Elizabeth II will be laid to rest in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on 19 September, alongside several monarchs who were buried there before her.
KING GEORGE VI’S MEMORIAL CHAPEL
King George VI; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Elizabeth II’s immediate family are interred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, which was completed in 1969 and is located off the North Quire Aisle.
King George VI was initially interred in the Royal Vault on 15 February 1952 but was reinterred in the chapel 17 years later, on 26 March 1969.
His consort, the long-lived Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, was buried alongside her husband on 9 April 2002, having lived to the age of 101. That same month, their younger daughter, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdown, was interred in the chapel as well, having been cremated following her death on 9 February.
Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh
At his funeral on 17 April 2021, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Elizabeth II, was temporarily interred in the Royal Vault. He will be reinterred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel alongside his devoted wife following her burial on 19 September.
NEAR THE WEST DOORS
King George V and Queen Mary
Elizabeth II’s grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, are both buried near the West Doors of St George’s Chapel.
George V died on 20 January 1936, his death sparking a royal crisis that eventually led to the abdication of his eldest son and the accession of his second son, the future George VI. His granddaughter would go on to take the throne in 1952 and become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
Prior to his burial on 28 January, George V’s four sons took part in a ‘Vigil of the Princes’ during his laying-in-state ahead of the funeral. It would not be replicated until 2002.
In 1953, George V’s loyal wife and consort Queen Mary passed away on 24 March, mere weeks before the oronation of her granddaughter. She made it known that she did not want the Coronation postponed if she died. She was buried on 31 March and Elizabeth II’s coronation went ahead as planned on 2 June.
THE ROYAL VAULT
King George III and Queen Charlotte are among those interred in the Royal Vault. George III, one of Britain’s longest-reigning monarchs, died of pneumonia on 29 January 1820 and was buried next to his beloved wife on 16 February.
Queen Charlotte had predeceased her husband on 17 November 1818. Given her husband’s health struggles, which included serious mental health problems by his later years, it is reported that he never grasped that his wife was dead. She was buried in the Royal Vault on 2 December 1818.
King George IV, who ruled as Prince Regent in the final years of his father’s illness and then reigned in his own right from 1820-1830, was buried in the Royal Vault on 15 July. His only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte of Wales, predeceased him after dying in childbirth in 1817, and is also interred—alongside her stillborn son—in the Royal Vault.
King William IV, the younger son of George III, reigned briefly from 1830-1837. He was buried in the Royal Vault on 8 July 1837. His wife, Queen Adelaide, joined him on 13 December 1849. One of their four children, all of whom died in childhood, is buried with her parents: Princess Elizabeth of Clarence, who died in 1821.
Other children of George III and Queen Charlotte who are buried in the Royal Vault include Princess Amelia, who died in 1810; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who died in 1820, months after the death of his only child, later to become Queen Victoria; Prince Alfred, who was reinterred there in 1820 after an initial burial at Westminster Abbey; Prince Octavius, also reinterred there in 1820 after an initial burial at Westminster Abbey; Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, buried there in 1827; and Princess Augusta Sophia, who was buried there in 1840.
THE QUIRE
One of England’s most famous—or infamous—monarchs is buried under the Quire at St George’s Chapel alongside the queen who gave him a longed-for son: Henry VIII.
Henry VIII, the king with six wives who split with Rome over his will to divorce and remarry Anne Boleyn, and who spent his reign longing for a son and heir, was buried under the Quire following his death on 28 January 1547.
His third wife and queen consort, Jane Seymour, who died of puerperal fever on October 24 1537, 12 days after the birth of the future Edward VI, was interred under the Quire on 12 November that year. She was the only one of Henry’s six wives who received the funeral of a queen consort, and rests beside him for eternity.
Charles I, who reigned from 1625 to 1649, is buried under the Quire as well. His reign led to the English Civil War and his eventual execution on 30 January 1649. His head was reattached to its body the next day, but he was refused burial in Westminster Abbey and was thus taken to St George’s Chapel and buried privately on 9 February of that year.
THE ALTAR
King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville; King Henry VI, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra
Both monarchs at the head of the Wars of the Roses are buried at the Altar in St George’s Chapel.
Edward IV, who reigned from 1461-1470 and again from 1471-1483 as Head of the House of York, was buried there following his death on 9 April 1483.
Henry VI, who reigned from 1422-1461 and again briefly from 1470-1471 as Head of the House of Lancaster, was buried there in 1484, 13 years after his death. He had initially been buried in Chertsey Abbey after his suspicious death in the Tower of London on 21 May 1471, but was moved by Richard III to his final resting place.
Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of Edward IV and mother of his 10 children, was buried next to her husband following her death on 8 June 1492. Alongside their parents, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Bedford and Princess Mary of York,. are both buried at the Altar.
Two coffins containing the remains of unidentified children are also buried in the Altar, and they are long rumoured to be the bodies of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York—the Princes in the Tower who disappeared in 1483 and were never seen again.
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra are also buried in the Altar. Edward VII was interred there on 20 May 1910 and his wife joined him on 28 November 1925.
OTHER ROYALS
There are many other royals buried in St George’s Chapel including cousins and nieces and nephews of main-line monarchs, but these are the sovereigns, consorts, and children.
