While all eyes will be on the pomp and circumstance of festivities in London on Monday, a more straightforward and intimate ceremony will occur in Windsor.
It will be an opportunity for the Queen’s family, friends, and staff to say the most private of goodbyes among the gothic splendour of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle with no more than 800 persons in attendance.
The Funeral Processional
The State Hearse will join the ceremonial procession into the town at 3.06 p.m. as it approaches Shaw Farm Gate in Windsor, which is the entrance to the Queen’s Home Park.
It will start up the three miles of the Long Walk, which is bordered with trees and leads to Windsor Castle, in four minutes.
The procession will enter the South and West sides of the Quadrangle by the George IV Gate, through the Cambridge Gate, along Cambridge Drive, and into St. George’s Chapel.
It will pass past Engine Court, the Norman Arch, Chapel Hill, and then Horseshoe Cloister Arch as it moves towards the vicinity of St. George’s Chapel.
In 3.40 p.m. at the Quadrangle, the procession will include members of the Royal Family, headed by the King, as it enters Engine Court.
The Duchess of Sussex and the Countess of Wessex will once again follow by automobile, as will the Queen Consort and the Princess of Wales.
A dismounted detachment of the Household Cavalry Regiment will precede the coffin, followed by a mounted division of the Sovereign’s Escort, a massed pipe and drum corps from Scottish and Irish regiments, the bands of the Coldstream Guards and Household Cavalry, officers from the Household Division, as well as liveried Kings, Heralds, and Pursuivants of Arms, and members of the Queen’s personal staff.
The state hearse will be in the middle of the parade, flanked by the pall bearers and an escort party made up of 24 members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards—2 officers and 24 Rank and File.
In front and behind the hearse, there will be the Royal Standard of the Grenadier Guards regiment, the Queen’s Company Color, and a Sovereign’s Standard of the Household Cavalry. Members of the households of the Queen, the King, and the Prince of Wales will stand at the back of the coffin.
The King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery will fire “minute guns” as the coffin makes its way to the West Steps of St. George’s Chapel, breaking the eerie calm of the Queen’s last trip to Windsor. Both the Curfew Tower Bell and the Sebastopol Bell will ring simultaneously.
Entrance Into
Sacred Heart Chapel
Three officers and 110 enlisted members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards will form a guard of honour in Horseshoe Cloister, while members of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment will line the West Steps leading to the Chapel.
When members of the Royal Family and the state hearse arrive, the Windsor Castle Guard will be facing the Guardroom and will show their weapons.
At 3:53 p.m., the procession will come to a stop at the base of the West Steps, where the bearing party will raise the coffin.
The “private”
Dedicated Service
Less than 800 people will be there, as opposed to more than 2,000 during the state burial at Westminster Abbey. Past and current members of Her Majesty’s household will make up the general congregation.
This event will be rather “inner circle,” since the bulk of individuals attending the ceremony at St. George’s Chapel will not have attended the earlier service at Westminster Abbey.
Prime ministers and governors general of realms—those nations where the Queen served as head of state—will arrive at the chapel at 3:20 p.m. and will be taken to their seats in the nave among the blossoming Gothic architecture.
Members of the Royal Family who did not participate in the outside parade will soon arrive.
At 4 o’clock, the committal service will start. The sarcophagi of George V and Queen Mary will be passed by the coffin as it passes through the nave. He is one of ten British kings whose remains are interred in the chapel, the others being Charles I, Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VIII, King George V of Hanover, William IV, Edward VII, and George V.
A statue of Belgian King Leopold and a monument to his wife Princess Charlotte, who passed away in delivery in 1870, are located next to the tomb. She was the heir of George IV. Queen Victoria came to the throne as a result of her death.
The majority of the kings interred at the church are lying in the Quire. Edward IV is buried to the left of the altar, while Edward VII and Henry VI are interred on the right.
William IV, George IV, and George III are buried underneath in the royal crypt. The Dean of Windsor will preside over the ceremony on Monday, while the Rector of Sandringham, the Minister of Crathie Kirk, and the Chaplain of Windsor Great Park will offer prayers.
State instruments are delivered.
The Crown Jeweller, Bargemaster, and Serjeants-at-Arms will take the Imperial State Crown, the Orb, and the Sceptre from the Queen’s casket before the last song. The Dean will set them on the chapel altar after receiving them from the group.
The King will drape the Grenadier Guards’ Queen’s Company Camp Color over the casket after the last hymn. The Lord Chamberlain, formerly known as Lord Parker, former director general of MI5, would also symbolically “break” his wand of office upon leaving his position and then set it on the coffin at the same moment.
The poignant closing moments
As it is lowered into the Royal crypt, the Queen’s casket will be seen for the final time. It is covered with a marble slab that is about 7 feet by 4 feet in size. With the aid of a newly built electric lift with manual override, the slab really lowers into the Royal vault under the floor.
The Dean of Windsor will recite a Psalm and the Commendation when the Queen’s casket is lowered into the Royal Vault. Pipe Major Paul Burns, The Sovereign’s Piper, will melancholy play a lament from the doorway between the chapel and the Dean’s Cloister before he moves towards the Deanery, causing the melody to vanish. The Blessing will then be delivered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and God Save the King will then be sung.
ltimos momentos con su amante
The Queen has long stated her desire to reconcile with her beloved parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, as well as Prince Philip and Princess Margaret.
The Dean of Windsor will preside over a “very personal” private funeral ceremony at 7.30 p.m. No other information will be provided. The chapel is expected to be made available to the public the next day for free visits from mourners.