Two thousand guests, including several hundred presidents, heads of state and monarchs, will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday. She will then be buried at Windsor Castle in the evening.
Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, which is one of the biggest logistical challenges in British history, will take place on September 19 in Westminster Abbey, London.
US President Joe Biden, the Emperor of Japan Naruhito and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the 2,000 guests attending this historic event. More than 10,000 police officers from all over the country will be stationed in the capital as the authorities expect record crowds along the funeral route.
In the afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II's coffin will travel to Windsor Castle for a church service. She will then be buried in a private ceremony. FRANCE 24 outlines the programme for this extraordinary day.
Procession with music
On Monday morning, the royal coffin, which is currently on display at Westminster Palace in London, will be moved to Westminster Abbey where the state funeral will take place. The procession will begin at 10:35am (11:35am in Paris) and the coffin will be placed on a gun carriage towed by 98 naval officers, in a tradition dating back to Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901.
The procession, followed by the king and members of the British Royal Family, will be led by a band of 200 pipers and drummers from the Royal Air Force to Westminster Abbey Gate at 10:52am.
State funeral
Although the state funeral service, led by the Dean of Westminster David Hoyle, will begin at 11am, the Abbey’s doors will open three hours earlier to welcome the 2,000 people who have been invited to the event.
While the final list of invitees is being kept secret for security reasons, several heads of state, political representatives and monarchs have already said that they will be attending. These include President Biden, President Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Indian President Droupadi Murmu.
Members of the Belgian, Dutch, Qatari and Saudi royal families will also be present, as well as several hundred anonymous people who were decorated by the queen, including social workers and carers.
After the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s sermon, the Last Post will be sounded, followed by two minutes of silence to be observed in the Abbey and throughout the UK.
The Reveille, national anthem and a lament performed by the queen's piper will conclude the state funeral service at around noon.
Foreign heads of state and government representatives will then attend a reception hosted by the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at Church House, the headquarters of the Church of England, next to Westminster Abbey.
The queen's coffin will be paraded through the capital to Hyde Park Corner, to the sound of the bells of Big Ben, where it will be loaded into a hearse and driven to Windsor, a town in south-eastern England, some 30km from London.
Religious ceremony and burial at Windsor
From 3pm, a new procession, preceded by members of the Royal Cavalry, will cross the 'Long Walk' leading to Windsor Castle, the British Royal Family’s famous residence. The Royal Family will then join the procession to St. George's Chapel.
Some 800 guests, including the queen's personal staff, will attend the service, led by the Dean of Windsor David Conner.
Finally, at 7.30pm, the queen will be laid to rest in a private funeral service held in the presence of the king and members of the Royal Family.
Queen Elizabeth II will be buried with her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
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The full schedule
Westminster
- The queen’s lying in state at Westminster Hall will end at 6:30am local time (0530 GMT) on Monday.
- Shortly after 10:35am a bearer party will lift the coffin from the catafalque and carry it to the Royal Navy gun carriage. The carriage was previously used for the funerals of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI, Winston Churchill and Lord Louis Mountbatten.
- The gun carriage will be drawn by 142 members of the Royal Navy, setting off at 10:44am to pass by Parliament Square along a route that will be lined by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
- The procession will be led by Scottish and Irish regiments, the Brigade of Gurkhas and the Royal Air Force. The gun carriage will be flanked by detachments of the His Majesty's Body Guards of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, the Yeomen of the Guard and the Royal Company of Archers – all bodyguards for the British monarch.
- The king and members of the royal family will follow behind the coffin.
- The procession will arrive at the West Gate of Westminster Abbey at 10:52am.
- Heads of state and overseas government representatives, including foreign royal families and prime ministers of the realm, will gather at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea and travel together to Westminster Abbey.
- The congregation will be made up of representatives of the realms, the Commonwealth, parliament, her majesty’s patronages, plus the law the emergency services and others.
- The state funeral will begin at 11am, conducted by the Dean of Westminster.
- Prime Minister Liz Truss and secretary general of the Commonwealth will read lessons.
- The sermon will be given by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will also give the commendation while the Dean of Westminster will pronounce the blessing.
- The service will end at approximately 11:55am followed by a two-minute silence that will be observed throughout the United Kingdom.
- Reveille, the national anthem and a lament played by the Queen’s Piper will bring the state funeral service to an end at approximately 12:00pm.
Procession to Wellington Arch
- The bearer party will return the coffin to the gun carriage, which will be followed by the royal family.
- At 12:15pm a procession that will include King Charles III, representatives from the Commonwealth, Canadian police, health workers and others will set off for Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.
- Guns will be fired every minute by the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, in Hyde Park.
- Big Ben will toll throughout the procession, which will arrive at Wellington Arch at 1pm.
- The bearer party will place the coffin in the hearse to travel to Windsor. As the hearse departs, the parade will give a royal salute and the national anthem will be played.
- The royal family will travel to Windsor by car.
Windsor burial
- At 3:10pm a procession will set off at Windsor. It will be joined by the king and other members of the royal family at 3:40pm.
- The route will be lined by the armed forces and guns will be fired every minute. Both the Sebastopol Bell and the Curfew Tower Bell will be tolled.
- The procession will halt at the bottom of the West Steps of St. George’s Chapel at 3:53pm.
- The committal service will begin at 4pm, conducted by the Dean of Windsor.
- Prior to the final hymn, the Imperial State Crown, the Orb and the Sceptre will be removed from the coffin and placed on the altar.
- The king will place the Queen’s Company Camp Colour of the Grenadier Guards on the coffin.
- Former MI5 spy chief Baron Parker, who is the Lord Chamberlain and the most senior official of the late queen’s royal household, will “break” his Wand of Office and place it on the coffin, symbolising the end of his service to the queen.
- As the coffin is lowered into the Royal Vault, the Dean of Windsor will read a psalm. The Garter King of Arms will pronounce the styles and titles of the queen.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury will pronounce the blessing, followed by the singing of “God Save The King”.
- At 7:30pm a private burial service will be held and attended by the family. The queen will be buried with her husband, Prince Philip, at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
This article has been translated from the original in French.
