My heartfelt thanks for all your comfort and support, by King Charles
THE King thanked the public last night for their ‘comfort and support’ as he and his family prepared to say their ‘last farewell’ to Queen Elizabeth II today.
His heartfelt message came as Buckingham Palace released an unseen picture of the late monarch, taken in May at Windsor Castle as part of a series of portraits to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee.
The smiling 96-year-old sovereign is pictured sporting an exquisite pair of diamond and aquamarine Cartier clips that were an 18th-birthday present from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
In his message to the nation, King Charles expressed his sincere thanks for so many kind words and gestures since his mother passed away on Thursday, September 8.
He said: ‘Over the last ten days, my wife and I have been so deeply touched by the many messages of condolence and support we have received from this country and across the world.
‘In London, Edinburgh, Hillsborough and Cardiff we were moved beyond measure by everyone who took the trouble to come and pay their respects to the lifelong service of my dear mother.
‘As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my family and myself in this time of grief.’ It came as:
■ Hundreds of heads of state, royals and dignitaries flew in to pay their respects at today’s State Funeral in an precedented display of pomp and majesty, the likes of which are unlikely to be seen again;
■ The Palace revealed that two of the Queen’s great-grandchildren – Prince George, nine, and Princess Charlotte, seven – will walk behind her coffin at Westminster Abbey with their parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales;
■ The Duchess of Sussex will join senior royals to follow the coffin as it processes through the Abbey;
■ The new Queen Consort made a moving tribute to her late motherin-law, highlighting the ‘difficult’ job she had as a ‘solitary’ woman leader and revealing the Queen’s ‘brilliant’ sense of humour;
■ The Duke of York issued his own tribute to his ‘ Dear Mummy, Mother, Your Majesty’, praising her ‘love, compassion and care’;
■ Mourners scrambled to be among the last to see the Queen’s coffin last night as the public farewell to Her Majesty comes to an end at 6.30am today;
■ Hardy royal fans defied no-camping rules ahead of today’s funeral procession from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey and then on to Windsor, as people of all ages set up tents and deckchairs to grab premium seats for the spectacle;
■ Around 200 ‘everyday heroes’, including a lifeboat volunteer who helped save a dozen lives, an antiknife campaigner and a lawyer who delivered 1,200 free meals in the pandemic, will be among the mourners at today’s funeral;
■ The Order of Service for both the
State Funeral and then the Queen’s more intimate committal at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, were released, revealing a mix of tradition – from the five Sentences, lines of scripture set to music that have been used at every state funeral since the 18th century, to the deeply personal: one of the hymns sung at the Queen’s wedding to Prince Philip in 1947.
More than a million people are expected to descend on the capital today for their chance to be part of history.
Billions are also due to tune in from all over the world, with major networks running rolling live coverage on their main channels all day – as well as on their digital and radio platforms.
About 10,000 military personnel will be involved in the funeral, while hundreds of heads of state and dignitaries will have front-row seats of the spectacle.
Ahead of the service, the tenor bell will be tolled every minute for 96 minutes, reflecting the years of Queen Elizabeth’s incredible life.
At 10.44am sharp, the late monarch’s coffin will be moved the short distance to Westminster Abbey in time for the funeral service to start at 11am sharp.
The Queen’s most senior guardsmen, the Grenadier Guards, will form the bearer party carrying the coffin from the catafalque at Westminster Hall through the North Door to the waiting 123-year- old state gun carriage, which will be drawn by 142 Royal Naval ratings along the route to the Abbey.
Led by 200 musicians, the procession will go through Parliament Square, where it will be saluted by a guard of honour.
From here, the King, his siblings and children, as well as loyal members of Her Majesty’s household, will march behind the coffin.
Princess Charlotte and Prince George will be driven to the Abbey with the Princess of Wales and the Queen Consort, to join the family party outside.
Inside, the gothic splendour of the cathedral will be packed with more than 2,000 VIPs, including world leaders and foreign royals. Among them will be ‘everyday people’ who have served the country, including NHS heroes who worked tirelessly through the pandemic and Armed Forces veterans.
