
“It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. “I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother’s life,” Princess Anne said in a statement. Crowds lining the Royal Mile through the historic heart of Edinburgh broke into applause as the coffin, accompanied by the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, was driven to Edinburgh Airport. Giles’ Cathedral to the strain of bagpipes. that shares a border with a member of the bloc.īefore being flown to London, the queen's oak coffin was carried from St. and the EU have been wrangling over trade rules for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, the U.K. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast despite tense relations between Dublin and London over Brexit. Irish leaders attended a service of reflection at St. Bobby Sands was our king here,” said 52-year-old Bobby Jones. On the Falls Road in Belfast, a nationalist stronghold, several walls are decorated with murals of Bobby Sands, an IRA member who died while on a hunger strike in prison in 1981, and others killed in the Troubles. Still, not everyone was welcoming the new king. He said he would draw on his mother’s “shining example” and “seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.” The royal family was touched personally by the violence: Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the queen and a much-loved mentor to Charles, was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.Ĭharles responded that she had tried to play a role “in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts.”

security forces, in which 3,600 people died. That split fueled three decades of violence known as “the Troubles” involving paramilitary groups on both sides and U.K. While there was a warm welcome in Hillsborough, the British monarchy draws mixed emotions in Northern Ireland, where there are two main communities: mostly Protestant unionists who consider themselves British and largely Roman Catholic nationalists who see themselves as Irish. “Today means so much to me and my family, just to be present in my home village with my children to witness the arrival of the new king is a truly historic moment for us all,” said Hillsborough resident Robin Campbell. Charles even petted a corgi - famously his late mother’s favorite breed of dog - held up by one person, and some chanted “God save the king!”
Abandon village stronghold kingdoms mobile driver#
One who stood in the rain waiting for the hearse to pass, retired bus driver David Stringer, 82, recalled watching the queen’s coronation on a newsreel as a boy.Ĭharles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, got out of their car to wave to the crowd and sometimes used both hands to reach out to villagers, including schoolchildren in bright blue uniforms. Prime Minister Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and a military honor guard were among those at the base for the arrival. The military C-17 Globemaster carrying the casket touched down at RAF Northolt, an air force base in the west of London, about an hour after it left Edinburgh. 8 at age 96 after 70 years on the throne. The queen - the only monarch many in the United Kingdom have ever known - died there Sept. Giles’ Cathedral after it had been brought there from her cherished summer retreat, Balmoral.

The coffin traveled to London from Edinburgh, where 33,000 people filed silently past it in the 24 hours at St. Her son, King Charles III, and other immediate family members waited inside. Thousands outside the palace cheered, shouted “God save the queen!” and clapped as the hearse swung around a roundabout in front of the queen's official London residence and through the wrought iron gates. In the city, people pressed in on the road and held their phones aloft as it passed. People parked their cars along a normally busy road, got out and waved as the hearse, with lights inside illuminating the flag-draped coffin, made its way into London.

LONDON (AP) - The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II returned to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, making its way through a drizzly London as crowds lined the route for a glimpse of the hearse and to bid her a final farewell.
