Queen Elizabeth II buried in Windsor Castle, the royal household stated in an announcement.

London:

Britain stated farewell to Queen Elizabeth II on Monday at a historic state funeral attended by world leaders, earlier than a ceremonial journey previous tons of of 1000’s of mourners to her last place of relaxation.

Huge crowds gathered in London to observe because the queen’s flag-draped coffin, topped with the Imperial State Crown, her orb and sceptre, was carried slowly to a gun carriage from parliament’s Westminster Hall the place it had lain in state since Wednesday.

To the tune of pipes and drums, the gun carriage — used at each state funeral since Queen Victoria’s in 1901 — was then drawn by 142 junior enlisted sailors within the Royal Navy to Westminster Abbey.

The thousand-year-old church’s tenor bell tolled 96 occasions at one-minute intervals — one for yearly of her life — and stopped a minute earlier than the service started at 11:00 am (1000 GMT).

In his funeral sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised the queen’s lifetime of obligation and repair to the UK and the Commonwealth.

“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer,” he advised the two,000 friends, who included US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Emperor Naruhito.

The coffin was then borne, to the rhythmic strains of funeral marches, on a three-hour journey via the streets of London to Windsor Castle, west of the capital.

All alongside the route, a sea of arms have been raised aloft, clutching cellphones, to report the choreographed show of army precision.

The final chants of “God save the queen” have been heard as onlookers scattered flowers on the street, and muffled church bells rang within the distance.

A personal burial happened late Monday within the King George VI Memorial Chapel, carried out by the Dean of Windsor, the official web site of the royal household stated.

“The Queen was buried together with the Duke of Edinburgh,” an announcement stated, referring to her husband of 73 years Prince Philip who died final 12 months.

– Corgis –

Army veteran Robert MacDonald, 48, was among the many dense crowd lining the three-mile (five-kilometre) Long Walk main as much as Windsor Castle.

“I was in the infantry for 26 years, so the queen was my boss,” he stated, including he needed to “salute one last time as the hearse passed by”.

On the Long Walk, the army cortege handed by the late queen’s Fell pony, Carltonlima Emma, standing and not using a rider. It was met on the citadel by her final two corgi canine, Muick and Sandy.

The queen — the longest-serving monarch in British historical past — died at Balmoral, her Scottish Highland retreat, on September 8 after a 12 months of declining well being.

Her eldest son and successor, King Charles III, wearing ceremonial army uniform, adopted the solemn processions in London, alongside his three siblings.

They have been accompanied by Charles’s eldest son Prince William, William’s estranged brother, Prince Harry, and different senior royals.

William’s two eldest youngsters, George, aged 9, and Charlotte, aged seven, additionally walked behind the coffin in Westminster Abbey.

Late Sunday, Charles, 73, and his spouse, Queen Consort Camilla, 75, stated that they had been “deeply touched” by the general public’s flood of messages.

“I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you,” Charles stated.

Britain, a rustic a lot modified for the reason that queen’s coronation in the identical abbey in 1953, has dug deep into its centuries of custom to honour the one monarch most of its folks have ever recognized.

– ‘Moment of historical past’ –

“It’s once in a lifetime,” stated pupil Naomi Thompson, 22, camped out within the crowds at London’s Hyde Park.

John MacKinnon, a 49-year-old insurance coverage dealer from London, added: “The ceremony was perfect in every way.

“Very spectacular, appropriately for an amazing queen.”

Others unable to be in London gathered in cinemas and churches around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to watch the service and procession on big screens.

Auto engineer Jamie Page, a 41-year-old former soldier, stood on Whitehall to observe the funeral procession, wearing his military medals from service in the Iraq war.

“She means every thing, she was like a present from God,” he said.

The funeral — watched by the crowds in silence — lasted just under an hour.

It ended with trumpeters playing “The Last Post”, two minutes of silence in memory of the queen and the reworded national anthem, “God Save the King”.

Oscar-winning actor and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran Kenneth Branagh was in attendance, telling AFP it was “very solemn and performed with nice compassion”.

“The music was very lovely. It felt fantastically judged, respectful and delicate,” he said.

– Driven to Windsor –

The long procession filed past Downing Street, government buildings in Whitehall, through Horse Guards Parade and up The Mall, the tree-lined avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace decked out in red, white and blue.

At nearby Wellington Arch, 6,000 members of the armed forces who had marched in hypnotic lockstep halted and the coffin was transferred to the royal hearse.

Charles saluted and the national anthem played again before the hearse headed by road to Windsor Castle.

The queen was buried alongside her father king George VI, her mother queen Elizabeth and sister princess Margaret, reuniting in death the family who once called themselves “us 4”.

The coffin of her husband Philip, who died last year aged 99, was transferred to lie alongside her.  

Elizabeth’s funeral could not be more different from Philip’s at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in April 2021.

Coronavirus restrictions limited mourners to just 30, led by the queen, a solitary figure in mourning black and a matching facemask.

In contrast on Monday, the abbey was packed with dignitaries and some ordinary Britons who were honoured for their military or community service, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You have been lucky to have had her for 70 years; all of us have been,” Biden said on Sunday after signing a book of condolence. “The world is healthier for her.”

In the abbey pews was Liz Truss, whom the queen appointed as the 15th British prime minister of her reign just two days before her death, in her last major ceremonial duty.

All of Truss’s living predecessors were there plus her counterparts and representatives from the 14 Commonwealth countries outside Britain where Charles is also head of state.

Whether they remain constitutional monarchies or become republics is likely to be the defining feature of Charles’s reign.

– Royal vault –

The queen’s death has prompted deep reflection about the Britain she reigned over, the legacy of its past, its present state and what the future might hold, as well as the values of lifelong service and duty she came to represent.

Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have queued, sometimes for up to 25 hours and overnight, to file past the queen’s coffin as it lay in state.

Chrissy Heerey, a serving member of the Royal Air Force who joined the marathon queue twice, was the last person through the doors early Monday and described the experience as “wonderful”.

Throughout the procession after the funeral, Big Ben, the giant bell atop the Elizabeth Tower at one end of the Houses of Parliament, tolled and military guns fired at one-minute intervals.

At Windsor, the Sebastopol Bell — captured in Crimea in 1856 — and the Curfew Tower Bell also sounded.

A vast television audience watched the funeral worldwide and online, in a sign of the enduring fascination with the woman once described as “the final international monarch”.

At Windsor, the queen’s crown, orb and sceptre were removed and placed on the altar at a committal service.

The most senior officer of the royal household, the lord chamberlain, broke his “wand of workplace” and positioned it on the coffin, symbolising the tip of her reign.

The lead-lined oak casket, draped with the queen’s colors, was then lowered into the Royal Vault.

A lone bagpiper performed a lament, the mournful tune fading as he walked away.

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