• Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will lie in state for the second full day in Westminster Hall, where people will be able to pay their respects.
• King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will travel to Wales. They will attend a service at Llandaff Cathedral in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. After the service, Charles and Camilla will greet schoolchildren and members of the public. The King and Queen Consort will be presented with a Motion of Condolence at the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament) in Cardiff Bay and they will have a chance to read condolence messages. King Charles III will have a private audience with First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford and the Llywydd (Presiding Officer) of the Senedd Elin Jones at Cardiff Castle. The King and The Queen Consort will have a reception with guests from local organizations, charities, and members of faith communities.
• At 7:30 PM British Time, 2:30 PM US Eastern Time, King Charles III, The Princess Royal, The Duke of York, and The Earl of Wessex will hold a vigil around the coffin of The Queen.

The lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Thursday, September 15, 2022.

Thursday, September 15, 2022, is the first full day that Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin lay in state in Westminster Hall. Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid their respects until 6:30 AM on Monday, September 19, 2022, the day of the funeral.

• Unofficial Royalty: Westminster Hall
• Unofficial Royalty: Lying in State in Westminster Hall

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

On the River Thames in London sits the Palace of Westminster, commonly known as the Houses of Parliament, the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The building we see today was built after a fire destroyed the medieval Palace of Westminster in 1834. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century and was the primary residence of the Kings of England until a fire destroyed much of the palace in 1512. After that, it served as the home of Parliament. Westminster Hall, built in 1097, survived both fires. It was saved from the fire of 1834 because of the actions of the floating fire engine on the River Thames and also because a change in the wind direction kept the flames away.

This writer has visited Westminster Hall and can attest that it is an impressive structure even today. It was built during the reign of King William II Rufus, the son of King William I the Conqueror. At the time it was built in 1097, it was the largest hall in Europe. It measures 240 by 67 feet (73 by 20 meters) and has an area of 16,080 square feet (1,460 square meters). Originally the roof was flat, but during the reign of King Richard II, the flat roof was replaced by a spectacular hammerbeam roof created by the royal carpenter Hugh Herland. The hammerbeam roof has been called the greatest creation of medieval timber architecture.

Major Events that took place in Westminster Hall

Lying-In-State

Although Westminster Hall has existed for more than 900 years, it only became the site for lyings-in-state towards the end of the nineteenth century. The first lying-in-state to be held there was for Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone in 1898. It is thought that the lying-in-state was held in Westminster Hall rather than a religious building because of Gladstone’s long association with the Palace of Westminster, where he served as a Member of Parliament for sixty-four years. Queen Victoria did not want a lying-in-state and so her son and heir King Edward VII was the first monarch to have a lying-in-state at Westminster Hall.

Lying-in-state of William Ewart Gladstone

1898 – William Ewart Gladstone – served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times during the reign of Queen Victoria: 1868 – 1874, 1880 – 1885, February 1886 – July 1886, and 1892 – 1894.

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1910 – King Edward VII

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1914 – Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts – British Victorian era general who became one of the most successful British military commanders of his time.

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Lying-in-state of King George V

1936 – King George V

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Lying-in-state of King George VI

1952 – King George VI

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Lying-in-state of Queen Mary

1953 – Queen Mary, wife of King George V

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Lying-in-state of Sir Winston Churchill

1965 – Sir Winston Churchill – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1940 – 1945, during the Second World War, and 1951 – 1955

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Lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother with her four grandsons standing guard

2002 – Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, wife of King George VI

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Lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II

2022 – Queen Elizabeth II

Coronation Banquets

From 1189 to 1821, Westminster Hall was the traditional venue for coronation banquets honoring newly-crowned monarchs. The earliest recorded coronation banquets at Westminster Hall were those of two sons of King Henry II:

1170 – Henry the Young King – King Henry II decided to adopt the French practice of ensuring the succession by declaring his heir the junior king and having him crowned at Westminster Abbey in 1170. His son, called Henry the Young King, was not the actual monarch, but he still had a coronation banquet at Westminster Hall. Henry the Young King never became King of England because he predeceased his father dying in 1183 at the age of twenty-eight.

1189 – King Richard II, known as the Lionheart, became the heir of his father King Henry II after the death of his elder brother Henry the Young King. He succeeded his father in 1189.

Coronation banquets continued through the reign of King George IV who had the last coronation banquet in 1821. His brother and his successor King William IV, eliminated coronation banquets because he thought they were too expensive.

