Queen’s funeral marks the end of her glorious era

No country can challenge Britain in arranging displays of pomp and circumstance when celebrating royal weddings, anniversaries, and funerals. The ceremonials staged following the death of Queen Elizabeth II have been spectacular. Her state funeral today will mark the end and culmination of 12 days of observances.

Her death on September 8th launched not one but two contingency operations, “London Bridge,” if she expired in England, and “Unicorn,” if she died in Scotland, which was the case. Edinburgh-based “Operation Unicorn” involved and procession along the Royal Mile, repose of the Queen’s coffin Holyrood Palace and a service at St. Giles Cathedral before the coffin, draped in the royal standard with the imperial crown resting on top, was flown to London. There tens of thousands of people honoured the queen by waiting for up to 30 hours to pay their respects at the lying-in state at Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster.

Her coffin, surrounded by soldiers from different regiments and mounted on a gun carriage, processed slowly along the streets lined with people from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.

King Charles III, his siblings and sons walked behind the coffin. Arrayed in dress uniforms, 1,000 members of four military regiments took part in this moving transfer.

Queen Elizabeth’s mother was the last member of the royal family to lie in state at the hall after her death in 2002 when more than 200,000 people paid their respects.

The state funeral, expected to draw 2,000 guests, will take place at Westminster Abbey at 11.00 British time. Westminster Abbey is the successor of St. Peter’s Abbey constructed between 1042-1060 on the site of an ancient chapel. The church saw the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066 and was reconstructed that began in 1245 on orders of King Henry VIII. It is the traditional site of coronations and royal weddings as well as funerals.

More than 3,000 people are buried in the abbey, including 16 monarchs, eight prime ministers, poets, actors, scientists, military leaders. But Queen Elizabeth will be buried next to her husband, Prince Philip, at St. George’s Chapel in Windson Castle, where her sister, Princess Margaret and their parents were entombed.

Why all this pomp and circumstance? The popular colourful and gripping display is meant to remind Britons of their 1,200 year-old history under the House of Windsor which has reigned for 37 generations. Among the many monarchs, Queen Elizabeth II ruled longest and died at the most advanced age.

While her reign coincided with the dismantling of the British empire and revolutionary changes in her country and abroad, she provided a measure of stability by personifying the realm, respecting British traditions and providing a modicum of unity. As a constitutional monarch not meant to meddle in politics, she maintained neutrality in a country increasingly divided between rich and poor, coloured and white, conservative, and liberal, nationalist and internationalist.

Britain’s controversial divorce from the European Union (Brexit) must have tried the queen’s neutrality as she was a fluent French speaker and widely travelled in Europe and elsewhere. In 2018, at a dinner for the king and queen of the Netherlands, she spoke for the first time about Brexit, “As we look toward a new partnership with Europe, it is our shared values and commitment to each other that are our greatest asset and demonstrate that even through change, our enduring alliance remains strong, and as innovators, traders and internationalists, we look with confidence to the future.”

Brexiters took her words as approving the divorce, Remainers adopted the opposite view and argued she regretted the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. She managed to evade commitment at the time her intervention might have influenced the vote which was expected to result in Britain remaining in the European Union but surprised pundits by leading to the kingdom’s exit.

Her death, marked by pomp and circumstance, makes her subjects forget the trials and tribulations which harmed her image over the years. She inherited the throne because her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated to marry a divorcee, and his brother, the Queen’s father, became George VI.

The queen has borne a string of failed marriages involving her son and heir Prince Charles, second son Andrew, daughter Princess Anne, and sister Princess Margaret. The queen initially responded coldly to the tragic death of Charles’ globally popular ex-wife Diana in a car crash in Paris after she went rogue and embarrassed the royals. The queen has also had to face scandals caused by Andrew and the alienation of her grandson Harry over his marriage to Megan Markle.

Pomp and circumstance is a carefully choreographed public relations exercise and political operation meant to launch King Charles into his reign and perpetuate the monarchy at a time republicans press for the abolition of the system. Preparations for commemorations are also taking place in countries where the British monarch remains head of state: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Pomp and circumstance is also intended to impress global public opinion with the majesty of the British royal family. Having become one of the most well-known world figures. Queen Elizabeth II was an excellent representative of Britain. She promoted its messages and interests in countries and won the admiration of peoples the world over. Royal brands are widely sold in shops and super markets around the world.

Queen Elizabeth — who died at 96, was a glamourous apolitical figure of the past operating in the present rather than a charismatic person looking towards the future. The only figure who matched her global outreach was US President John Kennedy who was in office only from January 1961 until November 1963 but attempted to shape the future of his country and its relations with the world by launcing progressive policies from which the US has regressed over the years. The US marked his passing with far more modest pomp and ceremony than the ceremonies for the death of the queen.

After Kennedy’s shocking assassination, his body was returned to Washington where it remained for 24 hours before his flag-draped coffin was carried on a horse-drawn carriage to the Capitol to lie in state. Hundreds of thousands lined up to pay their respects as they have for the queen.

Representatives from 90 countries attended the state funeral on November 25th, 1963, at St.

Matthew’s Cathedral before his burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

It is ironic that the words adopted for describing grand events originated with Britain’s greatest dramatist William Shakespeare who put them into the mouth of his tragic hero Othello, “Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war” — rather than glorious reigns.