Queen Elizabeth II has reigned over the UK
and the Commonwealth for almost seven decades, but it turns out what happens when she sheds
this mortal coil has been planned out in detail going all the way back to shortly after she
ascended the throne in the 1950s, with the Queen herself planning some of the elements. As you might imagine, the whole affair includes
an amazing amount of pomp and circumstance, though this was not always the case, or at
least not nearly to the extent we see today in various Royal ceremonies. For example, going back to the funeral of
King George IV it is noted in the book Royalty Inc: Britain's Best Known Brand,
“Dozens of pickpockets arrived in Windsor and lifted watches and money from sightseers
who had turned up to see if any celebrities were attending. The funeral itself, hurried through in St.
George's Chapel at nine o'clock in the evening, was largely undignified. The congregation crowded in, jostling for
the best seats, and then chatted noisily among themselves. 'We never saw so motley, so rude, so ill-managed
a body of persons,' The Time's' correspondent reported... At least the undertakers were not drunk, as
they had been at the funeral of George's daughter and heir, the Princess Charlotte who died
in childbirth in 1817.” As for his successor, William IV's, coronation,
“William only reluctantly agreed to have a ceremonial coronation and the money spent
on the occasion was less than a fifth of that expended on his brother's behalf ten years
earlier... Among the other changes to royal protocols,
the new King opened the terraces at Windsor Castle and the nearby great park to the public
access and reduced the fleet of royal yachts. All this, his lack of pomposity and his visceral
dislike of foreigners, particularly the French, tended to endear him to the populace.... When William IV himself died in June 1837,
there was also a private funeral at Windsor and, if not quite as undignified as George's
had been, it was a perfunctory affair.” The ultra elaborate more public ceremonies
now associated with the monarchy wouldn't begin in earnest until the late 19th century,
in part because of public protest over not being included in many of these events. For example, there was significant backlash
over the fact that the 1858 wedding of Princess Victoria and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm had
not been more public. As noted in a contemporary report by the Daily
Telegraph at the time, the people lamented the "growing system of reserving the exclusive
enjoyment of State ceremonials and spectacles for particular classes." In 1867, British journalist Walter Bagehot
would postulate of all of this, "The more democratic we get, the more we shall get to
like state and show, which have ever pleased the vulgar." That said, initial efforts to improve things
were apparently somewhat lackluster. For example, the eventual Marquess of Salisbury,
Lord Robert Cecil, after watching Queen Victoria open parliament in 1860, stated:
“Some nations have a gift for ceremonial. No poverty of means of absence of splendour
inhibits them from making any pageant in which they take part both real and impressive... In England the case is exactly the reverse. We can afford to be more splendid than most
nations; but some malignant spell broods over all our most solemn ceremonials, and inserts
into them some feature which makes them all ridiculous.” Nevertheless, by the time of Queen Victoria's
death things had started to improve somewhat, though this particular funeral ceremony too
was almost made "ridiculous". You see, while pulling the cart containing
the queen's coffin up a steep hill, a harness on one of the horses snapped, with the result
being two of the other horses rearing back and bucking. The result of all of that, in turn, was the
Queen's coffin coming extremely close to being ejected from the carriage. Had it done so, it would have gone careening
down the steep hill, possibly ejecting the Queen's body at some point... As for her successor, Edward VII, he would
double down on improving public ceremonies, essentially turning every opportunity for
pageantry into an elaborate affair and including the public as much as possible. Notably, upon his death in 1910, he had his
body placed in a coffin at Westminster Hall with over 400,000 people reportedly coming
to see it, helping to popularly bolster the old practice of certain members of the monarchy
lying-in-state in the UK. This all now brings us to the exact plan for
what happens when Queen Elizabeth II dies. Code-named Operation London Bridge, meetings
have been held a few times per year in the over six decades since the plan was originally
created in order to tweak it as needed with the times, with the overarching plan going
over every possible contingency the architects can think of. Beyond logistical plans by the government,
in more recent times, British news outlets have also had in place pre-planned obituaries,
with some TV outlets rumored to occasionally rehearse the broadcasts they will give to
announce the Queen's death, right down to what they'll wear. If you're wondering- a whole lot of black,
including black ties for the men, extras of which are actually kept on hand at the BBC
just in case needed on short notice. This reportedly became a thing after Peter
Sissons of the BBC inadvisably wore a red tie when announcing the Queen Mother's death. Certain members of the general public did
