LONDON — The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 19, at Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace announced on Saturday. The queen, who died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle, her summer retreat in the Scottish Highlands, now lies in the castle’s ballroom, her oak coffin draped in the royal standard of Scotland, officials said in a briefing about the funeral arrangements.
On Sunday, six gamekeepers from the estate will bear Elizabeth’s coffin from the dining room at Balmoral to a hearse, which will carry it on a roundabout, six-hour journey to Edinburgh, via Aberdeen. An honor guard will receive it at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the sovereign’s official residence in Scotland.
The next day, the queen’s coffin will be conveyed on the Royal Mile, a grand route through Edinburgh’s Old Town, to St. Giles Cathedral, where there will be a service and vigil. King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be part of that procession, with some members of the royal family walking behind the coffin and others riding in vehicles.
The queen will lie in state in Edinburgh until Tuesday afternoon, when her coffin will be taken to a Royal Air Force jet, which will transport it to the Northolt air base west of London. It will be loaded into a state hearse and driven to Buckingham Palace, arriving at 8 p.m., when it will be placed on a trestle in the ballroom.
On Wednesday at 2:22 p.m., the queen’s coffin, now adorned with the imperial state crown and a wreath of flowers, will be conveyed by gun carriage in a silent procession from Buckingham Palace, through the Mall and past the Horse Guards Parade, making its way to Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster.
After a blessing by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four days until the morning of the funeral, when her coffin will be moved again to nearby Westminster Abbey.
Buckingham Palace declined to estimate how many people might pass her coffin during that period, though based on other funerals for members of the royal family, it is likely to be tens, or even hundreds, of thousands.
