Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8 at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle, ending a 70-year reign - the longest in U.K. history - and setting in motion (what else?) an exhaustively planned campaign of royal protocols. Prince Charles gets to be King Charles III, the Windsor corgis get rehomed, and, after something like ten days, the Queen finally gets laid to rest. That, at least, was the blueprint sketched by documents Politico obtained last year, outlining the official plan for when the Queen died. Though the particular circumstances have shifted the agenda somewhat, the Cut will attempt to answer your biggest questions about what happens next.
The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19, which will be a national day of mourning in the U.K. Under the initial schedule, the funeral looked likely to take place on Sunday (or D-Day+10, "D-Day" being the date of the Queen's death), but the change in timing, or my mistake in counting, bodes well for the British public. Per Politico, the day of mourning basically means a bank holiday, but only if it falls on a regular weekday. Many U.K. residents may now collect one (1) long weekend.
She actually hasn't returned to London yet. Because the Queen died in Scotland, officials now need to move her body from Balmoral to Edinburgh, where she boards her final flight. That process began over the weekend, her coffin making the six-hour trip by car. According to the New York Times, crowds lined Edinburgh's royal mile as the Queen arrived at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on Sunday, before moving to St. Giles' Cathedral on Monday. Her four kids - King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward - walked behind the coffin on its route and attended a service at the cathedral after its arrival. On the way, one onlooker shouted at the Queen's favorite son, "Andrew, you're a sick old man!" He was presumably referencing the rape allegations that stem from Prince Andrew's affiliation with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, though the 62-year-old's rumored teddy-bear collection is also spooky.
Somebody yells out, "Andrew, you're a sick old man" to Prince Andrew, who is walking behind Queen Elizabeth's coffin pic.twitter.com/M6DsyuPLXR
Anyway, the heckler has apparently been arrested, and the Queen will now spend 24 hours lying in state so that people can pay her one last visit.
September 13, or, D-Day+5. Whereas the Guardian initially reported that she would make the journey by train (Operation UNICORN), the BBC now says she's traveling by plane and will arrive in London just before 7 p.m., local time, on Tuesday. King Charles, plus assorted other family members, is expected to receive her at Buckingham Palace. According to the BBC, "a rota of chaplains" will keep watch over the coffin that night and then on Wednesday she will make her way to Westminster Hall. Per the BBC:
The Queen's coffin will leave Buckingham Palace at 14:22. Crowds will be able to watch as the cortege makes the journey through central London - along Queen's Gardens, The Mall, Horse Guards and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square and New Palace Yard.
The procession will include the King and members of the Royal Family, guns will be fired at Hyde Park and Big Ben will toll.
Once she arrives, a four-day period of lying in state begins.
The placement of a public official's body in a state building, for public viewing, after their death and ahead of their burial. In the U.K., the honor is reserved almost exclusively for monarchs, though it has been accorded to a couple of prime ministers (e.g., Winston Churchill) too. From 5 p.m. local time on September 14, until 6:30 a.m. on September 19, people will be allowed to come in and look at her closed casket, provided they are prepared to weather truly heinous queues. Some MPs are reportedly worried about 30-hour waits, which could force visitors to stand, owing to "unprecedented demand." Security will also be tight, with strict requirements on what mourners can and cannot bring: no flowers, no photos, no camping equipment, even though crowds may have to wait overnight.
After the state funeral at Westminster Abbey, there will be a committal service at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle before the Queen is buried at the King George VI Memorial Chapel there. Congrats to Prince Philip, who will finally be moved from his temporary resting place in the royal vault to rejoin the Queen more than a year after he died.
Some, yes. To start, that man was arrested for saying about Prince Andrew what many people will have been thinking. And then those watching at home will already have noticed that the dukes of neither York nor Sussex wore military uniforms to the Queen's memorial service at St. Giles'. Prince Andrew has been stripped of his military titles for the reasons mentioned above, whereas Prince Harry gave all that up when he stepped back from his senior royal duties. Both will forgo military dress at the ceremonies, except for Andrew, who gets to wear one at the final vigil, according to CBS News royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah. She calls the last allowance a "mark of respect to the queen," though maybe it is more like a mark of favoritism. Still, the uniforms thing isn't all that surprising, as you may remember from Prince Philip's funeral, where the Queen mandated that all "wear suits" so that "everyone was on a level playing field."
What I bet you really want to know about, though, is the long-rumored frostiness between Princes William and Harry, who must now attend a suite of somber family outings together. So far, this seems to be going fairly well? People reports that William, Harry, Meghan, and Kate all went to Windsor Castle to pay tribute on Saturday in the same car. Some sources say that the relationship remains tense, and that would make sense, but for now everyone seems to be behaving with maturity - everyone except for King Charles, who got visibly huffy with palace aides while signing orders during Saturday's accession ceremony. Your new queen, everybody:
While signing an oath at the Accession Council, King Charles III ran out of room and gestured for an aide to help make some space on the desk. https://t.co/zRfXNO1crQ pic.twitter.com/Fl5Ge24EZY
We will keep this post updated as details change and new information becomes available.