Queen Consorts crowned separately from their husbands also had coronation banquets, from Eleanor of Provence, the wife of King Henry III in 1236, to Anne Boleyn, the second of the six wives of King Henry VIII in 1533.

Famous State Trials

Westminster Hall was often used for judicial purposes and was the setting for some of the most famous state trials in British history.

1305 – State trial of William Wallace, one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason.

1535 – State trial of Sir Thomas More, English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, King Henry VIII’s Lord High Chancellor. More opposed King Henry VIII’s separation from the Catholic Church. He refused to acknowledge King Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England and refused to recognize the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, More was convicted of treason and executed by beheading.

1535 – State trial of Cardinal John Fisher – a Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was charged with treason for denying that King Henry VIII was the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered for high treason.

1606 – State trial of Guy Fawkes, a member of a group of English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament while King James I was in attendance. Fawkes and seven co-conspirators were tried for high treason and executed.

1641 – State trial of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, a member of Parliament and a supporter of King Charles I. King Charles I, who believed in the divine right of kings, decided to govern without Parliament, beginning eleven years of personal rule. During Charles’ personal rule, Strafford was one of Charles’ most influential advisers. When Parliament was finally summoned again in 1640, the Members of Parliament demanded the execution of Stafford. King Charles I signed the death warrant, but never forgave himself.

1649 – State Trial of King Charles I – On January 4, 1642, King Charles I committed the unprecedented act of entering the House of Commons with an armed guard and demanding the arrest of five Members of Parliament. There was a great public outcry, Charles fled London, and Civil War appeared inevitable. On August 22, 1642, at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard and called for his loyal subjects to support him, and the Civil War between the Royalists or Cavaliers (Charles’ supporters) and the Roundheads (Parliament’s supporters) had begun. On January 20, 1649, King Charles I was tried for treason and other high crimes before a tribunal of 135 judges. He refused to enter a plea because he believed no court could try a king. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Ten days later, King Charles I was beheaded.

1716 – State trial of Scottish lords who took part in the 1715 Jacobite uprising who were accused of high treason: James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (beheaded); William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale (escaped from the Tower of London the night before his execution); Robert Dalzell, 5th Earl of Carnwath (execution was first delayed, then in 1717 remitted by the Indemnity Act); William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington (condemned to death but was reprieved); William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure (beheaded); and William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne (execution was first delayed, then in 1717 remitted by the Indemnity Act)

1746 – State trial of Scottish lords who took part in the 1745 Jacobite uprising who were accused of high treason: William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock (executed), Arthur Elphinstone, 6th Lord Balmerino (executed)

1747 – State trial of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat – In 1715, Lord Lovat had been a supporter of the House of Hanover, but in 1745 he changed sides and supported the Stuart claim to the British crown. His punishment of a traitor’s death by hanging, drawing, and quartering was commuted by King George II to beheading. Lord Lovat’s execution was the last execution by beheading in Great Britain.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Palace of Westminster – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster#Westminster_Hall> [Accessed 14 September 2022].
• UK Parliament. 2022. Westminster Hall. [online] Available at: <https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/westminsterhall/> [Accessed 14 September 2022].

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.

Unofficial Royalty: Lying in State in Westminster Hall
Unofficial Royalty: Westminster Hall

• Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin was moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where the Queen lay in state for four days. Built in 1097 during the reign of King William II Rufus, Westminster Hall is the oldest existing part of the Palace of Westminster. The roof was probably originally supported by pillars but was replaced by a beautiful wood hammerbeam roof during the reign of King Richard II in 1390s.

• The Queen’s coffin left Buckingham Palace at 2:22 PM British Time, 9:22 AM US Eastern Time. King Charles III, his sons The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Sussex, and his siblings The Princess Royal, The Duke of York, and the Earl of Wessex walked behind the coffin. Also walking behind the coffin will be Princess Anne’s husband Sir Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips, the Queen’s nephew David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, and the Queen’s first cousin Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The Queen Consort, The Princess of Wales, The Duchess of Sussex, and the Countess of Wessex traveled by car.
• The coffin was carried on a gun carriage of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and the Imperial State Crown sat atop the coffin. Guns were fired at Hyde Park and Big Ben tolled.
• Crowds were able to view the procession along Queen’s Gardens, The Mall, Horse Guards and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square, and New Palace Yard.
• The coffin reached Westminster Hall at 3:00 PM British Time, 10:00 AM US Eastern Time. It was placed on a raised platform. Each corner of the platform was guarded 24 hours a day by soldiers from units that serve the Royal Household.
• Members of the public were able to pay their respects to the Queen’s coffin, 24 hours a day until 6:30 AM British Time on Monday, September 19, 2022, the day of the funeral.

