
Queen Elizabeth II was honoured with a state burial at Westminster Abbey. This also served as the backdrop of several important milestones during her reign as queen.
On Monday, September 19, the late sovereign was laid into rest with a ceremony and service at Westminster Abbey in London. The proceedings began as the Royal Navy brought the queen’s casket from the Palace of Westminster to the Abbey on the State Gun Carriage. The royal family — including King Charles III, the queen’s younger children and members of the new king’s household — followed behind Her Majesty’s coffin before the service was conducted by the Dean of WestminsterThe Archbishop of Canterbury.

As the royals and visiting dignitaries — as well as residents of the community recognized for their extraordinary volunteer efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic — mourned Elizabeth’s death on Monday, its setting holds important significance to the late regent. Westminster Abbey was also the site of the queen’s June 1953 coronation when she was 27 years old.
“It’s sort of the beginnings of one’s life as a sovereign,” Elizabeth said in The Coronation Documentary for BBC, aired January 2018. “I’ve seen one coronation [my father George VI’s in 1937], and been the recipient in the other, which is pretty remarkable.”
She quipped at the time: “There are some disadvantages to crowns [like its weight] but otherwise they’re quite important.”
Another important event in her life was also held at Westminster Abbey: Prince Philip’s wedding. Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh — who died in April 2021 at the age of 99 — held their royal nuptials at the London church in November 1947.
The Gothic-style church was first built in the 13th century, and has since been the site of many late British monarchs’ burials through the years. Many other members of the royal family, including Philip and Elizabeth, have also held their weddings in the cathedral. Prince AndrewEx-wife Sarah Ferguson — who split in 1992 — tied the knot at Westminster Abbey, nearly 25 years before Andrew’s nephew Prince WilliamMarried Princess Kate there.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Historia/Shutterstock
Following the queen’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey, the royals will travel in a hearse to St George’s Chapel in Windsor, England, for a committal service. The Windsor service was also used for weddings. Prince Harry Meghan Markle Princess Eugenie Jack BrooksbankBoth in 2018. The royals later attended the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in its chapel last year.
While Philip — who served as the prince consort throughout his wife’s reign — did not have a state funeral due to the coronavirus pandemic, his four children — Charles, 73, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew Prince Edward — attended alongside Elizabeth and the couple’s eight grandchildren.
“For me, in the months since the death of my beloved Philip, I have drawn great comfort from the warmth and affection of the many tributes to his life and work – from around the country, the Commonwealth and the world,” the queen previously opened up about losing her husband during her 2021 Christmas address. “His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation – were all irrepressible. He had a mischievous, inquisitive twinkle that was just as bright when he left me. But life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings; and as much as I and my family miss him, I know he would want us to enjoy Christmas.”