People who have lined up for hours will have a brief moment of reflection as they file silently by the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, who will lie in state for the next four days.
While this all unfolds in a Gothic building of deep political and historical significance dating back to 1097, the current history of lying in state is more recent.
According to Judith Rowbotham, a social and cultural scholar and visiting research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, lying in state is a modern invention.
In order to prove that the king was really dead, the princes of the kingdom would be invited to view his corpse. The body gets forgotten and not observed.
In the 17th and 18th century, there was a new tradition of lying in state after a monarch’s death. It was for the senior politicians, the senior peers and the royal household.
It didn’t last very long, and monarchs were buried at night under the cover of darkness, with everything lit by torchlight. The last monarch to have that experience was King William IV, who died in 1836.
Queen Victoria’s influence
Things changed when Queen Victoria passed away in 1901.
Rowbotham said that Victoria, Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother, had no particular view on her own funeral. The groundwork was laid for the kind of lying that is happening now.
Victoria and Prince Albert wanted the Duke of Wellington to have a state funeral, which included a public lying in state.
“It wasn’t always orderly, that lying in state, but Victoria was very impressed by the military pomp and the show of the funeral itself, the service and things like that,” said Rowbotham.
Queen Elizabeth’s coffin leaves Buckingham Palace.
Massive crowds converged on London to see the Queen’s coffin move in a horse-drawn carriage to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state.
There was a private laying in state for family and members of the Royal household for Victoria before her funeral in 1901.
There was a public lying in state when her son Edward VII died.
“Queen Elizabeth once said she had to be seen to be believed, and Edward observed that throughout his reign,” said Rowbotham.
Edward realized that his funeral at the end of a pretty short reign would best leave its mark both nationally and internationally, so he instituted a public lie in state.
The deaths of George V in 1936 and George VI in 1952 were followed by similar events.
Rowbotham said that it’s become an established tradition for the public to pay their respects to the monarchs.
Securing a standing tradition
It’s become tradition, but the scale of what will unfold over the next few days could be unprecedented. The number of people who will file by Elizabeth’s coffin can be as high as 750,000. If the line is more than 16 kilometres, it could be temporarily shut down.
Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Bangor University in Wales, said they were expecting long lines.
He said, “There’s talk of waiting 30 hours to file past, with the queue stretching across London, from the south bank to the other side of the river, and then along the river past London Bridge, past Tower Bridge.” It’s a long way to Tower Bridge, but it’s half way there.
As many people as possible can see the Queen’s body.
There is a relationship between the monarch and the people. It’s an opportunity for individuals to say thank you to the Queen for the service she’s given the country and the Commonwealth for the past 70 years, and it’s also a chance for individuals to have their own private moment.
‘Willing to do this’
It will be a brief moment in front of the casket for anyone who is waiting. Many people are lined up for it.
“I think it shows the value in which they hold the Queen, that they’re willing to do this.”
She had a deep position in the British national psyche by being there for so long, even though she was merely a monarch.
The Queen’s four children, King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, are expected to stand in silence at a corner of her coffin.
The tradition of the Vigil of the Princes dates back as far as the death of George V, who had four sons, in 1936, Rowbotham claims.
“It was a private event.” Rowbotham said that there wasn’t a photograph of it. It was a private decision taken out of grief.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 2002, there was a vigil for George VI, but he didn’t have one. The family of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, took their turn as her coffin lay in state.
Andrew and Edward stood around their mother’s coffin for a short time earlier this week at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, where Charles, Anne were the first woman to participate in such a vigil.
“It shows the private and public nature of all of this,” he said.