SKAI broadcasts the historical event of the funeral minute by minute from early in the morning, while at 3 pm SKAI TV will broadcast an emergency broadcast. Sia Kosioni with all the station’s journalistic staff, correspondents and emissaries in London and invited journalists and historians in the studio will record the historic ceremony in every detail
The public pilgrimage to the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II ended today at 06:30 (local time, 08:30 Greek time), the British government announced. Already, at 10.30 (Greece time), the guests began to arrive at Westminster Abbey.
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The late Queen’s coffin lay in state for four days at Westminster Hall during which hundreds of thousands of people passed by to pay their last respects to the 96-year-old Elizabeth II, who remained on the British throne for 70 years until her death on 8 September.
Among the people who paid homage to the coffin of the Queen of Britain were many world leaders, such as the American president Joe Biden with his wife, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese as well as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Elizabeth II’s funeral will take place at 11:00 (local time, 13:00 Greek time) at Westminster Abbey in the presence of 2,000 people, among them many leaders and crowned heads.
The funeral ritual
A grand centuries-old ritual adapted for modern times provides the protocol for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
These are certainly funerals with head of state honors, honors reserved for monarchs but which have been bestowed with royal consent on a further 12 British Isles political, military and scientific figures, from Isaac Newton and Lord Nelson to, more recently, Winston Churchill.
The Monday funeral ritual has not been practiced since the 1965 funeral of Churchill, Britain’s historic political leader who was the first of 15 prime ministers during Elizabeth’s reign.
At 6.30am (local time) on Monday the doors of Westminster Hall will close, ending four and a half days of public pilgrimage to the Queen’s body.
At 8 o’clock the doors of Westminster Abbey, the historic 13th century church, will open to begin welcoming the 2,000 guests to the funeral.
The list includes heads of state, members of foreign royal families, governors-general and prime ministers of the 14 Commonwealth member countries in which a British monarch is head of state.
It also includes other Commonwealth representatives, people who have been awarded the Victoria and George Crosses (in recognition of bravery by soldiers and civilians respectively), representatives of devolved governments and parliaments (Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales), senior clergy, representatives of the field of justice, the civil service, professional associations and representatives of the organizations and bodies which Elizabeth officially supported.
At 10.35am the coffin will be lifted from the elevated plinth where it was placed on Wednesday for the public procession by members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards from the Queen’s Company, the military unit with the longest connection to Elizabeth.
It will be carried in the Royal Navy killivan (open military gun carriage) in which it was transported from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.
At 10.44am the hearse will begin the short journey to the Abbey pulled by 142 Royal Navy sailors. The role of sailors is also the key element that distinguishes the funeral of a head of state from other funerals with an official ritual (such as that of Prince Philip in April 2021 and the Queen Mother in 2002).
Honors opposite that spot, in Parliament Square, will have been formed by the Royal Navy, the Nijmegen Company of Grenadier Guards and the King’s Flag Squadron of the Royal Air Force. At the same time, the band of the Royal Marines will play mournfully.
The coffin will be flanked by members of the royal stables, the King’s Guard, the Guards of the Tower of London and the Royal Company of Archers, which form the royal guard in Scotland.
King Charles will walk behind the coffin in this funeral procession. He will be flanked by other members of the royal family, as well as senior staff members of the King and the new Prince of Wales William.
At 10.52 the procession will arrive at the west entrance of the Abbey. It will be carried by the members of the units that will accompany it in the procession to a raised podium in the aisle of the church in front of the Holy Altar and at 11 the funeral service will begin which will be celebrated by the Abbot of Westminster.
Prime Minister Liz Truss and Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Scotland will read passages from the New Testament.
The homily will be given by the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
At 11.55 the religious ceremony will be completed. Then a trumpeter will sound a moment of silence and two minutes of silence will follow in the Abbey and throughout the country. This will be followed by a wake, the national anthem and an obituary by the Queen’s piper.
