All night and again for hours on Tuesday, the British waited for hours to meditate in front of the coffin of Elizabeth II in Edinburgh before her transfer to London, where a grandiose farewell is being prepared for the ultrapopular sovereign with record longevity in UK history.
While the accession of Charles III continues in a Northern Ireland where Brexit has revived the specter of a bloody past, thousands of anonymous people pay a final visit to his late mother, bowing, curtseying, crossing himself or wiping away a tear in front of the oak coffin which rests in the cathedral of Saint-Gilles in the Scottish capital.
After a night of uninterrupted queuing, the wait time was around two hours on Tuesday morning, and seemed to be getting shorter as the morning progressed.
Coming from Glasgow early Tuesday, Nataliya Dasiukevich, 46 and from Russia, says she is in a “very gloomy mood” and is struggling to hold back her tears. “I was not born in this country and I am far from my family. The Queen was the closest thing a grandmother has to my child.”
“We are retired and we’ve always known her… It’s very, very important,” Lynn Templeton, from northern England, told AFP.
Placed on a platform and covered with the yellow, red and navy blue standard of Scotland, a wreath of white flowers and the solid gold crown of Scotland placed above, the coffin remained accessible throughout the night at population, guarded by four royal archers and protected by a cordon that keeps the public several meters away.
King Charles III and his three siblings, Princes Andrew and Edward, and Princess Anne, came in the evening with Queen Consort Camilla to observe a wake.
The photo of the children of Elizabeth II, back to the coffin, made the front page of all the daily newspapers on Tuesday. We see Charles in a kilt, his eyes lowered. “The King’s Vigil”, headlines the tabloid the Sun. “The royal family united in grief”, retains the Times. For the Daily Mail, “The king leads a nation in mourning”.
– Royal and anonymous tribute –
The body of Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years, had until Monday evening been kept away from the general public: first at Balmoral Castle in northern Scotland, where the monarch s died on Thursday at the age of 96, then at the Royal Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Popular figure, rock of stability in the sometimes political, social or health storm during the Covid-19, the queen was a reassuring image for millions of Britons during all these decades on the throne.
Succeeding him, Charles III began a tour of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom, first with the British Parliament in London, then that of Edinburgh, before Cardiff, in Wales, on Friday.
It is in Belfast that he goes on Tuesday with Queen Consort Camilla to meet politicians and receive condolences in the context of renewed community tensions since Brexit in this province bereaved by three decades of violence until the agreement peace of 1998.
Retired, Ann Sudlow got up at 4:00 am hoping to see the monarch and welcomes a certain unity, in a divided province: “It is reassuring to see the communities come together behind the new king”.
Tensions in Northern Ireland, separatist desires in Scotland, galloping inflation which weighs down purchasing power, the new 73-year-old king, older than all the British sovereigns on their accession to the throne, settles in his functions in a moment critical. The country, in the grip of a serious social and political crisis, has had a new Prime Minister for just a few days.
The king will probably have to face the claims of some of his 14 other kingdoms (including in particular Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand or even Jamaica) which could be tempted by a republican regime in favor of this change. of sovereign.
“I believe that’s the direction New Zealand will go at some point, I believe it’s likely to happen in my lifetime, but I don’t see it in the short term or anything. on the agenda for the foreseeable future,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
– Last stop before London –
Continuing her final journey, the Queen’s remains will board a royal plane for London on Tuesday afternoon, escorted by Princess Anne.
He will be greeted on his arrival by King Charles and other members of the royal family.
He will spend the night at Buckingham Palace.
Then will begin the second part of presentation to the public, London this time, which should see hundreds of thousands of people parade for a little less than five days 24 hours a day.
Two days before the opening to the public, the first settled Monday at the head of a line which could reach eight kilometers, noted an AFP journalist.
The Queen’s state funeral will take place on Monday attended by some 500 foreign dignitaries and many crowned heads. But according to the PA agency, Russia, Belarus and Burma were not invited.
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