In death she was as in life incomparable. Undoubtedly, the most eloquent tribute in British or world history to the sovereign who ruled over all other monarchs, and whose life and travels were unparalleled, has been paid.
The odyssey of emotions that carried Elizabeth II from the forests of Aberdeenshire and on through two ancient capitals came to a spectacular journey’s end yesterday afternoon at Windsor Castle.
Had William the Conqueror’s fortress, at any point in its 1,000-year history, looked down upon scenes quite like this?
Here was the noblest avenue in the land – the Long Walk – filled to every ancient inch of its immense, oak and chestnut-crowned magnificence in honour of the Longest Reign.
Unspoken was the same heartfelt message from all: Welcome home, Ma’am. So ends the modern Elizabethan age.
Elizabeth II was surrounded by thousands of mourners as she went to Her Maker through not just two spectacular church services, but three perfect, step-by-step processions. She had the highest ranking representatives of nearly all humanity in her congregation; she was accompanied by troops from her various realms. The result has been a spectacular display of pageantry.
Yet for yesterday’s global television audience, what will be the abiding image? It will likely be the epic scenes in which a Windsor grieving bids farewell one its own.
Here was the noblest avenue in the land – the Long Walk – filled to every ancient inch of its immense, oak and chestnut-crowned magnificence in honour of the Longest Reign
For others, it will be the sight of Her Late Majesty’s two corgis, Muick and Sandy, and Emma, the trusty Fell pony, that linger even longer in the memory than yesterday’s assembly of kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers, not to mention the world’s last tsar and its only remaining emperor.
Or perhaps it will be the enchanting image of Prince George and Princess Charlotte concentrating hard as they kept the pace in their very first procession; or the Mounties at the head of the funeral of a monarch who was just as proud to be Queen of Canada as Queen of the UK; or the carpet of floral tributes stretching all the way up Windsor’s Long Walk to the statue of George III, three miles distant; or the Lord Chamberlain breaking his wand of office over the late Queen’s mortal remains, accompanied by Garter King of Arms’s doleful proclamation of the styles and titles of ‘the late Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God’.
Others might find it to be an inspirational selection of music. Hers is the most extensive of all the choirs she has and the massed band that she can muster.
This day of the days is what modern society could do better. Everything, except maybe Coronation Day 53.
What none outside the late Queen’s immediate family will have seen, though, was the final and most dramatic act of all.
At 7.30pm last night, in the crypt beneath Windsor Castle’s tiny George VI Memorial Chapel, she was finally reunited with the three people who shaped her life more than any other: her father, her mother and her ‘beloved’ Philip. There were also the ashes from Princess Margaret, her younger sister. She will be able to spend eternity there.
The most affluent members of nearly all humanity were in her congregations. Her escorts also included riders and troops from other realms. We have never witnessed pageantry like it before after her death.
It was not for the boastful sarcophagus she possessed, nor the kind of triumphal mausoleum which Queen Victoria constructed for herself at Windsor. Elizabeth II has always been content to just follow Papa.
From the first to the last, humble and obedient. Yet, she was also a great woman. This was the unifying sentiment of her former subjects, throughout the day. It began at breakfast as the first of more than 2,000 guests entered Westminster Abbey.
Nobody can recall when the last time that so many heads and government of states and countries gathered in honor of one person.
When the Queen came to the throne, half the countries on Earth didn’t exist in their present form. Today there are almost 200 and nearly all of them were present.
Even North Korea, which is a deranged nation, was invited to send an ambassador. Only a few, which included Russia, Syria, and Belarus, were invited. This was more than just a difficult protocol issue of Herculean proportions. The VVIPs were so numerous that Westminster streets couldn’t cope with their heaving numbers.
They were then all invited to participate in the most grand park-and-ride program ever created. After reuniting at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the group was then transported to the Abbey by a coach fleet.
Following his 2019 accession to the ChrysanthemumThrone, Emperor Naruhito had accepted an invitation from Britain to visit the country and ride with the Queen in a carriage procession. Covid ended that invitation. Today, Covid arrived at London SW1 along with Masako. He climbed onto a coach for private hire instead.
