The Queen’s death activates a protocol envisioned decades ago that details all ceremonies during twelve days of official mourning
The Royal House and the British government had drawn up the protocol for years. In theory it was a state secret, but it was leaked after it was updated during the pandemic and an undisguised dress rehearsal was held last April, following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. This Thursday it was officially activated in the middle of the afternoon. The plan to sack Elizabeth II has been worked out to the millimeter and will last twelve days of official mourning. It may take more than a year for the coronation of Carlos III to be celebrated.
Immediately after the Queen’s death at her residence in Balmoral, her personal secretary, Edward Young, telephoned Prime Minister Liz Truss. “London Bridge has fallen.” Short. cryptic. Enough. For example, the ‘London Bridge Operation’ is activated to organize the burial and succession, although the fact that the monarch died in Scotland is not small. It forced an additional plan to be launched in parallel: ‘Unicorn’.
What does all this mean? After hanging up the phone and informing UK and Commonwealth heads of state, Truss pressed the red button that plunges the country into a phase of “national catastrophe”. Elizabeth II’s body was taken to the Palace of Holyrood, in Edinburgh, last night to be veiled in her capacity as Queen of Scotland, and she will be given a state funeral at San Gil Cathedral this Friday. The coffin is then transported by train to London. In 1952, when George VI died at Sandringham, the Royal Train was used, but now it looks like a conventional, faster one will be used.
Immediately after the death of his mother, Carlos took over the position of king on Thursday. He will arrive in London this Friday because according to protocol on the 1st day after his death, the Ascension Council, composed of ministers, politicians and ambassadors from the fourteen countries where Elizabeth II ruled, must meet to proclaim the new monarch. . Next, the government will pledge allegiance to the new head of state with a symbolic 41-gun salute in Hyde Park.
This afternoon Carlos III will address the nation for the first time in a televised address. Tomorrow the Council of State will be held in which the King, for its more than 700 members, will swear allegiance to the Protestant faith and later travel the islands to repeat the oath in their capitals: Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and back to London .
Unsurprisingly, on Monday – the 4th – Elizabeth II’s coffin will be transferred from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Palace in a military procession. The Queen’s remains are placed in a catafalque and guarded for four days by her relatives and political representatives. The so-called “coffin safekeeping” ends on the 9th, when the doors of Parliament are opened to the public. Thousands of people are expected to honor the Queen. Everyone will have their moment. The funeral takes place between the 10th and the 12th, depending on needs.
The day of the funeral is declared a national holiday. The farewell begins at 11 a.m. when the bell of Big Ben begins to ring. The coffin will be transported by coach to Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony will be attended by 2,000 guests. The body will later be transferred to Windsor Castle, where, except for a twist in the script, Elizabeth II will rest in St. George’s Chapel with her father. The remains of the Duke of Edinburgh will also be transferred there. This is where national mourning comes to an end. The country will return to normal. The BBC is allowed to broadcast comedies again, something that has been banned since last night.
There are no specific dates yet about the coronation of Carlos III. Elizabeth II took 14 months to take the crown after her father’s death, and it is believed that the future king will follow in her mother’s footsteps and ascend the throne in a ceremony to take place in Westminster . Other depth changes will begin on the islands. For example, new coins and stamps with the image of the new monarch are minted and the current ones are gradually withdrawn from circulation. They will change the shields and caps of the police. It will also touch to change the national anthem. Farewell to the historic ‘God save the Queen’, which will make way for ‘God save the King’.
Source: La Verdad
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