Prince William and Prince Harry will set aside their feud and support their father King Charles III by marching with him behind the Queen’s coffin as it leaves Buckingham Palace for the final time today.
Her Majesty has spent her final night in the Bow Room of her London home before she is conveyed on a gun carriage to Westminster Hall – the ancient heart of Parliament – where she will lie in state for four days until her funeral on Monday.
More than 1million people are expected to queue in central London for up to 35 hours to walk past her casket – but experts believe only 400,000 will make it inside meaning 600,000 people will be left disappointed.
The Queen arrived at Buckingham Palace last night to tears and cheers from the huge crowds who stood in the pouring rain to welcome her home after her death at Balmoral last Thursday.
The route from RAF Northolt to the palace was packed. There was a wave of lights as many raised their mobile phones in the air to film the hearse as it passed.
As the hearse drove through the gates, Charles could be seen bowing his head with Harry and Meghan stood solemnly behind the monarch.
At 2.22pm exactly this afternoon, the Queen’s coffin will be placed on a gun carriage and lead a procession down a packed Mall, along Whitehall and then into Parliament Square before entering the Palace of Westminster followed by her son, the new King, and her children and grandchildren.
The near 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall is where her father King George VI would lie in state in 1952 and where the public could pass the coffin of her mother, the Queen Mother, in 2002.
Her Majesty’s closed coffin will be placed on a catafalque – a raised platform, covered in the Royal Standard with the orb and sceptre placed on top.
Charles, William and Harry – along with the Duke of York, the and the - will follow the coffin on foot as it makes its 38-minute journey in front of thousands of mourners lining the streets in central London.
For William and Harry it will bring back painful memories of when they, aged 15 and 12, walked behind the coffin of their mother Princess Diana in 1997.
Anne’s son and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will also walk in the procession, as well as the Duke of Gloucester and the .
The Queen Consort, the Princess of Wales, the Countess of Wessex and the Duchess of Sussex will travel by car.
The procession will leave Buckingham Palace at 2.22pm borne by gun carriage of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
The route will take the coffin through the Queen’s Gardens, The Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square and New Palace Yard.
Elizabeth II made her final journey home to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday after her coffin travelled across the country from Balmoral.
Charles and the Royal Family can be seen through a glass window waiting to meet the coffin
William and Harry will walk behind the Queen’s coffin tomorrow, similar to the funeral of their mother Princess Diana when they were children in 1997
Thousands crowded the streets as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II arrived in the Royal Hearse at Buckingham Palace
