Picture : Twitter/ ANI
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will take place on September 19. Her death brings to an end the longest reign in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the longest reigns by any head of state.
As per PTI report, Her family had been gathering at her Scottish estate in Aberdeenshire after concerns grew about her health earlier on Thursday. The UK now has a new monarch in Charles, the former Prince of Wales. “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,: Buckingham Palace said in a statement yesterday.
The Queen’s state funeral will be United Kingdom’s first in more than half a century, with former Prime Minister Winston Churchill being the last head of state to be accorded with this honour in 1965.
Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. She was 96.
Unlike Prince Philip, who had a royal ceremonial funeral, the Queen will have a state funeral, which is usually reserved for the sovereign.
The only monarch not to be given a state funeral in the last 295 years was Edward VIII, who abdicated.
The last state funeral in the UK was Churchill’s in 1965 and the last state funeral for a sovereign was for the Queen’s father, George VI, in 1952.
The Queen’s coffin will be lying in state, which is a tradition in which the body of the deceased is placed in a state building for the public to pay their tributes.
The Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for about four days before her funeral, according to the BBC.
The last member of the Royal Family to lie in state in the hall was the Queen Mother in 2002, when more than 200,000 people queued to view her coffin, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, bells tolled around Britain on Friday as mourners flocked to palace gates to pay tributes to the Queen.
