The grand funeral of Elizabeth II is over. The queen now rests in her final resting place, St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, after a farewell with great pomp and emotion, saluting on Monday the memory of a sovereign with planetary popularity and an incomparable reign.
After a parade bringing together 6,000 soldiers through London, the coffin joined the castle, about forty kilometers to the west. After a final solemn procession, walking through a crowded Windsor estate and a religious ceremony in front of 800 people, the coffin was slowly lowered into the royal vault of the chapel.
The symbolic gesture of the Lord Chamberlain
Shortly before, the Lord Chamberlain had broken his staff and then placed it on the coffin, a symbolic gesture to signify the end of his reign. Elizabeth II, who died on September 8 at the age of 96, then disappeared forever from the eyes of the world, she who, often smiling, always calm, had become a familiar icon during her 70 years, seven months and two days on the throne. The British anthem then sounded.
In the evening, her remains were transferred, along with that of her husband Philip, who died in 2021, to the George VI memorial in the chapel, where she was buried in the presence of her close family, the royal family announced in a statement. . They now rest there alongside the Queen’s parents and the ashes of her sister Margaret.