Queen lies in state: LIVE updates as mourners queue to see Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin at Westminster and military rehearse for state funeral
This is MailOnline’s live blog for day six of national mourning, as the Queen‘s coffin continues lying-in-state at Westminster Hall.
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Theresa May has entered Westminster Hall to pay her respects to Queen Elizabeth.
The former Prime Minister arrived in the Palace of Westminster with her husband just before 8am this morning.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said the accession of the King feels like ‘an enormous changing of the seasons’.
He said the reception of the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall on Wednesday was ‘really moving’.
On the King’s appearance in Parliament on Monday, he said: ‘It’s very strange, isn’t it? I instinctively always call him, still, Prince Charles. Your mind has to make an accommodation to it.
‘It feels, I think, like an enormous changing of the seasons.’
Reflecting on the Queen’s reign, he said: ‘One thing I referred to in my tribute to Her Majesty was one of the things that has changed dramatically in her lifetime – under her reign, is the way gay couples are seen and the fact that I was able to enter a civil partnership.
‘So being able to see that enormous change, I think… some people have referred to her as the rock on which modern Britain was founded. I understand what they mean. It’s not how I saw it. I saw her more as a sturdy oak that knew how to bend in the wind. And I think that’s a really important principle for monarchy – being able to bend in the wind to accommodate the world as it changes.’
Overnight people queued to visit Westminster Hall and pay their respects.
The young and old are among those who will be visiting the late monarch.
This morning, the queue is approximately two miles long.
Last night a guard fainted off the podium while holding vigil next to the Queen’s Coffin as she lies in state inside the Palace of Westminster.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners have been queuing to pay their final respects to the monarch following her death at Balmoral on Thursday.
But onlookers were aghast when a guard began swaying on his feet moments before he collapsed.
The man had moments earlier briefly stepped off the podium before retaking his place as other servicemen joined him for a changeover.
But seconds later he blacked out and fell forwards, landing sprawled on the stone floor to loud gasps from bystanders queueing to pay their respects.
The live stream also cut out for several minutes as police rushed to the man’s aid.
Charles III retires to his beloved Highgrove estate – after dropping Camilla at her Wiltshire mansion
King Charles III and the Queen Consort have left London and returned to their respective homes after days of public events paying tribute to the Queen – as the new monarch is granted 24 hours to contemplate his mother’s death ahead of her funeral on Monday.
The royal couple were seen landing in Camilla’s estate in Reybridge near Lacock, Wiltshire at around 4.30pm this afternoon, shortly after leaving the late Queen’s procession from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster.
The Royal aircraft landed in a field alongside the Queen Consort’s home, Ray Mill House. The landing was welcomed by an audience of just three people in contrast to the huge number of people seen waiting at Royal residences across Britain this week as the grieving family arrived.
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Will Prince Harry seize the opportunity for reconciliation his brother and father have given?
Just as it had 25 years and eight days ago, the September sun shone down on William and Harry as they walked side by side behind their grandmother’s coffin. But everything else was different.
A quarter of a century before they were brothers united in grief at the sudden death of their mother and the fraternal bonds of shared loss seemed unbreakable.
Yesterday only their mutual sorrow at the passing of the Queen remained. Rarely has the relationship between princes once so close looked so strained, nor the gulf between them so wide.
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King’s Counsel will take part in wreath laying after the death of the Queen today.
Senior barristers, now known as KCs instead of QCs after the proclamation of the King, have been invited to dress in robes and court mourning attire.
They will then gather outside the Old Bailey before walking to Gray’s Inn Chapel for the ceremony.
Today the King is having a private day of reflection.
On Wednesday afternoon, the King led the royal family in a public display of homage by walking behind the Queen’s coffin during a procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where it will lie in state until the state funeral on Monday.
Charles then returned to his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire on Wednesday evening.
He will have a private day of reflection on Thursday and is not expected to attend any public events.
In the detailed planning for the aftermath of the Queen’s death – known as ‘London Bridge’ – a day was set aside at this point for the new monarch to have some time away from public duties.
The period will allow the King to pause, but it is understood he will be working in preparation for his new role and will already be receiving his red boxes of state papers.