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.

• King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla flew from Edinburgh, Scotland to Belfast, Northern Ireland where King Charles III met Chris Heaton-Harris Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and other party leaders. After a meeting with religious leaders, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla attended a prayer service at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast and then return to London by plane.
• The people of Scotland continued to visit St. Giles Cathedral where the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II rested. The coffin was taken from St. Giles Cathedral to Edinburgh Airport at 5:00 PM British time. Accompanied by Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, the coffin traveled by plane to RAF Northolt, a Royal Air Force base near London. The coffin then traveled by hearse to Buckingham Palace where it was met by King Charles III, Queen Consort Camilla, and other Royal Family Members. The coffin rested in the Bow Room, which overlooks the gardens. A rotating group of chaplains watched over the coffin.
• A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster took place.

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Born on August 5, 1103, in Winchester, England, William Ætheling was the only son and the second of the two children of Henry I, King of England and his first wife Matilda of Scotland. In Anglo-Saxon England, Ætheling was used to designate males of the royal dynasty who were eligible for the throne, and by using Ætheling as part of his only son’s name, Henry I was making a connection to the Anglo-Saxon kings, the dynasty his father William I, King of England, the Conqueror, had defeated in 1066 to obtain the English throne. William Ætheling’s paternal grandparents were William I (the Conqueror), King of England and Matilda of Flanders. His maternal grandparents were King Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland, born an Anglo-Saxon princess.

William had one elder sister:

• Matilda (1102 – 1167), married (1) Heinrich V, Holy Roman Emperor, no children (2) Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, had three sons including Henry II, King of England

Besides being King of England, Henry I was also Duke of Normandy, now in France. To secure the loyalty of the County of Anjou, a long-time rival of the neighboring Duchy of Normandy, Henry betrothed his son William to Matilda of Anjou, the eldest daughter of Fulk V, Count of Anjou and his first wife Ermengarde, Countess of Maine in February 1113. The nearly sixteen-year-old Willam and the thirteen-year-old Matilda of Anjou were married in June 1119 in Lisieux, Duchy of Normandy. The marriage would only last a year and the couple had no children.

Because the Kings of England at that time were also the Dukes of Normandy, they were often in Normandy, and this was the case in November 1120. After the successful military campaign in which King Henry I of England defeated King Louis VI of France at the Battle of Brémule, the English were finally preparing to return to England. King Henry I was offered the White Ship for his return to England, but he had already made other arrangements. Instead, Henry suggested that his son William Ætheling sail on the White Ship along with his retinue which included William’s half-brother Richard of Lincoln, his half-sister Matilda the Countess of Perch, who were two of King Henry I’s 25 or so illegitimate children, along with Richard d’Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester, and many of the heirs of the great estates of England and Normandy.

17-year-old William Ætheling and his retinue boarded the ship in a festive mood and barrels of wine were brought on board to celebrate the return to England. Soon both passengers and crew were inebriated. By the time the ship was ready to set sail, there were about 300 people on board. William and his retinue ordered the captain of the White Ship to overtake the ship of King Henry I so that the White Ship would be the first ship to return to England. Unfortunately, the White Ship hit a submerged rock and capsized. William’s bodyguard quickly got the heir to the throne into the safety of a dinghy. However, William Ætheling heard the screams of his half-sister Matilda and ordered the dinghy to turn back to rescue her. At this point, the White Ship began to sink and the many people in the water desperately sought the safety of William’s dinghy. The chaos and the weight were too much causing William Ætheling’s dinghy to capsize and sink without a trace. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis claimed that only two people survived the shipwreck by clinging to a rock all night.

• Unofficial Royalty: The Sinking of the White Ship and How It Affected the English Succession

William Ætheling’s wife Matilda of Anjou was on another ship at the time of the wreck. After her husband’s death, Matilda remained at King Henry I’s court and was treated as one of his daughters. Henry I offered to marry Matilda to one of his great nobles. However, after staying in England for several years, Matilda wished to return to her birthplace of Anjou. Eventually, Matilda took the advice of Geoffrey of Leves, Bishop of Chartres, and took vows as a nun at Fontevrault Abbey in Chinon, Anjou in 1128. She became Abbess of Fontevrault Abbey in 1150 and died there in 1154, the same year her nephew Henry, Count of Anjou became King Henry II of England.

