After five days in the nearby Hall of Parliament, Elizabeth II’s coffin is due to pass through the gates of Westminster Abbey this Monday at 11 am local time, or noon in Paris. Around her, her family of course, the main figures of British public life but also 500 international leaders and her spouses, for a total of 2,200 people who came to attend the sovereign’s funeral.
This funeral comes to close a long partnership of more than 70 years: the special relationship between Elizabeth II and Westminster Abbey. Because it is in the London church where she, first a child and then a queen, lived the best moments of her life. But also some of the most painful.
The memory of the coronation
An image comes first when we talk about the history of the monarch in Westminster: that of a slender 27-year-old, under a very heavy crown that nonetheless shines haughtily, haloed in her very long ermine tail, the arm that holds the scepter . The scene takes place on June 2, 1953, when Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of England and anointed with holy oils.
The place is particularly loaded with symbols. It is even the heart of British history. In fact, if the current building was built in the 13th century, it was built on the same spot where Edward the Confessor was buried and William the Conqueror was proclaimed king in 1066.
900 years later, Elizabeth II was crowned there by the Archbishop of Canterbury, under the gaze of all the kingdom’s dignitaries and their guests. As well as 277 million viewers around the world, watching a ceremony broadcast according to the wishes of the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of a reluctant sovereign.
english weddings
It must be said that Westminster Abbey is also a couple affair for Elizabeth II. She married Philip of Greece, renamed Mountbatten, there on November 20, 1947, five years before her accession to the throne.
Westminster isn’t done with Windsor weddings. If Prince Charles marries Diana Spencer in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, it is in the abbey where his son William, and grandson of Elizabeth II, puts the ring on Kate Middleton’s finger, on April 29, 2011.
But Westminster is also the scene of some of the personal trials the Queen went through during her reign. Thus, on September 6, 1997, it was there that the funeral of the former Princess of Wales Diana was held after her fatal accident under the Pont de l’Alma, in Paris. On April 9, 2002, Elizabeth II must also bury this famous “Queen Mother” who by the way is hers.
A first since 1760
But none of these events can compete with this Monday’s service, and Westminster Abbey seems the only common point. In the first place, the past status of Isabel II confers an extraordinary character to the ceremony. Furthermore, it is the first state funeral on British soil since the burial of Winston Churchill in 1965. Above all, it is the first royal funeral in Westminster Abbey since… 1760 and the death of George II.
Meanwhile, from George III to his father George VI, through the queen and Empress Victoria, all celebrated their last mass near Windsor Castle, an exile post-mortem out of London illustrating, according to this France Inter article, the “slip of the king’s power in Parliament”.
However, Elizabeth II did not break with this area located 37 kilometers from her capital. In fact, she is to be buried at night in the castle vault. She will rest there surrounded by her family -25 of her ancestors and especially her husband, who died last year- under the Saint-George chapel. Right where her grandson Harry married Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018.
Source: BFM TV
