The Queen was put to rest alongside her loving husband, Prince Philip, after her crown, orb, and sceptre were removed from her casket so she might enter the tomb as a humble Christian soul.
As her 70-year reign came to a close, Her Majesty went to Windsor to be joined for eternity with her husband, father, mother, and sister in the vault at St George’s Chapel to the tune of a lone piper.
The Royal Family stood at the end of the short service as the Queen was carefully lowered into the royal crypt as the Dean of Windsor said, ‘Go forth upon thy journey from this world, O Christian soul.’ He also said a prayer of approbation, in which the departed is surrendered to God’s care.
The Dean had put her crown and other crown jewels on the altar minutes before the Queen’s staff of office was snapped, symbolizing the Queen’s dying service. The Garter King of Arms then proclaimed the Queen’s styles and titles as all authority passed to her son, the King.
On a day when he appeared sad on several occasions as he bid farewell to his mother, the 12th British monarch to be buried at Windsor, Charles looked genuinely touched as the casket was lowered.
Her Majesty’s long journey to her final resting place – and to be reunited with the Duke of Edinburgh – began in Balmoral 11 days ago and will conclude this evening with her private interment at the castle’s St George’s Chapel, where the King will scatter earth on his mother’s coffin at 7.30pm at a private family service.
The carriage carrying Britain’s longest reigning queen was followed by Charles III, her children and grandchildren, including Prince Harry and Prince William.
St George’s was where the Queen had sat alone for Prince Philip’s burial last year, in one of the pandemic’s most tragic pictures, and it was where she had loved to worship for so many years.