King Henry I holds the record for the British monarch with the most illegitimate children, 25 or so illegitimate children, but the tragedy of the White Ship left him with only one legitimate child, his daughter Matilda. Henry I’s nephews were the closest male heirs. In January 1121, Henry married Adeliza of Louvain, hoping for sons, but the marriage remained childless. On Christmas Day in 1226, King Henry I of England gathered his nobles at Westminster where they swore to recognize his daughter Matilda and any future legitimate heir she might have as his successors. That plan did not work out. Upon hearing of Henry I’s death on December 1, 1135, Stephen of Blois, one of Henry’s nephews, quickly crossed the English Channel from France, seized power, and was crowned King of England on December 22, 1135. This started the terrible civil war between Stephen and Matilda known as The Anarchy. England did not see peace for more than 18 years until Matilda’s son acceded to the throne as King Henry II of England in 1154.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Matilda of Anjou – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_of_Anjou> [Accessed 11 July 2022].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. William Adelin – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adelin> [Accessed 11 July 2022].
• Flantzer, S., 2015. King Henry I of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henry-i-of-england/> [Accessed 11 July 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2015. The Sinking of the White Ship and How It Affected the English Succession. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/november-25-1120-the-sinking-of-the-white-ship-and-how-it-affected-the-english-succession/> [Accessed 11 July 2022].
• Spencer, Charles, 2020. The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream. London: William Collins.
• Williamson, David, 1996. Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Monday, September 12, 2022.

• King Charles III visited Westminster Hall, at Parliament in London where both Houses of Parliament met to express their condolences.
• King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla traveled by air to Edinburgh, Scotland as part of Operation Spring Tide, the codename for King Charles III’s first trip as king to all four nations of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
• In the afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin traveled by procession from Holyroodhouse, the Royal Family’s residence in Edinburgh, Scotland, up the Royal Mile to St. Giles Cathedral accompanied by King Charles III and members of the Royal Family. The Royal Family attended a service at St Giles Cathedral to receive the coffin.
• The coffin lay in rest at St. Giles Cathedral guarded by The Royal Company of Archers, a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign’s bodyguard in Scotland. The people of Scotland visited the cathedral to pay their respects.
• King Charles III had an audience with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyroodhouse.
• King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla attended the Scottish Parliament where they received a motion of condolence.
• In the evening, King Charles III and his three siblings stood vigil at their mother’s coffin at St. Giles Cathedral.

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Sunday, September 11, 2022.

• Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, had been lying in rest in the ballroom at Balmoral Castle in Scotland where she died on Thursday, September 8. The coffin departed from Balmoral Castle at 10:00 AM British time for the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. The coffin was transported slowly by hearse so people along the route were be able to see it, traveling through Aberdeen, Dundee, and Perth. The trip from Balmoral to Edinburgh is 175 miles and took six hours. Upon arrival at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the coffin rested in the palace’s Throne Room.
• Proclamations of the new sovereign were read in the devolved parliaments of Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) and Northern Ireland (Belfast). Local proclamations were read throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Operation London Bridge was the codename for the detailed set of plans following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The plans had long been planned in consultation with the Government. The following is what happened on Saturday, September 10, 2022.

• Unofficial Royalty: The Accession Council
• Unofficial Royalty: The Proclamation of New Monarch

• The Accession Council, which includes senior government figures, met at St. James’ Palace in London to proclaim King Charles III the new sovereign.
• King Charles III held his first Privy Council, accompanied by Queen Consort Camilla and The Prince of Wales who are also Privy Counsellors. The new king made his personal declaration and oath.
• The first public proclamation of the new sovereign was read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St James’s Palace by the Garter King of Arms.
• The proclamation was then read at the Royal Exchange in the City of London, confirming Charles as King.
• Proclamations were made around the city and across the country. Union flags went back up to full mast at 1 pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast.
• Parliament met to agree on a message of condolence. Members of Parliament gave tributes in the House of Commons. All other parliamentary business was suspended for 10 days.
• King Charles III held an audience with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.