WINDSOR, England, Sept 20 ,2022: Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest alongside her beloved husband on Monday after a day which saw Britain and the world pay a final farewell to the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, in a dazzling show of pomp and ceremony.
Amid formality and careful choreography, there were moments of raw emotion. Late in the day an ashen-faced King Charles held back tears, while grief was etched on the faces of several members of the royal family.
Huge crowds thronged the streets of London and at Windsor Castle to witness the moving, grand processions and ceremonies.
“Few leaders receive the outpouring of love that we have seen,” Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told the congregation at the state funeral in the majestic Westminster Abbey, where monarchs have been married, buried and crowned over the last 1,000 years.
Among the 2,000 congregation were some 500 presidents, prime ministers, foreign royal family members and dignitaries, including Joe Biden of the United States.
Outside hundreds of thousands had crammed into the capital to honour Elizabeth, whose death at the age of 96 has prompted an outpouring of gratitude for her 70 years on the throne.
Many more lined the route as the hearse took her coffin from London to Windsor, throwing flowers, cheering and clapping as it passed from the city to the English countryside that she loved so much.
At St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, some 800 guests attended a more intimate committal service which concluded with the crown, orb and sceptre – symbols of the monarch’s power and governance – being removed from the coffin and placed on the altar.
The Queen’s coffin then lowered into the Royal Vault in preparation for her final resting place by the side of her late husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, in an enclave of the historic chapel on her south-east England estate of Windsor.
We have come together to commit into the hands of God the soul of his servant Queen Elizabeth, said the Dean of Windsor, at the final service prepared in discussion with the late monarch over a number of years .
The state funeral began as chimes of the Big Ben fell silent and hymns rang out as the coffin of the late monarch was carried into Westminster Abbey on Monday morning.
