Queen Elizabeth will be laid to rest beside her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Following the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death on Thursday, her burial arrangements have been revealed.
After her coffin has traveled from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to London, Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19. Westminster Abbey was also the location of the Queen’s wedding in 1947 and her coronation in 1953.
The funeral will be followed by a committal service in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, her final resting place.
The Queen will be buried next to her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip.
The Queen will be also surrounded by her family in the burial spot: Her parents, King George VI, who died in 1952, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who died in 2002, as well as her sister, Princess Margaret, who also died in 2002, are all interred at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St. George’s Chapel.
Funeral services for Prince Philip were held eight days after his death in April 2021, when he died at 99 years old. Due COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the ceremony was massively scaled back and only a handful of family members could attend the service. In a striking image, the Queen sat alone in the pews to comply with social distancing practices.
As the Queen is laid to rest, Prince Phillip will be moved from the Royal Vault beneath St. George’s Chapel, where he has been temporarily interned, and put beside his wife, The Telegraph reported.
King Charles III’s coronation will take place in a matter of months following an appropriate mourning period.
King Charles III: The Kind of Monarch He Will Be
The Queen’s death on Thursday kicked off Operation London Bridge, the plan that reportedly lists what will happen in the United Kingdom following the monarch’s death, including how it will be announced to the public and all the steps that will occur in the days after.
Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, was the first official to convey the news (apart from her relatives and medical team), per The Guardian. From there, Young, 55, contacted the newly-appointed prime minister, Elizabeth Truss, giving the code phrase “London Bridge is down” to signal the Queen’s death before the news was publicly announced.
The Queen was last seen in photos on Tuesday, where she appointed Conservative Party leader Truss, 47, as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom at Balmoral — a historic first.
The monarch had been experiencing episodic mobility issues, and a source told PEOPLE that the decision was made to host the audience at Balmoral to provide certainty for schedules.
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