After 70 years, the final curtain was brought down today on the second Elizabethan age as the Queen was laid to rest alongside husband Philip in her favourite home, Windsor Castle.
An astonishing day of pageantry and processions saw grieving King Charles III joined by monarchs and presidents from around the world as well as the upper echelons of British society in a heartfelt farewell to the UK’s longest-reigning sovereign.
Three generations of royals were united in sorrow as they honoured the service of a queen and remembered the love of a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother known to the youngest in her family as “Gan-gan”.
Westminster Abbey witnessed a gathering perhaps unique in world history, with a congregation of more than 2,000 including Liz Truss and every living former prime minister, US president Joe Biden and scores of world leaders for a televised state funeral watched by hundreds of millions worldwide.
In an atmosphere of deep solemnity and barely suppressed emotion, the Queen’s nine-year-old great-grandson Prince George, now second in line to the throne, could be seen wiping away a tear.
And later, the coffin of Elizabeth II was brought home to Windsor for a more intimate committal service of around 800 close family, friends and retainers in St George’s Chapel.
Finally, a private burial service in the castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel was reserved for the King and members of the royal family, finally alone with their memories away from the public and TV cameras.
Earlier, King Charles and siblings Anne, Andrew and Edward had paid very public tribute to their mother, walking slowly behind her coffin through the streets of her capital, followed by the princes William and Harry.
Crowds totalling hundreds of thousands lined the route from the abbey past Buckingham Palace to the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner, where the Queen’s coffin was transferred to the state hearse for her final journey by road to Windsor.
And outside the castle, tens of thousands more gathered for the stately procession led by pipers and military bands down the Long Walk, the hearse strewn with flowers cast from the roadside by well-wishers.
In his sermon at the abbey, the archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby reminded the congregation of Elizabeth’s promise as a young woman to dedicate her whole life to the nation and Commonwealth.
“Rarely has such a promise been so well kept,” said the Archbishop.
“She was joyful, present to so many, touching a multitude of lives.
“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer. But in all cases, those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are forgotten.
“The grief of this day – felt not only by the late Queen’s family but all round the nation, Commonwealth and world – arises from her abundant life and loving service, now gone from us.”
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is carried into St George’s Chapel
At the end of 11 remarkable days of national mourning since her death on 8 September, the archbishop said: “Few leaders have received the outpouring of love that we have seen.”
Welby said he knew that the new King shared “the same sense of service and duty” as his mother.
And to the grieving royals, he quoted the Queen’s consoling message during the Covid pandemic: “We will meet again.”
As the hour-long ceremony drew to an end, the nation fell quiet as the sounding of the “Last Post” heralded a two-minute silence within Westminster Abbey and across the United Kingdom.
Tearful crowds lined the route of the funeral procession
