As her coffin is flown from Edinburgh to London and then driven by hearse to Buckingham Palace, where she will be greeted by King Charles III, the Queen Consort, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Queen is departing Scotland for the last time.
Tens of thousands of Britons paid their respects to Britain’s longest-reigning queen at St. Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile, where Her Majesty’s coffin had been lying in state. Her Majesty is now being taken from St. Giles’ Cathedral to Edinburgh Airport.
Her daughter, the Princess Royal, who travelled in the cortege from the Queen’s favourite Balmoral to Edinburgh on Sunday, and the Very Reverend Professor David Fergusson, Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland, will accompany her coffin on the RAF Globemaster C-17 aircraft from Edinburgh to London.
The Royal Regiment of Scotland will give the Queen a royal salute as soon as she arrives. The coffin will subsequently be transported aboard the aircraft by a Royal Air Force bearer party.
The RAF aircraft is planned to take off from the Edinburgh runway at 6 p.m. and land at RAF Northolt in west London at 6:55 p.m.
The Queen’s coffin will be transferred from the aeroplane to the waiting state hearse by the bearer party before starting the road trip down the A40 towards Buckingham Palace.
The King’s Guard will form another guard of honour as the casket approaches the Grand Entrance of the palace, where tens of thousands of mourners are anticipated to once again throng the streets.
At Buckingham Palace, where his mother spent so many of her decades as the monarch, the King will be accompanied by Camilla as he receives his mother’s coffin. Also present at the Palace will be the Prince and Princess of Wales.
In addition to promising to “seek the wellbeing” of all Northern Irish citizens, King Charles III also spoke of his family’s “sorrows” and highlighted his mother’s connections to the region.
The Queen, according to Charles, “never stopped to pray for the best of times for this land and its people.” Charles stated this after visiting the spot where his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA attack in 2015.
The late Queen was mindful of her role in bringing together different populations. “Whom history has separated,” the new Queen said in remarks at Hillsborough Castle in Co. Down, the royal home in Northern Ireland.
After the late Queen’s memorial ceremony at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, the King and President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins exchanged handshakes.
At Hillsborough Castle, in response to a condolence message from Stormont Assembly speaker Alex Maskey on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, the King said: “Throughout all those years, she never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people, whose stories she knew, whose sorrows our family had experienced, and for whom she had a great affection and regard.
“My mother recognised profoundly, I know, the importance of the role she herself played in uniting people whom history had divided, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held scars,” I know.
“Now, with that bright example before me, and with God’s guidance, I take up my new responsibilities resolutely to pursue the wellbeing of all the citizens of Northern Ireland,” the King stated of the late Queen in front of his Queen Consort, Prime Minister Liz Truss, and important leaders from Northern Ireland.
When the Queen shook hands with Martin McGuinness, the then-deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and a former IRA leader, in 2012, it marked a significant improvement in Anglo-Irish ties.
In the Troubles, the late monarch’s cousin Lord Mountbatten, who was close with Charles, perished as a family member.
On August 27, 1979, in Mullaghmore in County Sligo, a bomb decimated a boat, killing the 79-year-old Lord Mountbatten. This was one of the worst days in the Troubles’ history, with 18 British soldiers being killed in an IRA ambush.
Another significant event was the Queen’s first-ever state visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, which was the first by a British monarch since the country’s independence.
She travelled to significant places, including Dublin’s Croke Park, the scene of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre, in which British forces opened fire into a crowd at a football game, killing 14 spectators and players. She also surprised and delighted the country by beginning her state dinner speech with a few words in Gaelic.
The Stormont Assembly’s speaker discussed how the Queen had contributed to efforts to promote peace in Ireland.
She had not been a “remote spectator,” according to Mr. Maskey, of the country’s social change and advancement.
The king, according to him, had “demonstrated how individual acts of strong leadership may help break down barriers and inspire reconciliation,” he added.
She demonstrated how even a seemingly tiny act, such as a handshake, crossing the street, or saying a few words of Irish, may significantly alter perceptions and forge new bonds, said Mr. Maskey.
According to him, it was “exceptionally important” that the Queen recognised both British and Irish traditions as well as the greater variety of the population.
In all of this, she personally emphasised that respecting another tradition does not devalue one’s own, Mr. Maskey continued.