The 10 days of events and mourning for Queen Elizabeth II will culminate in her funeral on Monday, when the queen’s coffin is expected to be placed on the same green gun carriage that carried her forefathers for a final procession down the Mall, which runs between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square in central London.
The coffin will then be driven to Windsor Castle, about 23 miles west of London, where the queen will be buried alongside her husband and royal predecessors in St. George’s Chapel. The chapel, which is inside the walls of the castle, was completed in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry VIII, whose body is also buried there.
For centuries, Westminster Abbey in London was the burial place for kings and queens, but St. George’s Chapel has been the final resting place of nearly all British monarchs since King George III, who died in 1820.
Prince Philip, the queen’s husband for 73 years, was buried in the chapel in April 2021 after an intimate and muted funeral ceremony because of restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictures of the queen sitting in the chapel in isolation, dressed in black and wearing a face mask, prompted an outpouring of sympathy across the country at a time when members of the public were observing the same restrictions.
The queen will be buried in the King George VI Memorial Chapel alongside her parents, George VI and Queen Elizabeth, known as the queen mother. King George died in 1952, and the queen mother in 2002. It is also the final resting place of Princess Margaret, the queen’s only sibling, who also died in 2002. Prince Philip was laid to rest in the chapel’s main Royal Vault last year, but will be moved to join the queen.
Steeped in history, the chapel has been an important place of worship for the queen and her family and has been the venue for many royal weddings, christenings and funerals. Included among those occasions was the May 2018 wedding of Harry and Meghan, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, an event watched by more than 29 million viewers in the United States alone
Megan Specia contributed reporting
