LONDON: King Charles, his sons Princes William and Harry and other senior royals will join a solemn procession as Queen Elizabeth\u2019s coffin is taken from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to lie in state in parliament.
\nAfter the queen\u2019s death last week at her summer home of Balmoral Castle in Scotland, her coffin was taken to Edinburgh for a series of poignant ceremonies, and was flown to London late on Tuesday.
\nTens of thousands of people lined the 14-mile (22 km) route in driving rain and cars stopped on normally busy roads to see the well-lit hearse driving slowly through the dark toward Buckingham Palace, drawing applause and cheers.
\nAt the palace, the flag-draped coffin was met by Charles and all the queen\u2019s children, grandchildren and their spouses who had gathered together for the first time since their matriarch died.
\n\u201cIt has been an honor and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys,\u201d said Elizabeth\u2019s daughter Anne, 72, who flew from Scotland alongside the coffin. \u201cWitnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The queen\u2019s death, at the age of 96, has plunged the nation into mourning for a monarch who had reigned for 70 years.
\nPeople started queuing in the streets late on Tuesday to be one of the first to file past the coffin when the official lying in state period begins later on Wednesday.
\nAmong those gathered, some were there to represent elderly parents, others to witness history and many to thank a woman who, having ascended the throne in 1952, was still holding official government meetings just two days before she died.
\n\u201cShe really did hold up her oath of doing everything she could for this country,\u201d said Veronica Lewis, 52, from Worthing, southern England.
\nOn Wednesday, the Imperial State Crown will be placed on top of the coffin, along with a wreath, at Buckingham Palace.
\nFrom there it will move at 2.22 p.m. (1322 GMT) on a gun carriage of the King\u2019s Troop Royal Horse Artillery through central London to Westminster Hall, a medieval building with origins dating back to 1097 that is the oldest on the parliamentary estate.<\/p>\n
Charles will walk in silence behind the carriage with other senior royals, including his siblings Anne, Andrew and Edward.
\nAlso in the procession will be his sons William, 40, now the Prince of Wales, and Harry, 37, the Duke of Sussex, whose once close relationship has deteriorated in recent years to such an extent that they were said to barely be on speaking terms.
\nHowever, they appeared together with their wives when they met well-wishers outside Windsor Castle on Saturday, in a show of unity which hinted at a possible rapprochement.
\nKate, William\u2019s wife and now the Princess of Wales, and Harry\u2019s wife, Meghan, will travel by car, as will Charles\u2019 wife Camilla, now the Queen Consort.
\nLying-in-state
\nWith much of central London closed to traffic, large crowds were building along the route to watch Wednesday\u2019s procession, which will be accompanied by guns firing every minute at Hyde Park, while parliament\u2019s Big Ben bell will toll.
\nWhen the cortege reaches Westminster Hall at the Palace of Westminster, the coffin will be carried inside by soldiers from the Grenadier Guards and placed on a catafalque. There will be a short service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church.
\nFour days of lying in state will then begin until the funeral on Sept. 19.
\nA senior palace official described Wednesday\u2019s event as relatively small and personal. The full-scale ceremonial procession on Sept. 19, the day of her funeral, is likely to be one of the biggest the country has ever witnessed.
\nWith as many as 750,000 mourners expected to file past the coffin during its period of lying in state, people queued and slept on the streets in the rain to be able to pay their final respects.
\nBrenda, 79, who lives on the coast to the east of London, said she had traveled to London in 1953 after the queen\u2019s coronation to see the celebrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been our constant ever since,\u201d she said, declining to give her full name. \u201cToday is the day. Although it\u2019s very exciting to be here, it\u2019s to pay homage to her and respect for her, for all that she\u2019s done for us.\u201d
\nIn Scotland around 33,000 people filed past the coffin during the 24 hours it was at St. Giles\u2019 Cathedral in Edinburgh, but the memorial in London is a much larger occasion.
\nThe government has warned the queue could stretch for up to almost 5 miles along the southern bank of the River Thames, winding past landmarks like the giant London Eye ferris wheel and a reconstruction of Shakespeare\u2019s Globe theater.
\n\u201cYou will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down as the queue will be continuously moving,\u201d the government said.
\nCulture Secretary Michelle Donelan said some people may have to stand in line for as long as 30 hours in order to file past the coffin before the funeral on Monday.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s an icon of icons,\u201d mourner Chris Imafidon said. \u201cI must at least endure this camping out of respect.\u201d
\nGlyn Norris, 63, said a bit of rain would not deter her from paying respects to a woman who had reigned for 70 years.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t even think about it,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was my queen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: King Charles, his sons Princes William and Harry and other senior royals will join a solemn procession as Queen Elizabeth\u2019s coffin is taken from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to lie in state in parliament. After the queen\u2019s death last week at her summer home of Balmoral Castle in Scotland, her coffin was taken to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10633,8908,10632,10631],"class_list":{"0":"post-283415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-coffin","9":"tag-journey","10":"tag-king-charles","11":"tag-palace"},"yoast_head":"\n