London
Elizabeth II's favorite state residence will also be her final resting place.
It is in this castle that she loved so much that the queen will be buried in a sober family intimacy.
With her husband who seemed to have been waiting for her since her death in April 2021.
There will certainly still be a very public tribute, on the grounds of Windsor.
Arrived from London, about thirty kilometers away, the hearse will take the famous “Long Walk”, the impressive rectilinear path lined with trees of almost 5 km which crosses the estate to lead to the gates of the castle.
The king and other members of the royal family will take part in a funeral procession to St George's Chapel, before a new religious service bringing together 800 guests, including all the prime ministers of the kingdoms having had the queen as head of state. and the staff of the royal household.
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The suite will be more private.
The last goodbyes to Elizabeth II will be made in the presence of the only tight royal clan.
In the evening, the queen will be buried in a small adjacent chapel, that of the King George VI memorial where her father and mother are already, as well as the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret.
The sovereign will then be reunited with her husband.
The coffin of prince Philip, which rested so far in the royal vault of Windsor, will also be moved to the annex of the chapel to join his wife.
By hosting this legendary sovereign in her eternal night, Windsor Castle is further cementing its place in the history of the Crown, a ten-century-old saga.
A refuge for the royal family
The "round tower" still attests to the antiquity of the building.
It dates from William the Conqueror, in the years following his conquest in the 11th century, which makes the castle the oldest continuously inhabited palace in Europe.
It has experienced many vicissitudes, caught in political turmoil or devastated by a fire in 1992. The residence was often a haven.
During the bombardments of the Second World War, it was used as a refuge for the royal family.
And before Elizabeth II settled there permanently - prior to Philip's death and the worsening of his health problems - Queen Victoria had made it the epicenter of her reign.
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Windsor also gave its name to the dynasty.
It was George V, Elizabeth's grandfather, who decided on this surname in the middle of the First World War.
At the time, a strong sense of Germanophobia had spread across Europe and Britain.
Of German origin, the royal family had hitherto borne the name of "Saxe-Coburg-Gotha", which sounded more and more badly to the ears of the British population.
George V, very worried about the future of the monarchy in this context, therefore proclaimed the change of name in 1917, drawing symbolic legitimacy from this historic residence.
It was at the same time and for the same reasons that Prince Philip's family changed their name from Battenberg to Mountbatten.
Despite these somewhat insular family ancestries,