not react kindly to this. (And if you're curious- see How Did the Practice
of Do Wearing Black for Mourning Start?) Moving back to the official side of things,
to begin with, first, immediately upon her death the Queen's private secretary, Edward
Young, will send a coded message to the Prime Minister, with the message originally "London
Bridge is down". However, given the whole point here of using
such a coded message is to help reduce the chance of premature leaks of the news of the
Queen's death, it's possible the exact coded phrase has been changed since that one was
discovered. (If you're curious, when King George VI died,
the code was "Hyde Park Corner" and for the death of the Queen Mother "Operation Tay Bridge"
was used.) From there various entities, such as the media,
will be officially notified and the Radio Alert Transmission System (RATS) will be activated
announcing the death to the public. That said, it's likely given social media
is a thing that the news will leak much quicker that way to the wider public. This all essentially kicks off a 12 day sequence
of events, outlined in the plan as D-day (the day of the Queen's death), D+1, D+2, etc. (Interestingly this is also exactly the reason
the famed military operation now commonly known as D-Day is called such- just standing
for "Designated day", allowing for ease of coordinating a sequence of events when the
actual start date is unknown, or in some cases where there is a desire for it to be kept
as secret as possible.) Perhaps the most noteworthy thing of all that
will occur on D-day, beside the Queen's death, is Prince Charles will assume the position
of King, even though actually being sworn in as King will not take place until the following
morning. As for the coronation ceremony, this can potentially
take many months to finally take place. For example, Queen Elizabeth II's own coronation
after the death of King George VI on February 6, 1952, did not take place until almost a
year and a half later, on June 2, 1953. In this case, the decision to wait this lengthy
period was made by Winston Churchill. That said, there is some speculation that
Charles' coronation will be relatively swift in comparison in order to forestall any momentum
building in public sentiment that may push for an abolishment of the monarchy, especially
given the relatively lesser popularity of Prince Charles compared to the almost universally
loved Queen he is replacing. To help further forestall such from happening,
steps have been actively taken in recent years to try to bolster Charles' profile among his
subjects. It should also be noted here that Prince Charles
may choose to not become known as "King Charles III", as he is free to choose any of the names
from his full name of Charles Philip Arthur George. From this, there is some speculation that
he may wish to honor his grandfather King George by taking the name King George VII
or he may go with King Philip after his own father. In any event, after Charles takes the oath
the day after the Queen's death, Parliament will be called to session that same day (the
evening following King Charles' oath) to swear allegiance to him. Likewise, police and military forces under
his rule will also be called wherever they are to swear their allegiance to their new
King. Also on that evening, the new King will address
the nation for the first time in that role. In her own such broadcast, Queen Elizabeth,
among other things, swore "I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long
or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family
to which we all belong." This is a good thing as we've previously noted
the monarch of the UK is for all intents and purposes above the law in virtually every
nation in the world, not just their own, for reasons we describe in our article on whether
the Queen could legally get away with murder. On top of that, from a legal standpoint, their
power in their own little empire is almost absolute for a variety of reasons, though
of course, Queen Elizabeth II at least has very rarely used any of this authority. But given this, as you might expect it's quite
important that the person made monarch in Britain is mentally stable and trustworthy
as it would take a literal revolution or rebellion to take such powers away from that person
from a legal standpoint, assuming said British monarch did not wish to have those powers
taken. This would also place the military, police,
Parliament and others in the awkward position of having to very publicly break their sworn
oaths to said monarch to take their powers away against their will. Going back to the Queen, what exactly happens
to her body directly after her death will depend on where she is at the time, with Operation
London Bridge attempting to plan for any contingencies. For example, should she die in her frequent
summer home at Balmoral Castle in Scotland a special Scottish ceremony is planned before
her body will be sent back to London. In this case, along with appropriate preservation
being done, her body will be placed in Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh for a short time, and then her
coffin carried to St. Giles's Cathedral where a service will be held. After this, the coffin will be put aboard
the Royal Train at Edinburgh Waverley railway station and then will make its way down to
London where it will be ultimately placed in Buckingham Palace. Given mourners will likely throw flowers and
