Large crowds gathered in Scotland’s capital as King Charles III led the British royal family in a procession behind the coffin of his mother when it travelled to an Edinburgh cathedral to allow the public to pay their respects.
Queen Elizabeth II‘s coffin was taken from the Palace of Holyroodhouse on Monday to nearby St Giles’ Cathedral where her family, and a congregation drawn from all areas of Scottish society, attended a service of thanksgiving for her life.
King Charles III, dressed in army uniform, along with Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, walked behind as the hearse travelled to St Giles’ Cathedral flanked by a bearer party of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and a detachment of The King’s Body Guard in Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers.
King Charles III, Princess Anne and members of the Royal family join the procession of Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles’ Cathedral, in Edinburgh
The royal family joins the procession of the queen’s coffin in Edinburgh [Andrew Milligan/Pool via AP]
The coffin will remain at the cathedral until Tuesday so members of the public can pay their respects before it is taken to London to lie in state at the Houses of Parliament Palace from Wednesday afternoon until the morning of the funeral on September 19.
One man appeared to shout angrily at the hearse as it passed, while others called out: “God save the king!” But the procession was greeted mostly with a respectful silence under blue skies flecked with white clouds.
Earlier, a car carrying Charles and his wife Camilla passed the huge crowds of people who were packed behind metal barriers along the Royal Mile, the road between Holyroodhouse and St Giles’ Cathedral. Onlookers clapped and waved as the king’s limousine passed.
Charles and Camilla got out of their car at Holyroodhouse and greeted people, and looked at floral tributes before a gun salute boomed from Edinburgh Castle.
Britain’s King Charles makes an address at Westminster Hall
King Charles makes an address at Westminster Hall in London [Henry Nicholls/Pool/Reuters]
Earlier on Monday, the king addressed lawmakers in Parliament in London, telling them: “I cannot but help feel the weight of history which surrounds us.”
Charles told members of the House of Commons and House of Lords that he would follow his late mother in upholding “the precious principles of constitutional governance” that underpin the UK’s political system.
He paid tribute to his mother, saying: “As Shakespeare said of the earlier Queen Elizabeth, she was a pattern to all princes living.”
<<Aljazeera>>