The Princess Royal, accompanied by her husband Sir Tim Laurence, will visit Glasgow City Chambers to meet representatives of organisations of which the Queen was patron.
Final preparations for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II are taking place in London, as thousands of military personnel took part in a full rehearsal for the procession of her coffin from Westminster Hall to Wellington Arch.
The rehearsal took place before sunrise on Thursday morning, and saw the State Gun Carriage, towed by almost 100 naval personnel and bearing a black coffin, travel from Westminster Hall, on to Westminster Abbey, and then through central London.
The sound of bagpipes began at 2.45am, signalling the start of the procession and echoing through the quiet streets of London.
The Scots Guards marched away from New Palace Yard and on to the Abbey, and were followed by the sailors pulling the gun carriage using white ropes, and several members of the Household Cavalry on horseback.
Four soldiers stood either side of the coffin as it was taken into Westminster Abbey, where indoor procedures were also rehearsed.
Mournful brass and drums heralded the coffin leaving the Abbey, and the procession began its next journey, along Whitehall on to Wellington Arch.
Many of London’s streets had been sealed off for the operation, and several police officers marshalled members of the public out of Westminster Hall and away from the closed roads.
The drums and trumpets of the procession could be heard from streets away, as the rest of the city remained largely silent.
At around 5.20am, the sound of brass playing God Save The Queen rang out from under the arch, before the state hearse departed through the Apsley Gate of Hyde Park between rows of Household Cavalry.
The procession continued to play in the half-light, and Beethoven’s Funeral March and the hymn Jerusalem could be heard before the sun came up.
Given the time of day and the extensive road closures, a far smaller crowd was present for the end of the rehearsal at Wellington Arch.
However, a few had managed to rejoin the procession near Hyde Park after seeing the stepping off in Westminster, and stayed out in the cold until its conclusion.
Aidan Conway, from Islington, watched the rehearsal and told the PA news agency: ‘I was in the West End at the theatre and I went for a little night cycle just down the Mall out of interest, maybe to see the flowers.
‘A policeman told me there was going to be a rehearsal at 2.30, helpfully, so I thought I’d stick around.’
He added: ‘It’s peaceful. It’s not the real thing, but I think it’s almost closer than you’re going to get to the real thing unless you’re going to queue for a day.
‘The city at night is incredible anyway, it’s beautiful. The rehearsals are quite remarkable.’
The state funeral will take place in Westminster Abbey at 11am on Monday, before the procession makes its way to Wellington Arch and then on to Windsor Castle.
A committal service will then be conducted in St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
Under Waterloo Bridge, the British Film Institute has set up a big screen showing clips from documentaries about the Queen’s life to those waiting in the queue.
The queue itself is moving at around 0.5 miles per hour.
The queue to view the Queen’s lying in state has shortened overnight, reaching Blackfriars Bridge.
A steady stream of people continues to join the queue along London’s South Bank as the day begins in the capital.
Cheery camaraderie, egg sandwiches and biscuits in the 50-hour wait to see the Queen
Mourners have shared cheery camaraderie, egg sandwiches and biscuits in their 50-hour wait to see the Queen, as people queued through the night to pay their final respects to the late monarch.
Tens of thousands of mourners have made friends and shared food during the queue through the night to visit the Queen’s coffin sitting inside the Palace of Westminster.
In a line that stretched for nearly three miles, well-wishers made their way along the bank of London’s River Thames, as hymns played across the Southbank, with many joining in song.
Yesterday the first people in the queue for the Queen’s lying-in-state ate ‘pizza blessed by God’ after camping overnight and waiting hours to be granted access to Westminster Hall, where the fallen monarch will remain until 6.30am on Monday.
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Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s liveblog on Thursday, September 14, 2022.
The Queen’s coffin continues lying-in-state on day six of national mourning. Today is the first full day that mourners will be able to pay their respects to the late monarch.
Overnight, people continued to queue along the bank of the River Thames, with its peak length reaching almost three miles.
Hundreds of thousands of members of the public are expected to file past in Westminster Hall in the coming days.
Today the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Kate will travel to Sandringham in Norfolk. And the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward and Sophie, will visit Manchester.
Stay with us throughout today for updates.
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