Chapter 55 The Funeral Begins
On November 29, 1900, the long-prepared funeral of Queen Victoria finally began.
As a highly prestigious former British monarch, Queen Victoria had extremely detailed arrangements for her funeral, and Edward also allowed all of them.
Among them, the most personal feature was that Queen Victoria specifically requested that all people attending the funeral must have white elements, and even the horses at the funeral must be covered with white cloth.
This of course also includes the protagonist of this funeral, Queen Victoria. The queen wore a white wedding dress and a white veil on her head, symbolizing the queen's loyalty to love and marriage.
In order to comply with Queen Victoria's will, William II, Edward, Arthur, Princess Beatrice, the queen's confidant James Reid, and three loyal servants were located at the queen's head and both sides of the body, and lifted the queen gently into the coffin.
This is not an easy job, because Queen Victoria has been dead for a month. Even though the body is well protected, Arthur and others have to be very careful when carrying it to avoid unnecessary damage to the Queen's body.
The bottom of the oversized sarcophagus belonging to Queen Victoria is covered with thick charcoal, and then Prince Albert's nightgown is laid on it.
Even though Prince Albert has been dead for more than 40 years, Queen Victoria still keeps her husband's nightgown, which is enough to show how deep the love between the prince and the queen is.
Queen Victoria also has special instructions for the place where the burial objects are placed next to her. Unlike other monarchs who like to put a lot of jewelry and gold coins, Queen Victoria's burial objects are just her favorite shawls, handkerchiefs, rings, books, photos, jewelry boxes, bracelets and other small things.
After enjoying a luxurious life for most of her life, Queen Victoria did not want the utmost luxury after her death, but as much warmth and memories as possible. Although the value of each burial object may not be too high, it has special meaning for Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria encountered all the tragic situations in her life, including losing her father in childhood, her husband in middle age, and her son in old age.
Combined with the hegemony of Britain in the Victorian era, these deeds pushed this great queen to the level of legend.
At eight o'clock in the morning, Queen Victoria's funeral officially began in London.
Long before the state funeral of Queen Victoria began, royal families and senior officials from European countries and countries around the world had arrived at Westminster Abbey, also known as Westminster Abbey.
Before the funeral began, Westminster Abbey rang the bell 81 times for Queen Victoria to commemorate the legendary life of Queen Victoria at the age of 81.
Due to Queen Victoria's request for a militarized funeral, the queen's coffin was lifted onto a gun carriage before the funeral began, and hundreds of Royal Navy soldiers pulled the gun carriage.
Originally, according to Queen Victoria's will, the gun carriage should have been pulled by eight white military horses.
But at Arthur's suggestion, hundreds of Royal Navy soldiers were used to pull the gun carriage instead.
The reason why Edward VII and British officials agreed was that doing so would enhance the sense of ceremony of the entire funeral, at least the solemnity and human touch would be stronger than that of a horse-drawn carriage.
The funeral method of placing the coffin on a gun carriage and being pulled by soldiers, which was pioneered by Queen Victoria, has since become a high-standard royal tradition.
In the original history, another Queen Elizabeth, who reigned longer, also copied the burial method of Queen Victoria.
As the gun carriage carrying the coffin was slowly escorted to Westminster Abbey by naval soldiers, countless British people along the way paid their high respects and infinite blessings to the great queen.
Although the entire funeral route was only a few kilometers long, the gun carriage took more than two hours to allow Queen Victoria to receive more people's farewell.
Edward VII and Arthur and other senior royal family members walked behind Queen Victoria's coffin and followed the gun carriage parade, also sending Queen Victoria off for the last time.
At this time, both Edward VII and Arthur were in military uniforms, with medals and honors from their countries.
But Arthur was in a very heavy mood at this time. After losing Queen Victoria, Arthur could only rely on himself.
Although Princess Louise and her two sisters also cared about Arthur, they could only give Arthur spiritual comfort at best, but they could not help Arthur at all.
At 11 o'clock in the morning, Queen Victoria's coffin officially arrived at Westminster Abbey, and the state funeral ceremony officially began.
About a thousand guests attended the ceremony, including senior leaders and royal families from various countries.
First, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the queen's achievements, praising her for taking Christ as an example and serving the country and the people all her life.
Because Queen Victoria's achievements were indeed remarkable, there were indeed many words praising Queen Victoria, including the rise of the British Empire to become the strongest in the world, the spread of British territory around the world, the establishment of the Indian Empire and other honors.
British Prime Minister Robert also read a passage from the Gospel of John in the Bible at the funeral.
Afterwards, the audience observed three minutes of silence for Queen Victoria, and silence was also observed throughout the British Empire.
This moment had been determined long ago. It started at 11:55 on November 29th and lasted until 58 minutes. Any colony and region would observe the moment of silence at the same time.
At the end of the ceremony, the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" was played in the church, and the state funeral was declared over.
After that, Queen Victoria's coffin will be moved to Wellington Arch in the southeast corner of London's Hyde Park, and then transferred to Windsor Castle for burial.
The coffin team of Queen Victoria is quite large, with more than 2,000 soldiers and hundreds of civilian group members.
Because Queen Victoria's prestige in the UK is indeed not low, soldiers and police are on both sides of the line to maintain order.
Big Ben is called every minute. In the slow sound of the bell, Queen Victoria's coffin is accompanied by a parade that slowly passes through the streets of the capital, passing through groups of mourners, stretching for more than a mile, and setting off towards Windsor Castle.
After arriving at Wellington Arch, Queen Victoria's coffin was transferred to the new national hearse and then went directly to Windsor Castle.
At this time, the most British people came to see her off. Because ordinary people were not eligible to enter the coffin before it arrived at Windsor Castle.
Therefore, the journey between Wellington Arch and Windsor Castle was also the last time for all British people to see Queen Victoria's remains.
When the hearse passed through this street, the crazy and mourning crowds around threw flowers at the carriage and applauded.
People were reluctant to part with the queen, but they had to accept the queen's departure. Therefore, people could only frantically express their high respect to Queen Victoria. The bunches of flowers thrown at the hearse also represented Queen Victoria's status in the hearts of the British people.
You know, because Queen Victoria's funeral is coming to an end, the price of flowers throughout London has risen.
Under such circumstances, people bought bunches of flowers just to throw them at the team when the queen's coffin passed by, which is enough to show Queen Victoria's status and popularity in the UK.
A few words, the details of the funeral are indeed difficult to find, because it is a long time ago, many of them can no longer be found. Therefore, some of the information in this chapter refers to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
In addition, I saw a book friend talking about the name of Windsor Castle. In fact, the name of Windsor used by the British royal family now is the name of Windsor Castle, that is, Windsor Castle came first, and then the Windsor family. Finally, I beg for support!