Queen Elizabeth’s coffin arrives in Edinburgh as mourners line streets

Queen Elizabeth’s coffin arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday after a six-hour journey from her summer time house within the Scottish Highlands, previous tens of hundreds of mourners lining the route, many in sombre silence, some applauding and others in tears.

At the top of its gradual journey via picturesque Scottish countryside, villages, small cities and cities, troopers sporting kilts carried the coffin to the throne room of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Elizabeth’s official Scottish residence, the place it should stay in a single day.

In an emotional tribute to his mom on Friday, the queen’s eldest son and the brand new monarch, King Charles, stated she had begun a “last great journey” to hitch Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years who died final yr.

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Earlier, the hearse carrying the oak coffin emerged from the gates of Balmoral Castle, the place she died on Thursday aged 96, at the beginning of the drive to the Scottish capital.

Her coffin was draped within the Royal Standard of Scotland with a wreath on prime fabricated from flowers taken from the Balmoral property together with candy peas, considered one of Elizabeth’s favourites.

Crowds, fifteen deep in locations, massed within the centre of Edinburgh to greet the cortege because it made its technique to Holyroodhouse, the place it was met by a navy guard of honour.

The queen’s daughter Anne, flanked by the queen’s youthful sons, Princes Andrew and Edward, curtsied because the coffin was carried inside by troopers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

“There was no way I could miss this. I would regret it for the rest of my life,” stated Eilidh Mackintosh, 62, who left her house at 6 a.m. to make sure of an excellent view among the many giant crowds on Edinburgh’s well-known Royal Mile.

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Rachel Lindsay, 24, was left in tears because the coffin handed. “It’s just very sad,” she stated. “I don’t think we expected it to ever happen. I just thought she’d live forever. I didn’t think it was real until I saw it.”

The journey from Balmoral was the primary of a sequence of occasions main as much as the state funeral at Westminster Abbey in London on Sept. 19.

Her dying has drawn tears, disappointment and heat tributes, not simply from the queen’s personal shut household and plenty of in Britain, but in addition from across the globe – reflecting her presence on the world stage for seven a long time.

Wherever the cortege went, individuals lined the street or stopped their automobiles to get out and watch. At one level, it handed a guard of honour shaped by dozens of tractors lined up in adjoining fields by farmers.

Many watched silently in vivid sunshine. Some threw flowers into the street. For others, the emotion of the second moved them to tears.

“It’s just very, very sad. I’m happy I was here to say our goodbyes,” stated Elizabeth Alexander, 69, who was born on the day the queen was topped in 1953.

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Many hundreds are persevering with to collect on the royal palaces throughout Britain, bringing bouquet after bouquet of flowers. In Green Park close to London’s Buckingham Palace, the place a few of the tributes are being taken, lengthy traces of bouquets snake across the park permitting mourners to learn the tributes.

Other well-wishers have connected their messages of condolence to bushes.

Charles grew to become king instantly after his mom’s dying and was formally proclaimed the brand new monarch at a ceremony on Saturday, filled with pageantry and centuries-old traditions.

Similar proclamations are following throughout the United Kingdom and the opposite 14 realms of which Charles is now head of state, together with Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated parliament can be recalled on Thursday to permit members to pay tribute.

The queen got here to the throne following the dying of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was simply 25. Her coronation came about a yr later.

While Elizabeth’s dying was not completely surprising given her age and deteriorating well being, there was nonetheless a way of shock on the information.

“We all thought she was invincible,” her grandson Prince William, now the inheritor to the throne, informed a well-wisher on Saturday as he met crowds at Windsor fortress.

FUNERAL

The highly-choreographed mourning plans will proceed on Monday. Charles will be part of the opposite senior royals in Edinburgh when the coffin will likely be taken in a procession from Holyroodhouse to the town’s St Giles Cathedral for a service.

There it should stay for twenty-four hours to permit individuals to pay their final respects and the brand new king and members of the royal household may even maintain a vigil.

The day of the queen’s funeral will likely be a public vacation in Britain, officers have introduced. U.S. President Joe Biden stated he can be there, though full particulars of the occasion and the attendees haven’t but been launched.

Before that, her coffin will likely be flown to London and there will likely be a sombre procession when it’s later moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall to lie in state for 4 days.

“It goes without saying that we can expect large numbers of people,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Liz Truss informed reporters.

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Truss, whose appointment as prime minister on Tuesday was the queen’s final public act, will be part of King Charles as each the brand new head of state and prime minister tour the 4 nations of the United Kingdom within the subsequent few days.

Charles, 73, is now the forty first monarch in a line that traces its origins to the Norman King William the Conqueror who captured the English throne in 1066.

Elizabeth’s dying has capped a troublesome couple of years for the royal household.

The most high-profile problem has concerned her grandson Prince Harry and his spouse Meghan, who stepped down from royal life in 2020 to maneuver to California from the place they each have closely criticised the establishment.

That has left them alienated from the remainder of the household, with Harry and his older brother William stated to be barely on talking phrases. But the dying of their grandmother has seen variations put apart, as they appeared along with their wives exterior Windsor Castle to satisfy the crowds on Saturday.

A royal supply described it as an necessary present of unity at an extremely troublesome time for the household.

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