Queen Elizabeth II’s four children were seen in public together for the first time since her death in Balmoral. King Charles, Princess Royal, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward were walking behind the Queen’s hearse as it made its way towards St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Funerals, like weddings, put people back into a family setting. But these royal siblings have had their roles fundamentally changed in the last few days.
Solemn crowds of mourners broke into gentle applause as the Queen’s coffin passed them for a final time as it left Edinburgh’s St Giles Cathedral to begin its journey to Buckingham Palace.
Anne, Princess Royal, was in a car following the procession as it travelled a route lined by thousands of well-wishers, along the Royal Mile and beneath the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.
King Charles III was in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, where he said that his mother “never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people, whose stories she knew, whose sorrows our family had felt, and for whom she had a great affection and regard”.
His words came as the chief of the anti-monarchy group Republic, Graham Smith, labelled the arrests of protesters a “scandal” and said to expect further demonstrations.
The accession of a new king is a “political act and one that goes to the heart of what is wrong with the monarchy”, he said. “It is absolutely everyone’s right to protest and speak out on any issue they please and the police must protect that right, not trample all over it.”
King Charles has begun a new life as his mother has ended. He is now the centre of attention, commander-in-chief as well as chief mourner. He has been pushed into the limelight when most people would want to hide away.
The hereditary principle means that as Charles and his heirs move to centre-stage, others in the family are inexorably eased to the edges, no longer the children of the monarch. Distant branches on the royal tree. Rest in peace, Your Majesty.
Author: Bunmi Johnson
New York, USA
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