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| Photo Credit: AP. |
EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — In a somber, regal procession, Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin was driven slowly through the Scottish countryside Sunday from her beloved Balmoral Castle to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Mourners packed city streets and highway bridges or lined rural roads with cars and tractors to take part in a historic goodbye to the monarch who had reigned for 70 years.
The hearse
drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege
from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday at age 96, for a six-hour trip
through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh. The late queen’s
coffin was draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland and topped with a wreath
made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, one of the queen’s
favorites.
The
procession was a huge event for Scotland as the U.K. takes days to mourn its
longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. People
turned out hours early to grab a space by the police barricades in Edinburgh.
By afternoon, the crowds were 10 people deep in places.
“I think she
has been an ever-constant in my life. She was the queen I was born under, and
she has always been there,” said Angus Ruthven, a 54-year-old civil servant
from Edinburgh. “I think it is going to take a lot of adjusting that she is not
here. It is quite a sudden thing.”
Silence fell
on the packed Royal Mile in Edinburgh as the hearse carrying the queen arrived.
But as the convoy vanished from view, the crowd spontaneously started clapping.
When the
hearse reached Holyroodhouse, members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, wearing
green tartan kilts, carried the coffin past the queen’s youngest three children
—Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — and into the throne room,
where it was to remain until Monday afternoon so staff can pay their last
respects.
King Charles
III and his Queen Consort Camilla will travel Monday to Edinburgh to join
another solemn procession that takes the queen’s coffin to St. Giles Cathedral
on the city’s Royal Mile. There the coffin will remain for 24 hours so the
Scottish public can pay their respects before it is flown to London on Tuesday.
The first
village the cortege passed through was Ballater, where residents regard the
royal family as neighbors. Hundreds of people watched in silence and some threw
flowers in front of the hearse.
“She meant
such a lot to people in this area. People were crying, it was amazing to see,”
said Victoria Pacheco, a guest house manager.
In each
Scottish town and village, the entourage was met with muted scenes of respect.
People stood mostly in silence; some clapped politely, others pointed their
phone cameras at the passing cars. In Aberdeenshire, farmers lined the route with
an honor guard of tractors.
Along the
route, the cortege passed through locations laden with House of Windsor
history. Those included Dyce, where in 1975 the queen formally opened the
U.K.’s first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife, near St. Andrews University,
where her grandson Prince William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his
future wife, Catherine.
Sunday’s
solemn drive came as the queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new
monarch — King Charles III — in the rest of the nations of the United Kingdom:
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It came a day after a pomp-filled
accession ceremony in England.
“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance
and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now
passed to me,” Charles said Saturday.
Just before
the proclamation was read Sunday in Edinburgh, a protester appeared with a sign
condemning imperialism and urging leaders to “abolish the monarchy.” She was
taken away by police. Reaction was mixed. One man shouted, “Let her go! It’s
free speech!” while others shouted: “Have some respect!”
Still, there
was some booing in Edinburgh when Joseph Morrow, Lord Lyon King of Arms,
finished his proclamation with the words “God save the king!”
Ann
Hamilton, 48, said she thought the booing was “absolutely terrible.”
“There’s
tens of thousands of people here today to show their respect. For them to be
here, heckling through things, I think it was terrible. If they were so against
it, they shouldn’t have come,” she said.
Still, it
was a sign of how some, including Britain’s former colonies, are struggling with
the legacy of the monarchy.
Earlier,
proclamations were read in other parts of the Commonwealth, including Australia
and New Zealand.
Charles,
even as he mourned his late mother, was getting to work at Buckingham Palace,
meeting with the secretary-general and other representatives of the
Commonwealth. Many in those nations are grappling with affection for the queen
and lingering bitterness over their colonial legacies, which ranged from
outright slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts
held in British cultural institutions.
Australian
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had started laying the groundwork for an
Australian republic after an election in May, said Sunday that now was the time
not for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen.
India, a
former British colony, observed a day of state mourning, with flags lowered to
half-staff on all government buildings.
Amid the
grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family
reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their
respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,
delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance
Saturday.
The queen’s
coffin was taking a circuitous journey back to the capital. After it is flown
to London on Tuesday, the coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on
Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at
Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.
In Ballater,
the Rev. David Barr said locals consider the royals as neighbors.
“When she
comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of
her stays mostly outside,” he said. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a
wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving
great-gran — and aunty — and be normal.”
Elizabeth
Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse carrying the
queen’s coffin passed through Ballater.
“It was very
emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of the queen,” she
said. “She certainly gave service to this country, even up until a few days
before her death.”
Corder
reported from London.
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