In a slow, somber and regal procession, Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin was led across the Scottish countryside from her beloved Balmoral Castle to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh on Sunday.
Mourners filled city streets and highway bridges or lined country roads in cars and tractors to take part in a historic farewell to the monarch who reigned for 70 years.
The hearse passed piles of flowers and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died on Thursday aged 96, for a six-hour journey through Scottish towns to the palace from Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh. The late Queen’s coffin was draped with the Royal Standard for Scotland and crowned with a wreath made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, a favorite of the Queen’s.
The procession was a huge event for Scotland as the UK takes days to mourn its longest-serving monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. Hours before the arrival of the coffin in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, people came early to take up space at the police barricades. In the afternoon, the crowds numbered 10 people in different places, eager to be part of the occasion.
Crowds watch as the cortege carrying the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Edinburgh on Sunday. (Ian Forsyth/WPA/Getty Images)
“I think she’s been a constant in my life. She was the queen I was born under and she always has been,” said Angus Ruthven, a 54-year-old civil servant from Edinburgh as he waited for the arrival. of the coffin
“I think it’s going to take a lot of adjusting to her not being here. It’s quite a sudden thing. We knew he was becoming more fragile, but it’s going to be a good reign for King Charles.”
The first town the cortege passed through was Ballater, where the residents count the royal family as neighbors. Hundreds of people watched in silence and some threw flowers in front of the hearse as it passed.
Thousands of people gathered for the arrival of the Queen’s coffin in Edinburgh. He will remain in the Scottish capital until Tuesday, when he will move to London. (Ian Forsyth/WPA/Getty Images)
“She meant so much to people in this area. People were crying. It was amazing to see her,” said Victoria Pacheco, manager of the guest house.
In every Scottish town and village the procession passed, they were met with silent scenes of respect. The people remained mostly silent; some clapped politely, others pointed their phone cameras at passing cars. In Aberdeenshire, farmers lined the route with a guard of honor of dozens of tractors.
People react as the hearse carrying the Queen’s coffin passes through the village of Ballater, near Balmoral, Scotland, on Sunday. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
Before arriving in the Scottish capital, the cortege traveled what is effectively a royal memory lane, passing sites steeped in the history of the House of Windsor. Among them, Dyce, where the Queen formally opened the UK’s first North Sea pipeline in 1975, and Fife, near the University of St. Andrews, where his grandson Prince William, now Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.
United Kingdom nations read proclamations
Sunday’s solemn event came as the Queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch, King Charles III, in the remaining nations of the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The proclamations were read a day after a ceremony of accession to the King in London, full of pomp, full of ancient traditions and political symbolism.
“I am deeply conscious of this great heritage and the great duties and responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me,” Charles said on Saturday after being publicly proclaimed Britain’s new monarch at a ceremony held at the Palace of St. James
Even as he mourned his late mother, Charles set to work. He was at Buckingham Palace with the secretary-general of the Commonwealth, the group of former colonies of the British Empire struggling with affection for the Queen and lingering bitterness over their own colonial legacies. This ranges from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artefacts in British institutions.
Prince William said he was honored to be named the new Prince of Wales when he spoke to Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford on Sunday, Kensington Palace said in a statement.
William received the title, previously held by his father for more than 50 years, after the death of his grandmother.
“The Prince and Princess will spend the coming months and years deepening their relationship with the communities of Wales,” the statement said.
Funeral one week from Monday
On Monday, the Queen’s coffin will be taken from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to nearby St Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be moved to London. The coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday to lie in state until the funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19.
Floral tributes are seen alongside a Paddington Bear toy outside Balmoral Castle in Ballater, Scotland, on Sunday, two days after Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96. (Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)
In the village of Ballater, near Balmoral, the Reverend David Barr said locals regard the royals as “neighbours” and try to treat them like locals when they spend summers in the Scottish Highlands.
“When she gets here and walks through these doors, I think the royal part of her is mostly left out,” he said. “And as she came in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mother, a loving grandmother and then a loving great-grandmother – and aunt – and be normal.”
LOOK | Queen Elizabeth dies at the age of 96:
Queen Elizabeth dies at the age of 96
Queen Elizabeth, the longest reigning monarch in British history, has died. CBC’s Margaret Evans takes a look at his life and legacy.