Queen Elizabeth's funeral: Saying goodbye to the UK's longest-serving monarch
Queen Elizabeth's funeral will take place today at Westminster Abbey
Last updated 19th Sep 2022
Queen Elizabeth's funeral will take place today at Westminster Abbey with 2,000 people attending the service.
World leaders will join members of the royal family, UK prime ministers past and present and key figures from public life for the occasion.
Around 500 dignitaries from around the world are expected to attend – with US president Joe Biden, French leader Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand’s premier Jacinda Ardern among those making the trip to Britain.
When is the Queen's funeral?
The doors of Westminster Abbey will open at 8am as the congregation begins to take its seats, three hours before the service begins at 11am.
At 10.44 am the King will once again lead his family in marching behind the Queen's coffin when it is moved from Westminster Hall, where it has been lying in state, to Westminster Abbey for the Queen's funeral service.
He will walk with Anne, Andrew and Edward, and behind the quartet will be the Queen's grandsons Peter Phillips, the Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales.
They will be followed by the late monarch's son-in-law Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the Queen's cousin the Duke of Gloucester, and her nephew the Earl of Snowdon.
What do we know about the Queens funeral?
Prince George and Princess Charlotte will attend the Queen’s state funeral.
The young royals will walk through the gothic church with the royal family, in procession behind the Queen’s coffin as it is carried by the military bearer party.
Their grandfather, the King with the Queen Consort will process immediately behind the coffin, followed by the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, then the Duke of York, followed by the Earl and Countess of Wessex, and then the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Moving elements of the funeral will include the sounding of the Last Post at 11.55am as the service nears its end, followed by a two-minute national silence which will be observed by the abbey congregation and by millions across the UK.
At the end of the service, following The Last Post, two minutes’ silence, the Reveille, and the national anthem, the Queen’s Piper, Warrant Officer Class 1 (Pipe Major) Paul Burns, will play the traditional lament Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.
Before the service, the tenor bell will be tolled every minute for 96 minutes, reflecting the years of the Queen’s life.
What will happen after the funeral?
After the funeral, the King and members of the royal family will walk behind the Queen's coffin as it leaves Westminster Abbey and is taken to Wellington Arch.
The Queen's coffin will then be driven to Windsor in the state hearse. The Procession to Windsor Castle along The Long Walk will start at 3.10pm and will include members of the Armed Forces, emergency services and Her Majesty’s personal staff.
Some 800 people, including members of the Queen's Household and Windsor estate staff, will attend the committal service afterwards at 4pm in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
A private service for the royal family
The Queen will be laid to rest with her late husband Prince Phillip, in King George VI's Memorial Chapel in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in a private service at 7.30pm on the day.
The burial service conducted by the Dean of Windsor and attended by the King and royals will remain entirely private, as a "deeply personal family occasion".
Customs and history at the Queen's funeral
Breaking of the White Staff
The Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official of the Royal Household, carries a white staff as one of the symbols of his office.
He will ceremonially break the staff over the Queen's grave at some stage to signify the end of his service to her as sovereign.
The current Lord Chamberlain is former MI5 spy chief Baron Parker of Minsmere (pictured).
The last time this tradition was executed was in 1952, when the then-Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Clarendon, did so over George VI's grave.
Women attending funerals
Before Queen Victoria's reign, etiquette dictated that aristocratic women should not attend funerals at all.
But since Victoria herself had started going to funerals it was, for the first time, considered proper for women to mourn at her state burial in 1901.
Ropes used to pull the coffin
Non-commissioned sailors, naval ratings, traditionally pull the gun carriage bearing a sovereign's coffin through the streets using ropes, as seen here at King. George VI's funeral in 1952
The custom was adopted in 1901 at Queen Victoria's funeral when the splinter bar of the gun carriage broke as her coffin, weighing nearly half a ton, was lifted into place and the horses began to move.
Hit by a ricocheting leather strap, one of the horses panicked and plunged.
The naval guard of honour stepped in and dragged the gun carriage to the castle, with the image considered so striking it has been used at every British monarch's funeral since.
Night funerals
The funerals of Queen Victoria's predecessors were held at night, but hers took place in the day – a custom that has been followed ever since.
White funeral
The Windsors wear black in mourning at royal funerals.
Their ancestor, Victoria, did so for four decades after her husband, Prince Albert, died.
But, for her own funeral, Victoria left instructions that her military ceremony should be white instead of black.
Her coffin was covered with a white and golden pall on its journey from the Isle of Wight, and, in London, black fabric hangings were banished from the streets in favour of purple cashmere with white satin bows.
Vigil of the Princes
In 1936, King George V's sons – Edward VIII, the Duke of York (later George VI), Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and George, Duke of Kent – carried out the first Vigil of the Princes tribute.
They stood guard over the coffin late in the evening on the final night of his lying in state.
The Queen's children held a short vigil around her coffin in St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh (pictured), with the Princess Royal becoming the first royal woman to do so and repeated the vigil in Westminster Hall as the Queen lay in state