The hour-long service will conclude with the Last Post, followed by a two-minute silence observed across the nation and the national anthem – in which Abbey mourners will hail our new King.
A haunting lament played by the Queen’s Piper, ‘ Sleep, Dearie, Sleep’, has been included at her personal request. Afterwards the coffin will embark on the last stage of its journey, travelling 25 miles to her beloved Windsor, where she will finally be laid to rest.
The committal service will be smaller and far more personal, with the Instruments of State – the Imperial Crown, Orb and Sceptre – removed from the Queen’s coffin and placed on high altar, symbolically ending the Elizabethan reign.
The Lord Chamberlain, who is the most senior official of the Royal Household, will then symbolically ‘break’ his wand of office and place it on the coffin to signify him officially losing office.
The Queen’s coffin will be lowered into the Royal Vault, ready to be privately reunited later this evening with her beloved Philip, her parents and her sister in their family chapel.
‘Us four’ – as King George VI famously referred to his family – will become ‘us five’ in the afterlife.
‘My wife and I have been deeply touched’
IT IS fashionable among the liberal elite to depict Britain as a country of waning power and influence, sliding inexorably into the wings of the world stage.
This miserabilist movement, with Labour and the BBC inevitably at its vanguard, claims the UK is a spent force – a sickly international actor living off memories of its imperial past. The extraordinary global reaction to Queen Elizabeth II’s death has exposed that notion as pure bunkum.
If Britain truly is slipping into irrelevance, why is the late monarch being nearuniversally mourned? If we are merely some dwindling second-rate state, how come the world’s leaders have flocked to London to attend her state funeral today?
The greatest gathering of kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers ever seen will join the 2,000-strong congregation for the solemn service in Westminster Abbey.
Royalist or republican, democrat or despot, every head of state has been clamouring for invitations. Inclusion is a mark of international status.
The impact of Her Majesty’s passing is seismic. The global grieving has easily eclipsed that which accompanied the deaths of such towering international figures as Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.
The reality, invariably overlooked by those who delight in running the country down, is that the Queen is revered across the planet – from the tiny Pitcairn Islands to the sands of Arabia. Her long reign reads like a travelogue. She visited more than 100 countries and hosted upwards of 150 state visits – a successful, often history-making, exercise in diplomacy and ‘soft power’.
To many around the world, the Queen’s core values – duty, responsibility, selfdiscipline and self-sacrifice – are indivisible from those that Britain represents.
A predicted global TV audience of four billion will watch her funeral – around half the planet’s population. That is testament to the huge esteem held overseas for our monarchy, traditions and principles.
Whatever the naysayers claim, Britain punches well above its weight geopolitically, economically and culturally.
To Ukraine, who we have given military and financial support in their existential battle against Russia, or the flood-ravaged people of Pakistan, where we have sent vast amounts of aid to help them rebuild, this country is anything but an irrelevance.
In their eyes and those of countless other nations, we remain a shining beacon of hope, democracy, freedom and friendship.
But today the curtain falls on the Elizabethan Age. We will say a final, sorrowful farewell to the only monarch most of us have ever known.
Up to two million will line the streets of London for perhaps the most spellbinding spectacle in this island’s recent history.
The magnificent pomp and pageantry of the ceremonies will surely take the breath away of even the most cynical republican.
This will be a fitting farewell for a monarch who guided the nation through 70 turbulent years with deftness, courage and wisdom.
More than any of her predecessors, she won her subjects’ hearts through unflagging hard work and quiet, sober simplicity.
That has been reflected in the remarkable stream of humanity that has braved long queues and chilly weather to pay tribute at her lying-in-state. Also in the impeccably observed minute’s silence last night.
Amid all the splendour and majesty of the occasion, however, it is important not to forget that a family is bereaved.
King Charles said in a poignant message last night that he was ‘moved beyond measure’ by the outpouring of grief and affection for his ‘dear mother’. It had, he said, been a ‘support and comfort’.
His first days as sovereign have – fountain pen mishaps aside – been pitch-perfect. If he follows his mother’s example in the future, he’ll be a worthy successor indeed.