• Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday 8 at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, after 70 years of reign.

  • The famous and millimeter "Operation London Bridge" which governs the protocol around the death of the queen and the days which will follow is well known, but it will have to be adapted after the death of the monarch far from the British capital.

  • His remains will have to be repatriated to London, a procedure called “Operation Unicorn” (“Operation Unicorn”), where the funeral will take place.

The day after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96, while tributes pour in from all over the world, the question of her funeral arises.

The famous and precise "Operation London Bridge", which governs the protocol around the death of the queen and the days that will follow, was adapted after the death of the monarch far from the British capital.

Her remains will be repatriated to London, and the procedure called “Operation Unicorn” (“Operation Unicorn”), which anticipated the death of the queen on Scottish territory, was launched.

Repatriation of the body, guests, ceremony, dates and places… How will the funeral of the Queen of England take place?

A ten-day national mourning

The national mourning will last a total of ten days.

King Charles III has made it known that royal mourning - which involves family, staff and representatives of the Royal Household - will last up to seven days after the Queen's funeral.

The latter will be officially proclaimed king on Saturday, but his coronation should not take place for several weeks, even several months.

His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will become queen consort.

The royal residences will remain closed until after the funeral and everywhere in the kingdom, the flags are at half mast.

In the meantime, the public can lay flowers outside the gates of royal residences across the UK.

No condolence books will be opened, tributes can be left online.

Only red flags prohibiting swimming will be kept at normal height, according to the plan seen by

The Guardian

.

Giant screens will be installed in the main cities of the kingdom to broadcast the ceremonies planned in the capital in the days to come.

Repatriation of the body from Scotland

The unicorn is a symbol of Scotland and features on the Scottish coat of arms, along with the English lion.

If the Operation Unicorn procedure has been launched since the announcement of the Queen's death, certain aspects of the London Bridge operation have already been respected: the BBC presenters had all dressed in suits and black ties. , church bells rang across the UK on Friday in tribute to the Queen, or the "royal gun salute" - 96 cannon shots fired, one shot for each year of the sovereign's life - was fired in Hyde Park in London this Friday at 1 p.m. local time.

(2 p.m. in Paris)

According to Scottish media, the phrase 'Operation Unicorn' to stage a royal death in Scotland was first used in Parliament in 2017 in anticipation of crowds from around the world expected to rush into the British nation.

As expected, the Scottish Parliament was immediately suspended following news of Elizabeth II's death.

Holyroodhouse, the official palace of the monarchy in the Scottish capital, will welcome the queen's coffin in the coming days.

The remains will then be carried in a procession through the Royal Mile, Edinburgh's main artery, to St. Giles Cathedral where a religious service will be held in the presence of the royal family and the public will be able to gather.

His body will then be transported to London on board the Royal Train, without it being known for the moment exactly how many days his remains will remain in Scotland.

The Grand Procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall

A religious ceremony in memory of the queen was also planned for Friday evening at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in the presence of Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was to meet the new King Charles III upon his arrival in London.

A first procession will be organized on the occasion of the transfer of his body from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, via The Mall, the huge avenue that connects the two buildings.

Nearly a million onlookers will attend this journey of about two kilometers, according to the

Guardian

's forecast before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The moving of the coffin will be accompanied by a military parade (the queen was the head of the armies), cannons fired from Hyde Park and, probably, a delegation of corgis, the beloved dogs of Elizabeth II.

The coffin display at Westminster Hall

In the days that follow (presumably the fourth day after her death), the remains of Elizabeth II will be placed on display in Westminster Hall.

The late Queen's subjects will be able to parade in front of her coffin for four days, 23 hours a day. For the occasion, Westminster Hall will be cleaned from top to bottom, the floor covered with a carpet, and hundreds of candles will be installed.

The coffin will then be placed on a dais, where the ten people who will be responsible for carrying it will be named, alongside the jewels of the British crown – the crown, the scepter and the royal globe.

This moment of contemplation is called the

lay-in-state

, the equivalent of a state funeral wake.

The date and place of the funeral

The funeral should take place ten days after the death, around September 19, at Westminster Abbey, where the Queen notably said "yes" to Philip in 1947 and where his coronation took place in 1953.

The exact date “will be confirmed in due course,” Buckingham Palace wrote in a statement on Friday.

The delays between the announcement of the death and the funeral must allow the leaders of countries located on the borders of the Commonwealth to reach London.

The funeral with great pomp

At 9 a.m., Big Ben will sound the start of this special and holiday day for the British.

Some 2,000 guests will be able to attend the state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

The royal family will probably be present in full force, as will the vast majority of heads of state and other crowned heads from around the world.

Russian Head of State Vladimir Putin has already announced that he will not come.

When the ceremony begins at 11 a.m., the kingdom will be at a standstill: “The trains will no longer be announced.

Buses will stop and drivers will get off at the side of the road,” says The Guardian.

At the end of the religious service, the pallbearers will place the coffin on a gun carriage, the one that was used to transport the bodies of the Queen's father, grandfather and great-grandfather, hauled by 138 Royal Navy sailors.

The procession will go up The Mall one last time, while the Royal Air Force will pay its last tribute to the chief of the armies, who joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the female branch of the British army during the Second World War.

Family burial

The procession will then proceed to St George's Chapel in Windsor, where British sovereigns are buried, 23 miles (37 km) away.

Many subjects are expected on the side of the road to pay a last tribute to Elizabeth II.

In 2002, more than a million Britons greeted the passage of the Queen Mother's coffin.

The closing of the doors of the Saint-Georges chapel will mark the end of the public ceremony.

“In the chapel, the coffin will descend into the royal vault and King Charles will throw a handful of red soil over it from a silver bowl,” says

The Guardian.

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