Millions lined the streets of London, Surrey, and Royal Berkshire to mourn Elizabeth II’s passing. Elizabeth II was taken to her Maker by not just one, but two magnificent church services, and three perfectly step-perfect procesions.
A rare exception was the US President Joe Biden who travelled in ‘The Beast’. Of course, the Queen was the only one who could pull a US president out of this tank-cum-limo-proof, nuke-proof vehicle. When Barack and Michelle Obama flew in to Windsor by helicopter in 2016, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh insisted on driving them from the park to the castle in the duke’s Land Rover.
A large portion of the south transept was occupied by an extended royal family, as well as a diaspora representing global royalty.
This was Queen Margrethe, the Danish queen. Following the death of dear Cousin Lilibet, she now becomes the world’s only queen regnant.
She spoke about the lessons she learned from her British counterpart earlier in this year as she celebrated her golden jubilee.
Simeon Coburg-Gotha (a distant cousin) was the second-most living head of state after Second World War. He was crowned Simeon II as the Tsar of Bulgarians when he was a young boy. Three years later, he was overthrown by the Soviets and fled to exile. Fast forward to 2001, though, and he was back as his country’s democratically-elected prime minister. He was still the king, as far as Queen Elizabeth was concerned. He had not abdicated.
Yesterday, some of the people who did so were visible. It was also the former Queen Beatrix, Netherlands. The former King Juan Carlos was also present. He had been very grateful to the Queen for her good advice when he assumed the Spanish throne.
Their successors, King Felipe and Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, also visited the Abbey. This was the largest royal head count on British soil. Buckingham Palace declined to provide confirmation.
At 10.44, the Queen’s coffin was finally lifted from the purple catafalque where it had just finished 107 hours of incessant homage from the longest queue in British history.
Behind her came the first – and shortest – royal procession of the day, following the coffin around Parliament Square to the Abbey. The Royal Navy provided 142 ratings to pull it, keeping in line with a tradition that was born out of an urgent need at Queen Victoria’s funeral (where horses fled).
There on top sat a brilliantly vivid wreath of pinks, reds and burgundies chosen by the King himself; roses, hydrangea, sedum, and uxorious myrtle (from the same specimen which produced Princess Elizabeth’s own wedding bouquet in 1947).
At 7.30pm last night, in the crypt beneath Windsor Castle’s tiny George VI Memorial Chapel, she was finally reunited with the three people who shaped her life more than any other: her father, her mother and her ‘beloved’ Philip
It is amazing to consider that this was the first monarchy funeral at the Abbey for more than 250 years. The country said goodbye to Diana, Princess Of Wales, and the Queen Mother, but George II, in 1760, was the last sovereign granted a state funeral at Abbey.
Thereafter, monarchs had wanted their funerals to be at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. However, Edward the Confessor’s 1,000-year-old church had hosted the two great events of the Queen’s earlier life: her wedding and her coronation. The church should be completed the modern Elizabethan trinity.
What’s more, there had been so many people who she wanted to include that they could never all squeeze inside St George’s.
Windsor is capable of handling 800 people in a pinch. So, the plan was agreed: friends, retainers, estate workers and chums from the racing world would be asked to Windsor. All the great and famous of the world would be invited to Westminster. A lucky few – the royal cousinhood and lifelong royal allies – would be asked to both.
They were soon able to look away from the horrifying sight of the coffin beneath the lantern and began blinking again.
The first hymn was The Day Thou Gavest Lord Has Ended, the centrepiece of the ‘sunset ceremony’ which the Queen always loved aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Similar to her, she believed that no service could be bettered by Love Divine and All Loves Excelling. Once again, we also had the Crimond variation of The Lord’s My Shepherd.
It is amazing to consider that this was the first burial of a monarch in Westminster Abbey for more than 250 years.
It was also played at last Monday’s farewell to the Queen in Edinburgh. It was performed at her 1947 wedding. She had been a fan of it since childhood and didn’t care if it was twice in one week.
Liz Truss, Queen Elizabeth II’s secretary of state had just two weeks earlier been discussing the country’s current status. Yesterday morning, the Prime Minister found herself gazing down on the late monarch’s coffin as she read from John 14: ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you.’