other things at the train as it passes, plans are in place to have another train follow
behind shortly thereafter to clear the tracks as needed before the tracks are put back in
general use. On the other hand, should she die abroad,
a jet from the No. 32 Royal Squadron will be dispatched with the Queen's coffin to collect
her body. (And if you're wondering, yes, such a coffin
is already made and waiting in case of a Royal's death- called the "first call coffin", kept
by the Leverton & Sons royal undertakers for when it's needed.) Wherever it's coming from, the Queen's body
will, as alluded to, make its way to the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace and be held there
for at time. Four days after her death, her coffin will
be placed in Westminster Hall, available for public viewing almost 24 hours a day for four
days. Given approximately 200,000 people went to
view the Queen Mother's coffin in 2002, it's expected the number going to view Queen Elizabeth's
coffin will be vastly more than this. Finally, the night before the funeral takes
place, special church services will be held across the UK to commemorate the death of
the head of the Church of England. The funeral will then take place the following
day, with said day being deemed a national holiday. On that day, the coffin will be carried from
Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey where approximately 2,000 guests will be invited
into the Abbey to witness the funeral directly, with the service conducted by the Archbishop
of Canterbury. After that ceremony is over, the the Queen
will likely be laid to rest in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Finally, at some yet undetermined point after
the mourning period, the coronation of the new King will take place, which will also
be a national holiday. As for other logistics, with the change to
the new King, various official things like certain physical money, stamps, etc. will
switch from Queen Elizabeth's visage to the King's, and an awful lot of official documents
and the like that formerly said "her" and "Queen" will be switched to "him" and "King",
such as the national anthem having the words slightly altered to "God Save the King". Speaking of pomp and circumstance, if you’re
wanting to look dapper at certain events, Mack Weldon!!! Bonus Fact:
Along with being the only person in the UK to not need a passport when traveling abroad,
the Queen similarly doesn’t need a driver's license to drive either. This is because, like passports, driver's
licenses are issued in her name. So she's allowed to simply vouch for her own
driving ability in person should she ever be pulled over. Now, you’d think given her status and wealth,
the Queen would never drive anyway, but you’d be wrong, though she did a few months back
voluntarily cease driving on public roads at the urging of her security team who worried
about the elderly Queen's safety in driving on public roads at her age. But before that, it turns out the Queen loved
driving and cars. In fact, during WW2 the Queen (then a princess)
badgered her father to let her do her part for her country and subsequently ended up
serving as a mechanic and driver with the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service at
the tender age of 18. (She’d actually registered to serve at age
16 but King George wouldn’t allow it). The Queen took her position incredibly seriously,
becoming, by all accounts, a competent mechanic and driver, trained to fix and drive a host
of military and suburban vehicles. Fast-forwarding a bit through history, a humourous
story about the Queen's driving prowess comes from 1998 when she was visited at her estate
in Balmoral, Scotland by the then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al
Saud. The story was later revealed to the world
by one-time Saudi ambassador Sherard Cowper-Cole. Knowing Abdullah’s stance on the rights
of women and the fact that women are essentially banned from driving in Saudi Arabia (there’s
technically no law that says women can’t drive, but licenses are only issued to men),
the Queen, demonstrating quintessential British passive aggressiveness, offered the Prince
a tour of her palace grounds. Dutifully, the Prince agreed and the pair
headed outside where a large Land Rover bearing the Royal insignia was parked. After waiting for the Prince to climb into
the passenger seat where he no doubt assumed a chauffeur would drive the pair around, the
Queen then nonchalantly climbed into the driver’s seat and proceeded to drive the car, much
to the Prince’s astonishment. According to ambassador Sherard, the Prince
was extremely nervous about this arrangement from the start. Things didn't get better for him. The then 72 year old Queen, knowing that Abdullah
had never been driven by a woman before and no doubt observing his anxiety, decided to
mess with him by purposely driving as fast as possible on "the narrow Scottish estate
roads". As she sped along at break-neck speeds, the
Crown Prince screamed at the Queen through his interpreter to slow down and pay closer
attention to her driving. The Queen, ignoring his admonishments completely,
continued pleasantly chatting away as if she wasn't doing her best Fast and the Furious
impression. We can only imagine Abdullah's reaction if
the Queen had mentioned to him that she never got her driver's license...
