What will happen no that queen is dead?
On 8th September 2022, a chapter in the history book concluded with the peaceful and natural death of Queen Elizabeth II of England. So what will happen now? Who's next in line?
First in line is to the English throne is the Prince of Wales, Charles and his wife Camilla. Following them will be The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their kids. Though as we stated on the fact card we made on his mother's accession to the throne in fact card #346, there will be a gap between the death of Lizzie and the coronation of Charlie so the timing would be appropriate.
Since Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral in Scotland, she will be Aberdeen reposing at at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh once the royal undertakers, Leverton and Sons will send a hermetically sealable coffin over for her to be placed in. Her remains will be repatriated to England by train on the east coast mainline to prepare for the funeral in London after a brief trip to St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh*. Her body will repose in Buckingham Palace's Throne Room while being| supervised by royal guards.
さ
If the Queen died with her eyes open then Charles would've had to close them and his siblings including the disgraced Prince Andrew, would've kissed his hands. He has already made his first statement as king. Sir Christopher Geidt, the Queen's private secretary first relayed the news to the Prime Minister, Liz Truss to tell her "London Bridge is Down", the code name for the Queen's death to prevent it being found out too early. This was then passed onto the entire United Kingdom and
countries where the British Monarch is head of state. At this moment as well, a footman in black
mourning clothes fixated a sign to announce Her Majesty's death on the gates of Buckingham Palace.
Westminster Hall will be closed so it will be cleaned and carpeted. Westminster Hall is important to all of this as it's here that Lizzie will repose for four days. The procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall will be timed so that upon her arrival, Big Ben (technically the Elizabeth Tower but to avoid confusion, let's just call the iconic clock tower
Big Ben since we are used to calling it that) will chime as the wheels of her transportation come to a complete halt at Westminster Hall.
Lizzie's coffin will be carried a few hundred meters from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey at 11AM GMT. At that very moment, a great silence will fall upon the UK, trains will stop, traffic will cease and cars will pull over. Once that has passed, the Queen's coffin will enter Westminster Abbey and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby will hold a service. The faces of the royals will not be shown on media cameras.
News broadcasters have donned black garments that have been kept at the ready in their broadcasting house cupboards and all comedy programmes on BBC channels have been suspended. British news stations have already released their prepared obits after being updated accordingly to fit the current affairs and scrubbed of the code names that would've been used in rehearsals in fear of infiltration. Portraits of the Queen from princess hord to her widow queen years are being displayed as part of these obits. Sombre, inoffensive instrumental pieces is being played on radios. For the next 10 days, the United Kingdom and states that have dominion status (i.e. Australia, Canada, Jamaica, and New Zealand) will go into mourning. Flags at half-mast and moments of silence at sports events that have not been cancelled.
When the Queen leaves Westminster Abbey for the final time, it will be placed on a gun carriage that carried her father, grandfather and great-grandfather's remains. This will be pulled manually by 138 sailors from the Royal Navy due to an incident that happened at the funeral of her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria's funeral where the horses got into a frenzy and were thus seen as unreliable. The journey from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle will be 31 kilometres long,
People will come to pay their respects to the 96-year-old Queen at Westminster Hall where she will be guarded at all times by soldiers who will have 20 minute increments. On the third day there, her family will likely step in to stand watch in the Vigil of the Princes. There will be daily wreath refreshments (the wreaths on her coffin will be swapped for ones with fresher flowers) during the 23 hour visitation. The royal jewels will be removed from her coffin to the cleaned in preparation for the funeral service on Day 9 of the Queen's post mortem journey. The hammer of Big Ben will be padded so the sound will be muffled when chimed and church services will be held throughout the day. This day also a bank holiday as the stock market would be shut and workers and students will be given a day off.
Awaiting her at Windsor Castle will be royal household on the grass. Her coffin will enter the gates, ending the public funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. The internment will be kept out of the public eye as per tradition where Elizabeth will be laid to rest in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. Her husband will be fished out of the royal vault where he was since April 2021 and will be reinterred in the same crypt as his wife. Their son Charles will also sprinkle a handful of earth from a silver bowl onto
his mother's coffin
*At the time we wrote this, this was the initial plan but due to extreme difficulty in regarding policing the rail line for trespassers, Lizzie was flown to RAF Norholt on a RAF owned C-17 Globemaster.
This was a fact card that we made when the Queen died and we would've done more on the things that happened post the death of Queen Elizabeth II if it wasn't for a tummy bug and a series of exams and personal shenanigans.