Queen Elizabeth II began her last journey on Sunday, her coffin leaving Balmoral Castle for Edinburgh, before her solemn return to London on Tuesday. His funeral will be held on September 19 at Westminster Abbey.
It is with great emotion that thousands of Britons paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday, during the course of her funeral procession linking Balmoral to Edinburgh in Scotland.
The glass-enclosed hearse, carrying the oak coffin covered with the Scottish Royal Standard, passed through the gates of Balmoral shortly before 9am this morning. The procession began a 300 km journey through the Scottish countryside, passing through Aberdeen and Dundee before reaching Edinburgh in the late afternoon.
>> Find our follow-up of events: Emotion and compact crowd for Queen Elizabeth II’s last trip to Scotland
He will then spend the night at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Scottish royal residence, before being transported to Saint-Gilles Cathedral on Monday. It will be stored there for 24 hours for a religious service and a funeral wake.
Arrival in London on Tuesday
The Queen’s coffin will then be flown to London on Tuesday evening. He will rest at the Palace of Westminster from September 14, following a very specific protocol called “London Bridge”. For four days, hundreds of thousands of Britons are expected to pay their respects to the Queen, in a slow procession passing through Westminster Hall, accessible twenty-three hours a day.
The planned tail could stretch for miles, crossing over Vauxhall Bridge and then across the Thames. The deputies will have priority, as well as many personalities and crowned heads.
State funeral on September 19
The state funeral will take place on Monday, September 19, when the coffin will be transferred to Westminster Abbey, the center of royal weddings, coronations and burials for almost a millennium.
Westminster Abbey, London. [Kirsty Wigglesworth – reuters]
The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. The day will be declared national mourning and two minutes of silence will be marked at noon across the country. The Archbishop of Canterbury will preside over the ceremony and the mass will be filmed.
At the exit, the coffin will be placed on a green cannon carriage which has already been used during the funerals of three previous sovereigns: George VI in 1952, George-V in 1936 and Edward VII in 1910. The procession will then continue a procession of 37 miles to Windsor, the Queen’s main residence for years.
It is in the chapel of Saint-George, a Gothic church located inside the enclosure of the castle, that the last moments will take place. The cameras will stop filming and the gates will be closed. The body of Elizabeth II will be lowered into the royal vault, where she will join her husband and twenty-five of her ancestors.
saje with agencies