London
Suddenly, the entire crowd freezes, motionless and mute.
An immense silence falls over these thousands, these tens of thousands of people, massed along the Mall, the avenue which leads to Buckingham Palace.
Some had waited on the spot for hours - the most enduring had even camped out for several nights - to be in the front row.
They followed without seeing her, by the audio retransmission diffused by loudspeakers, the ceremony of Westminster Abbey.
The whole country is immersed in meditation.
From Edinburgh to Cardiff via distant lands of the Commonwealth, we respect the two minutes of silence.
Right in the center of London, all you can hear are the birds of the parks, the ducks of the lake of St James's Park.
Even air traffic has been suspended.
Soldiers and police stand at attention.
Then resounded a
God Save the King
sung at the top of the lungs, concluded by heavy applause.
The queen is dead, long live the king!
In the nave of the abbey where two thousand people throng, in the transepts where the dignitaries and crowned heads from all over the planet are lined up, there is no clapping.
The assembly also sang the national anthem, except for the king, seated in the front row, to whom the song pays homage.
King Charles III moved in front of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, during the ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London.
Dominic Lipinski/Pool via REUTERS
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In front of them, in the center, the coffin of Elizabeth II, arrived in procession a little earlier from Westminster Hall.
It is draped in the Royal Standard, the colors of the monarchy, on which rests a velvet cushion bearing the crown, orb and sceptre.
On an armful of flowers, picked in the royal gardens and for some present in Elizabeth's wedding bouquet, a small cardboard box is placed.
With these simple words traced by the hand of the king, of the son:
“In loving and devoted memory, Charles R.”
(“In Loving and Devoted Remembrance, Charles, King”).
Left to right: Former Prime Ministers John Major, Tony Blair, their wives Norma and Cherie and Prime Minister Liz Truss.
HANNAH MCKAY/REUTERS
The limpid voices of the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal rise under the majestic vault, which had not seen a royal funeral for more than two centuries, at the death of George II, in 1760. It is also there that Elizabeth II was married, in 1947, there also that she was crowned, in 1953, at the age of 27.
The coffin entered after a short procession led from Westminster Hall, where hundreds of thousands of Britons have marched since last Wednesday.
Behind the extension of artillery fired by sailors, Charles III, Princess Anne and their two brothers, Edward and Andrew, then Princes William and Harry.
Their wives joined them at the entrance to the abbey.
The cameras lingered on the Queen's young great-grandchildren, the Prince of Wales and Kate's eldest son and daughter,
George and Charlotte.
Photos of the 7-year-old girl, wearing a black hat, have already gone around the world.
King Charles III and the Royal Family follow the coffin of Elizabeth II, carried into Westminster Abbey on Monday morning by grenadiers from the Queen's regiment.
James Veysey/Shutterstock/James Veysey/Shutterstock
“Those who serve with love are rare”
In the religious office as for all the other moments of this national mourning, each detail is thought out, weighed symbolically and politically.
To honor the kingdom of the open sea, it is the general secretary of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, who reads the first reading.
The Gospel of John is read by Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister.
Similarly, the ceremony is littered with tributes to the life of Elizabeth II.
Its clapper surrounded by a leather sheath for a more muted and solemn tone, the bell of the abbey rang 96 times, to mark the 96 years of life of the sovereign.
The songs appeal to memory.
Like
The Lord Is My Shepherd
, sung at the wedding of Elizabeth II, or
O Taste and See How Gracious the Lord Is
, composed for her coronation.
The sermon delivered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, pays tribute to the woman of duty that was Elizabeth II.
“Our late Majesty said on his 21st birthday that his entire life would be devoted to serving the nation and the Commonwealth.
Rarely has such a promise been so well kept,”
said the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church.
He reminds us that
"those who serve with love are rare, whatever their background".
And that
"leaders who serve will be loved and their memory cherished when those who cling to power and privilege are soon forgotten."
The prelate concludes with a
“We will meet again”
(“We will see each other again”), the words of a famous song by Vera Lynn dating from the Second World War and which the queen had taken up to comfort the British confined during the pandemic.