What is the best way to capture this historic epoch in a few short minutes? With nods to both that immortal 21st birthday speech and the Queen’s Covid oration, The Archbishop of Canterbury boiled it down to selflessness.
‘People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer,’ he said. ‘But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are forgotten.’
It is possible to find food for thought amongst some less cuddly global leaders hiding in the north transept.
The national anthem was sung by brass and organ, but it gave way to the solo piper who played Sleep, Dearie.
The coffin was then carried out to the sun and set sail. It covered more than one mile and was lead by Mounties, which included some 3,000 Armed Forces members.
Yet for yesterday’s global television audience, what will be the abiding image? Maybe it’ll be Princess Charlotte and Prince George, who focused hard while keeping the procession moving at a steady pace.
It had been the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who gave the Queen the horse she loved riding more than any other – dear, dependable Burmese (like rider, like horse).
These were then followed by détachments drawn from her various realms such as the Calgary Highlanders or the Royal Australian Navy. They all owed her the exact same loyalty.
The Princess Royal and the royal men walked the entire way to Hyde Park Corner. Once again, they were behind the coffin. The cars accompanied the royal ladies plus Charlotte and George young.
How did the huge cortege manage to squeeze under the Horse Guards arch? The Royal Navy ratings moved from eight to six at a time, without missing a beat, and began to rub shoulders with the stonework before spreading on the opposite side.
The world’s leaders still emerged at the Abbey as Elizabeth II passed Buckingham Palace. Lined up in front of the railings, all the housekeeping and liveried staff – the footmen, underbutlers and cleaners – bowed or bobbed. At Wellington Arch, the ‘processional’ route reached its end and the coffin was transferred to the state hearse.
On top of her coffin sat a brilliantly vivid wreath of pinks, reds and burgundies chosen by the King himself; roses, hydrangea, sedum, and uxorious myrtle (from the same specimen which produced Princess Elizabeth’s own wedding bouquet in 1947)
While the previous crowds around Westminster were restricted by police to preserve order and decorum there weren’t any restraints.
The crowds at Hyde Park were as much as 80 deep either side of Rotten Row all the way to a gleaming Albert Memorial, Victorian Britain’s tribute to her great-great grandfather. From his high, gold-leafed perch he proudly looked down.
As you travel west London, the familiar roads like the A4 and the A5 gave way to suburban areas, with all their residents rushing to the curb to bid farewell. Beyond Heathrow’s perimeters (where she had flown in honor of her); through leafy Egham, Staines; beside sacred Runnymede; to the magnificent Windsor.
The sight of Her Late Majesty turning up the grandest driveway to her grandest home was truly amazing. It was her favorite place to ride from childhood through the final days.
A few months ago she enjoyed a tranquil stroll in the gardens astride Emma the Fell pony. Emma was a faithful companion through all of lockdown.
The Queen’s long-serving groom, Terry Pendry, a loyal member of her inner inner-circle, stood holding the Cumbria-born 11-year-old mare.
Sandy and Muick appeared as the cortege approached the castle. They were surely the last corgis of these ramparts.
Here was a scene echoing last year’s stunning farewell to the Duke of Edinburgh, watched by almost no one at all save for his two carriage-driving ponies.
Sandy and Muick appeared as the cortege approached the castle. They were surely the last corgis of many generations to rule these ramparts.
The Jack Russell seems to be the preferred choice for the reign. And so, finally, into St George’s Chapel for the committal.
The ceremony, which was just as grand and beautiful as the Abbey’s, had both intimacy and majesty.
There were people who knew her well, such as former Britannia crew members, trainers, horse breeders and other horses; and old friends and allies, such as her former private secretaries and Lord Chamberlain (the Earl of Airlie).
Nobody has ever known her more than he. They were only a month apart in years, but they had grown up together. He helped her modernize the monarchy, endure the most severe storms and come out stronger.
And so, with dusk approaching, with the instruments of state – orb, crown and sceptre – laid upon the chapel altar, this great among greats was slowly, almost imperceptibly, lowered into the vault to join the ancestors, the last lament of the lone piper gently receding into the distance.
This ethereal line will begin high with St Peter leading the way. It’s probably already stretching from the Pearly Gates half way back to Purgatory.