The coffin will be placed back on the killivan and at 12.15 a further 45-minute procession will begin to Wellington Arch in the south-west corner of Hyde Park. King Charles, Prince William and other members will walk behind the coffin, while royal wife Camilla, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle will follow in cars.
At the same time, the foreign heads of state will be transferred to the adjacent Church House Abbey for a reception hosted by Foreign Minister James Cleverley.
Along the route of the procession, which will take the Queen through Whitehall, Government House Road, Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace, members of various armed forces will be lined up. At the head of the procession will be placed riders of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and among others representatives of the national health system NHS.
The coffin will again be flanked by the same wreaths and directly behind it will follow the royal banner in the hands of members of the cavalry of the royal house.
During the procession cannon will be fired from Hyde Park at a mournful rate (one blast per minute) and the bell of Big Ben will be tolled mournfully.
Royal salutes will be given by Buckingham Palace military units as the coffin passes by.
At 1pm the coffin will board the official state hearse which brought it to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday after flying from Edinburgh. Two hours later Elizabeth’s body will arrive in Windsor, where members of the royal family will also have traveled by road.
Again along the 40km route to Windsor citizens will have gathered for their own final farewell. For this reason the hearse will proceed at a steady pace and therefore the journey will take twice as long as the one hour required at normal speed.
On 3.06 a new procession will form at the city limits which in recent years has been the main residence of the queen. At 3.10 the procession will start on the Long Way, a road of spectacular scenery that starts at Windsor Castle and stretches for 4.8 kilometers in a straight line.
At 3.40 the procession will be joined by members of the Royal Family to complete the journey at 3.52 on the entrance steps of St George’s Chapel inside Windsor Castle.
In between, mournful cannonading will be heard again and the bells of the two nearest churches will be tolled.
Honorary military salutes will greet the procession and the coffin will enter the chapel at 3.53.
It will be placed on a raised plinth and 800 in attendance will watch a short funeral service led by the Abbot of Windsor, accompanied by the chapel choir.
Before the ceremony concludes with the final hymn, the Imperial Crown, royal orb and royal scepter will be removed from the coffin where they have been lying since Wednesday and placed on the Holy Altar by the Abbot of Windsor.
At the end of the hymn, King Charles will place the banner of the Queen’s Company on the coffin, while Lord Archithalamipolos, the chief of staff of the royal household, will break the staff symbolizing his role and place it on the coffin .
As the casket descends into the underground royal crypt, the Abbot of Windsor will close the service with a psalm and eulogy, and immediately afterwards the appropriate royal official, the senior herald of the Palace, will deliver the final address to the Queen, naming everyone its titles.
The royal piper will play an obituary while marching, the Archbishop of Canterbury will bless those present and at the end everyone will shout God Save the King.
In the royal crypt where Elizabeth’s coffin will initially be found, the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh’s husband of 73 years, Philip, has also been waiting since April 2021.
The two coffins will be interred together later on Monday evening (7.30 local time) in a private ceremony at the adjacent George VI Chapel of Remembrance.
The eponymous king and father of Elizabeth, Queen Mother Elizabeth since 2002 and also since 2002 the ashes of her sister Margaret are buried there.
This chapel was built in 1969 when the coffin of King George VI was moved there from the royal crypt. The tomb is covered by a large black plaque which reads: George VI 1895-1952 and Elizabeth 1900-2002.
The largest St. George’s Chapel where the final service will be held was built in 1348. It is the church where the wedding of Harry and Meghan took place, but also the funeral of Prince Philip, which is accompanied in memory of the British by the icon of Elizabeth she mourns alone due to the measures of the pandemic.
In the Chapel of Saint George, where there are six different burial grounds, ten kings are buried (chronologically Edward IV is the first in 1483), seven royal wives, 28 princes, princesses, dukes and duchesses. Elizabeth will be the first female monarch to be buried there.
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
