Given her age and declining health, the death of Queen Elizabeth II wasn't a surprise, but once it happened, the world was watching. Here's some of what went into producing a funeral fit for a queen.
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00:00Given her age and declining health, the death of Queen Elizabeth II wasn't a surprise.
00:06But once it happened, the world was watching.
00:08Here's some of what went into producing a funeral fit for a queen.
00:12Edward FitzAlan Howard, Duke of Norfolk, is also the Earl Marshal of the United Kingdom
00:17and one of the few holding such titles to still play an active role in British affairs.
00:22Among other things, the Earl Marshal supervises state ceremonies, including the opening of
00:27parliament, coronations, and state funerals like Queen Elizabeth II's.
00:32The office of Earl Marshal was traditionally given to the highest-ranking duke in England,
00:36and the Howard family first took up the job in 1483.
00:39Then, in 1672, the job was permanently granted to the Norfolks, meaning they've been planning
00:45coronations and funerals ever since.
00:48But leading up to Queen Elizabeth's death in 2022, the last time the Duke of Norfolk
00:52had to arrange a funeral for a reigning monarch was in 1952, with the death of her father,
00:57George VI.
00:59Queen Elizabeth's death was planned for well before the day it arrived.
01:04This is BBC News from London.
01:06Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
01:12Under the vaguely Bondian codename of Operation London Bridge, most plans for the immediate
01:17aftermath of her death imagined her dying in the way she ultimately did, surrounded
01:22by family and medical staff after an illness.
01:25The process provided for the notification of the British Prime Minister and public,
01:29and the transport of the Queen's body to London.
01:31There were other ready plans and codenames.
01:34Operation Unicorn was devised if, as it happened, the Queen died at her beloved Balmoral Castle
01:39in Scotland rather than in England.
01:42Operations Marquis and Feather were drawn up to cover the logistics of Elizabeth's lying
01:46in state, both the ceremonial aspects and the handling of the public as they came to
01:51pay their respects.
01:52And encompassing all these plans was Operation Lion, meant to provide a general roadmap for
01:57the death of any member of the royal family.
02:00The framework for these operations was refined under Edward FitzAlan Howard, who inherited
02:05responsibility for planning royal occasions such as funerals back in 2002.
02:10Prior to his becoming Duke of Norfolk, his father had left plans for the Queen's funeral
02:14loose, assuming that a man of his wartime experience could quickly arrange and coordinate
02:19them on short notice.
02:21The current occupant's grandfather said it should be a piece of cake because he had to
02:25organise the crossing of the Rhine in the Second World War in 24 hours.
02:29The current Duke presented his heavily expanded plans to the then Prince of Wales for approval
02:34in 2015.
02:36When it came to preparing for Queen Elizabeth's funeral, FitzAlan Howard had family history
02:40and connections from which to draw.
02:43Upon becoming Duke, he consulted with Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Mather, an expert on ceremony who'd
02:48participated in the funerals of Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten.
02:52When it came time to execute the plans, he had Major General Chris Geeka of the Household
02:57Division of the British Army and Garrison Sergeant Major Andrew Verne Stokes.
03:02They had plenty of documentation and tradition to guide them.
03:05But the Queen's death, while not unexpected, came only a day after the Duke was notified
03:10that the funeral plans would be needed.
03:12When the arrangements were activated, he and his team discovered that major elements weren't
03:17ready.
03:18The state trumpeters and members of the Queen's Company of Grenadier Guards, meant to act
03:22as her bearer party, were all out of the country and had to be hastily recalled.
03:26There was only time for one rehearsal, and those participating initially treated it more
03:31as a reunion than practice for a solemn ceremony of state.
03:35The timing of this rehearsal hasn't been shared with the public.
03:38For the military it's not about the spectacle, it's about getting things right for Her Majesty
03:42on the day.
03:43But the rehearsal was full of disasters.
03:46And tradition could only provide so much guidance.
03:49To accommodate expected attendance, the Duke chose to move the funeral to Westminster Abbey
03:54rather than Windsor Castle.
03:55And scheduling and security meant that the Queen's body couldn't return to London from
03:59Scotland by train, which typically allows those along the route to pay their respects
04:03at stations.
04:05Managing so many dignitaries and heads of government was part of Fitzhallen Howard's
04:09job as Earl Marshall, and the sheer number posed a logistical problem.
04:14The whole world is here on a scale we've never seen before.
04:19It wasn't possible, given the short time frame, to accommodate every delegation arriving and
04:23departing by their own transport.
04:25The solution?
04:27Bus them in.
04:28World leaders were obliged to share coaches to Westminster Abbey, an arrangement that
04:32allegedly upset French President Emmanuel Macron's delegation.
04:36What's wrong with the bus?
04:38It's not like they're getting the 53 from King's Cross.
04:41The French were even more upset that U.S. President Joe Biden was exempted from the
04:45bus plan, but the team behind the funeral didn't have a choice.
04:49U.S. security refused to let him ride a vehicle they didn't approve of.
04:53But by taking his special bomb-proof limousine, Biden arrived late to the funeral and was
04:58forced to wait until a procession of British veterans passed ahead of him.
05:02Inside the church, prime seats belonged to the Governor's General of the Commonwealth,
05:06followed by elected Commonwealth leaders.
05:09Other heads of state were placed in alphabetical order, which meant France had a better seat
05:13than the U.S.
05:14There were three processions making up Queen Elizabeth's funeral on September 19th, 2022.
05:20The first went by almost without a hitch.
05:22The lines behind the coffin fell off-beat at one point, but managed to get back on track.
05:27I want it strong, make it sharp, take it on the downbeat, ready, and 5, 6, 7, 8!
05:35The ceremony itself was well-executed, though it ran long by two minutes.
05:40But when it came time to bear the coffin away, a miscalculation found during rehearsal came
05:45back to haunt Fitzsall and Howard.
05:47The coffin was carried from Westminster on a gun carriage, pulled by sailors whose average
05:52pace was estimated at one-and-a-half feet.
05:55But the schedule for the funeral parades was based around a guardsman's pace of two-and-a-half
05:59feet, which would put the coffin well behind the front of the procession.
06:04It doesn't add up.
06:06There wasn't time to revise the schedules.
06:08All the planning team could do was hope to make up the time somewhere.
06:11The coffin ended up arriving 32 minutes late to the hearse that would take it to Windsor
06:15Castle.
06:16When talk began that the last leg of the funeral would have to be delayed by a half-hour, the
06:20Duke took charge.
06:22At his insistence, a lunch break was cut short.
06:25He herded the front marchers, some of whom hadn't had a bathroom break, back into place
06:30as the hearse arrived.
06:31Back on schedule, the last parade took off and arrived at Windsor Castle on time.