With three loud knocks on the ancient floors of a room at the heart of the royal story for almost a thousand years, a moment of history began.
King Charles III walked out into Westminster Hall, followed by the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex to make a solemn act of mourning. And slowly, the hundreds who were making their way into the hall to pay their own respects realised that something extraordinary was about to take place. They watched and waited as The King and his sister and brothers took their places around their mother’s coffin. The Vigil of the Princes had begun.
King Charles stood at the head of the coffin, the Westminster Cross behind him. His brother, the Duke of York, permitted to wear uniform for the only time in the mourning period, stood at the foot. The Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex took their places on either side. They all bowed their heads and the vigil began.
For fifteen minutes, the four children of Her Late Majesty kept watch, emotion clear on all their faces. The deep sadness they are all now living was evident. And their heads remained bowed, deep in thought, as hundreds passed by, some bowing to the coffin, others wiping away tears. And all the time, Westminster Hall was filled with a gentle hush, peppered by the sound of footsteps.
Nearby, Queen Camilla led a large royal procession who had all come to pay tribute, too. Wearing black, they stood in a long line on a raised landing at the side of the Hall as the Vigil continued. The Queen’s cousins, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, were among them. They had shared her childhood and gone on to support her for every year of her long reign. Now, they came to say goodbye.
Another three knocks on the ancient floor broke the stillness and slowly, without fanfare, The King and his sister and brothers walked away from the coffin and out of Westminster Hall. As King Charles passed, there were bows and curtsies from those waiting. And then the four children were gone, back into the quiet of private grieving, if only for a short while before the public mourning begins again.
It was a moment of true history with the longest reigning Monarch in British history at its heart. Elizabeth II is among the greatest of the long line of Kings and Queens who have worn the Crown in the millennium since Westminster Hall was built for her predecessor, William II. Now the ancient stone walls that have seen so much royal history add to their witness a Vigil of the Princes for a Queen already called great.