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The "Last Post", the bell for the dead that honors fallen British soldiers, sounds.
Finally, the bagpipes of Paul Burns, of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, play the traditional lament,
Sleep, my darling, sleep
.
The ceremony ends and another procession begins.
In front of Buckingham Palace, the benches of bright geraniums match the red of the Queen's grenadier uniform.
These soldiers, recognizable by their tall bear hair caps, are part of the five infantry regiments of the Sovereign's household guard.
With their rhythmic step, made famous by the traditional changing of the guard, they posted themselves all along the course, four meters apart from each other.
As the convoy passes, they bow their heads and lay their arms at their feet.
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Arrival from Westminster, the procession slowly goes up the Mall, where tens of thousands of people have gathered on either side.
Divided into seven groups, each to the rhythm of its own brass band playing funeral marches, some 6,000 soldiers took part in this parade to pay homage to the one they called their “boss”.
Members of the Metropolitan Police on horseback lead the way, followed by horsemen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Then come several Commonwealth detachments: New Zealand, Australia, Canada.
Then the Royal Air Force, the Army and the Royal Navy, finally the Scottish heralds in kilts, as well as the elite troops of the Gurkha brigade, of Nepalese origin, and the drummers of the Royal Marines , some of which were clad in leopard or tiger skins.
Here is Queen Elizabeth's coffin on a gun carriage, pulled by 142 Royal Navy ratings, flanked by the Yeomen of the Guard, in their Tudor period red and gold uniforms, and the Queen's archers, two units from bodyguards to the sovereign, in ceremonial roles.
The role of the sailors dates from the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901: they had replaced the horses, which had run away and had almost overturned the coffin.
Royal Navy sailors surround the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the royal standard, between Westminster Abbey and Wellington's Arch in London.
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/AFP
The royal family marches behind the catafalque: King Charles, his sister Anne, his brothers Andrew and Edward, then the grandsons William, Prince of Wales, and Harry.
Following in the car is Queen Consort Camilla, with Kate, Princess of Wales, George, now second in line to the throne, and Charlotte.
Behind, in another limousine, Meghan Markle and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, travel together, then the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Andrew.
The procession winds slowly around the Queen Victoria memorial, past the gates of Buckingham Palace, along which all palace staff have lined up, hands crossed in respect.
In London's famous Hyde Park, a crowd gathered to follow the day of the Queen's funeral on giant screens.
Lewis Joly/AP
The symbol of the end of a reign
Arriving at Wellington's Arch, on the corner of Hyde Park, the coffin is transferred to a royal hearse to be taken to Windsor, the Queen's final resting place, 38 kilometers west of London.
After a new procession on the Long Walk, the wide 5-kilometre alley leading to the castle built by William the Conqueror, two new ceremonies complete this eleven-day marathon of mourning.
The first, public and televised, brought together 800 people, including all the prime ministers of the kingdoms having had the queen as head of state and the staff of the royal household.
The second, in family intimacy.
On the steps of the castle, the two corgis of the queen, Muick and Sandy, now in the care of her son Andrew, held on a leash by a valet, bid farewell to their mistress.
As did his faithful pony before.
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In St. George's Chapel in Windsor, the highlight arrives.
The Imperial State Crown, orb and scepter are removed from the coffin to be placed on the altar.
The symbol of the end of a reign.
The Lord Chamberlain, the highest official in the royal household, then breaks his "wand of office", signifying the end of his service to the sovereign.
He places it on the coffin before it descends slowly into the royal vault to the sound of the lament of a bagpipe which slowly moves away.
"The late, highest, most powerful and excellent Monarch Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, of her other realms and territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith and Sovereign of the Order of the Garter"
disappears from view of the world at 4:48 p.m. (5:48 p.m. in France).
The
God Save the King
resounds once again, celebrating the reign of the new king.
A little later in the evening, the coffin of Elizabeth II was to be reunited with that of Prince Philip, who died in April 2021, in an adjacent wing of the chapel, alongside the Queen's parents and the ashes of her sister Margaret. .
The last rest, in these places which gave their name to the dynasty.