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| Image: Belfast News Letter |
The coffin bearing the body of Queen Elizabeth II arrived on Sunday at Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh, which happens to be the monarch’s official Scottish residence. This movement completes the first leg of her sombre final journey, as earlier reported by Nollywood Times.
The hearse leading the seven-car cortege had left Balmoral Castle, where the queen died on Thursday after 0900 GMT, and journeyed for 180-mile (290 kilometres) along streets lined with mourners.
As the hearse left Balmoral Castle, some well-wishers threw flowers or applauded, while others were in tears as the long convoy led by a black hearse wound its way slowly on a six-hour journey to Scotland’s capital, where it will stay for two days.
Six groundskeepers had loaded the oak coffin — draped with a Scottish Royal Standard and a floral wreath — into the hearse that was followed by a Bentley carrying the queen’s only daughter Princess Anne.
As the nation sighted the queen’s coffin today, which happens to be a day after her son Charles II was formally proclaimed king and his two warring grandsons, William and Harry, with their wives Kate and Meghan, had reunited for a walkabout.
It was wonderful to see the flowers with Catherine Princess of Wales & The Duke & Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle. #QueenElizabeth #QueenElizabethII #KingCharlesIII #KingCharles
— HRH Prince William, Prince Of Wales ➐ (parody) (@HRH_William_) September 10, 2022
pic.twitter.com/fPbzuoERS4
King Charles III will travel to Edinburgh on Monday for a prayer service before the queen’s remains is flown to London on Tuesday.
Following that will be a four-day lying in state which expectedly will draw a million people before the funeral is set to be viewed worldwide and attended by different heads of state.
“We want to say thank you that we can honour the memory of the Queen,” said Ukrainian Viktoriia Saienko, who fled Kharkiv, one of the cities devastated by Russia’s invasion, and is working in Scotland.
“We wanted to say thank you very much to Britain, to the Queen and all her family,” the 29-year-old said as she waited in Edinburgh with a group of her compatriots clutching bouquets of roses.
The symbolism of the queen’s last journey will be heavy for Scotland — a nation with deep royal links but where there is also a strong independence movement intent on severing the centuries-old union with the United Kingdom.
“A sad and poignant moment as Her Majesty, The Queen leaves her beloved Balmoral for the final time,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote on Twitter.
“Today, as she makes her journey to Edinburgh, Scotland will pay tribute to an extraordinary woman.”
The queen’s coffin will be taken to the Holyroodhouse Palace, the monarch’s official residence in Scotland, where it will rest for a day.
King Charles — who was formally proclaimed monarch in Scotland at a pomp-filled ceremony on Sunday — and other royals will on Monday take part in a procession to convey her coffin along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to St Giles’ Cathedral.
The next day, the coffin will be flown by Royal Air Force jet to Northolt airfield near London and driven to Buckingham Palace. Then, on Wednesday, it will be moved to Westminster Hall to lie in state.
King Charles will also visit Northern Ireland and Wales to show national unity. The new monarch will be joined at memorial services by British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who the late queen only appointed on Tuesday.
Trevor Phillips presents a Royal Special: The Death of the Queen, live from Buckingham Palace https://t.co/8vPabmgkYL
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 11, 2022
Source: AFP/channelstv.com
#Queen Elizabeth II
#King Charles III
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