Monday morning introduced on a gun carriage to the abbey from the cavernous silence of Westminster Corridor, the place she had laid in relaxation for 4 full days; her lying-in-state ended at 6.30am on Monday.

A whole bunch of hundreds of individuals from all over the world had joined “the queue” — a line stretching for 5 miles alongside the banks of the river Thames — to pay tribute to the Queen, who reigned for 70 years. Folks within the queue spoke of a uncommon sense of responsibility and camaraderie.

Earlier than the funeral King Charles mentioned he was “deeply touched” by the help he had obtained from the world over. On the ceremony itself, his eyes have been mounted firmly on his mom’s coffin because the congregation sang the nationwide anthem, “God Save the King”.

The state funeral, whose order of service and hymns have been agreed in session with the late Queen, noticed a rare forged of world leaders drawn to London to recollect a lady whose reign spanned Britain’s postwar period.

US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Emperor Naruhito — making his first journey exterior his nation since ascending the throne in 2019 — joined European royalty within the abbey, the place the late Queen was married and topped.

Round 200 key employees and volunteers, recognised within the Queen’s Birthday Honours checklist in June, have been additionally among the many 2,000 invited to attend. The leaders of Russia, Afghanistan, Syria and Venezuela have been amongst these left off the visitor checklist.

The ten days of rigorously choreographed mourning have been supposed to offer ample house for grief, but additionally to mark the position of the British royal household as a supply of continuity in nationwide life. Westminster Abbey has been the venue for royal coronations since William the Conqueror in 1066.

The Queen’s great-grandchildren, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, joined the King and different members of royal household because the coffin processed by means of the abbey. The occasion was anticipated to have been watched by one of many world’s largest ever dwell broadcast audiences.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, famous in his sermon that “those that serve” can be remembered longer than “those that cling to energy and privilege”, a comment which may have resonated with among the politicians gathered within the abbey.

He additionally recalled the late monarch’s nationwide broadcast through the pandemic: “Service in life, hope in loss of life: all who comply with the Queen’s instance, and inspiration of belief and religion in God, can together with her say: ‘We are going to meet once more.’” He mentioned the late monarch had loved “an considerable life”.

These attending the state funeral in individual started arriving lengthy earlier than it began at 11am, with most of the world leaders arriving on buses as a significant safety operation swung into motion. Round 10,000 cops have been on responsibility on the occasion, together with 1,500 troopers.

There was debate this week within the media about whether or not Britain’s sombre and united response to the Queen’s loss of life, together with the spectacular ceremony, is a reminder of the nation’s greatness or a distraction from its many issues.

However whereas this week many world leaders will assemble for the overall meeting of the UN in New York, on Monday the gothic church of Westminster Abbey was briefly the point of interest of world energy because the world remembered the late Queen.

Among the mourners wiped away tears through the funeral service, which started with the hymn chosen by the Queen herself: “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord is Ended”.

Among the key symbolic moments of the day’s ceremonies will happen away from the capital throughout Monday afternoon’s committal service in St George’s Chapel at Windsor.

The ceremonial coronary heart of the service will come when the Queen’s Bargemaster and a Serjeant at Arms will take away the devices of state — the crown, orb and sceptre used within the coronation — from the highest of the coffin.

The second represents the completion of a circle began when George VI died, the devices have been faraway from his coffin and subsequently introduced to the late Queen at her coronation in 1953.

Shortly afterwards the Lord Chamberlain, an official personally appointed by the sovereign, will break his wand of workplace and place it on the coffin.

The dean will learn Psalm 103 whereas the coffin is lowered into the royal vault. An extra, personal burial service for the fast royal household will comply with within the night, because the Queen is laid to relaxation.