Queen seen leaving Windsor Castle after Philip’s funeral as Royal Family continues to mourn
Queen Elizabeth has been spotted driving herself from Windsor Castle for the first time since the funeral of her beloved husband and consort, Prince Philip.
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The Queen has been seen leaving Windsor Castle a day after Prince Philip’s funeral – as the Royal Family continues to mourn.
Guards stood to attention as she drove her Jaguar down the driveway just before 3pm, local time, 24 hours after a poignant minute’s silence was held for Philip.
According to The Sun, she looked to be wearing a headscarf, as she often does when at the wheel.
It is not clear where she was heading, but she may have been setting off to take her dogs for a walk.
Before the funeral the Queen was seen driving the same car, reportedly to take the puppies on a sombre stroll.
She was thought to be heading to Frogmore Gardens, where her mother is buried and where she and Philip will eventually be laid to rest.
Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank were also seen driving out of the grounds moments before the Queen, a day after the emotional service.
Yesterday they joined the Queen and 27 mourners to say goodbye to the Duke of Edinburgh – who died on April 9 aged 99.
It was a deeply personal service, with details decided by the Duke before his death, and watched by millions across the globe.
Due to coronavirus restrictions mourners were forced to grieve separately, with the Queen sitting alone in St George’s Chapel, gazing at Philip’s coffin.
STILL IN MOURNING
The Royal Family will continue to grieve this week, although the period of national mourning has ended.
After almost 70 years as head of state, the Queen will reign without her husband by her side, as she sat on her own during the funeral service that bore Philip’s touch and celebrated his life and legacy.
The ceremony in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle reflected Philip’s lifelong support of the armed forces, having had a close connection with the navy for more than 80 years.
His coffin, draped with his personal standard, featured his Admiral of the Fleet naval cap and sword next to a wreath of white flowers chosen by the Queen with a handwritten card from his wife of 73 years.
HOPE GROWS FOR HARRY & WILLS RECONCILIATION
Speculation surrounds whether Prince Harry will stay in Britain to celebrate the Queen’s birthday this week or rush back to his pregnant wife Meghan in California.
Queen Elizabeth turns 95 on Wednesday but there are reports he will fly back to the US tomorrow.
Harry will reportedly take a walk with his father, Prince Charles, around Windsor to look at tributes left for the Duke of Edinburgh before he flys back in a bid to repair their strained relationship.
There was a sliver of hope that there could be a royal reconciliation following Prince Philip’s funeral.
Prince Harry’s chat with his brother Prince William at the end of the service broke the ice after a year of drama since his departure from royal duties.
The Queen turns 95 on Wednesday April 21, which will still be inside her official two-week mourning period.
Public celebrations for the Queen are usually held for her official birthday in June, with the Trooping Of The Colour, a grand display of military marching in central London.
That has been cancelled for the second year in a row because of the pandemic, but it was thought that there could be some informal, outdoor meetings between the Queen and her family to mark her milestone.
QUEEN CUTS A LONELY FIGURE
The Queen cut a lonely, heartbreaking figure as she sat by herself under social distancing guidelines in St George’s Chapel, but “her grief will not define her.”
“Yes, a rare tear that she quickly wiped away did fall, but the bravery she summoned was inspirational,” royal author Penny Junor said.
“Throughout her reign, as crises and tragedies have struck, both nationally and within her own family, she has remained strong for others.
“Ever resilient, ever composed, she has kept calm and carried on. As she will do now; as Prince Philip would expect her to do.
“She is a woman with the courage and the selflessness of a true leader.”
KATE MANOEUVRES BROTHERS TOGETHER AFTER SERVICE
Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, had been like a “big sister” to Prince Harry.
She played that role again after the funeral, while also nudging her husband Prince William, to call a truce in the brothers’ war.
As the family ignored waiting cars and walked back up the hill to the State Apartments at Windsor Castle, Kate manoeuvred the brothers together.
Andrew Morton, Princess Diana’s biographer and confidant, said their mother would have been proud.
“But what would have truly warmed Diana’s heart is that William and Harry, who did not even glance at one another during the procession with other royal men, did speak to one another at the conclusion of the funeral service — the first time they had met face to masked face in a year,” he told The Sun.
“Their five-minute chat was the first sign of a possible reconciliation since Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview more than a month ago.”
Buckingham Palace refused to be drawn on whether there was a wake for Prince Philip, who Prince Harry described as the “king of banter” who would have said, “beer in hand”, to “get on with it.”
However, under COVID-19 rules currently in Britain it would have been difficult to co-ordinate.
A nervous-looking Prince Harry tapped his Order of Service on his right leg as mourners, led by the Queen who shed a tear for her husband during the funeral, filed out of the church.
He may have expected to be isolated, as the Queen was during the service because of social distancing rules, but Kate ensured he was warmly embraced.
Prince Harry had burned many bridges in his interview with Winfrey in March, but he had also said that he loved his brother.
“I will always love him … Time heals all things, hopefully,” he said.
HARRY CONSIDERS STAYING IN BRITAIN FOR QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY
Sources told The Sunday Times that Prince Harry was considering extending his stay to include the Queen’s birthday.
He arrived in Britain just over a week ago, and spent five days in isolation, narrowly making it for the funeral following a negative coronavirus test.
The Queen helped relations by wearing the same brooch to Prince Philip’s funeral as she did to Meghan and Harry’s wedding, which was in the same chapel in 2018.
Prince Harry had been stripped of his military titles as a result of Megxit, and Buckingham Palace refused his request to have a wreath laid on his behalf at the Cenotaph in London for the Remembrance Sunday service last year.
That snub was thought to have fuelled his anger, which spilt out in the Winfrey interview, where he claimed that the Royal Family was racist and that Meghan was given no help when she was having suicidal thoughts.
In a diplomatic move, the Queen declared that the men in the royal family would wear suits rather than military uniform for the funeral, given it would have embarrassed Prince Harry because he would not have been entitled to wear his.
Meghan, who was critical of the Royal Family in the Winfrey interview, also made peace offerings, with a personally written card and a floral wreath laid on her behalf to honour Prince Philip in St George’s Chapel.
PRINCE CHARLES PREPARES FOR LARGER ROLE
The death of Prince Philip has led to a growing role for Charles, 72, with a senior royal to accompany the Queen on official engagements from now on.
However, there was no suggestion of an abdication, with the Queen famously dedicated herself to a life of service in a speech on her 21st birthday in 1947.
Prince Harry has been staying at his former home Frogmore Cottage, which he paid $5 million to renovate before decamping to California.
He has let Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank live in the cottage with their new baby.
However, it was said that Prince Harry was torn over whether to stay in the UK for a few more days to meet up with family or to head straight back to California to be with Meghan who was too pregnant to fly to the funeral.
Prince Philip had planned his funeral for decades – the modified Land Rover that carried his coffin was built in 2003.
Coronavirus restrictions meant there was no funeral march through the streets of London, however hundreds still lined the streets on Castle Hill.
Some watched the service on their phones, just wanting to be close to where Prince Philip was being farewelled.
TV ROYAL FIRST IN FUNERAL
Prince Philip’s funeral included a unique moment in television and royal history with filming of his coffin descending into the 200-year-old Royal Vault, lowered by an electric motor.
Usually the movement of the coffin into the vault beneath the floor of the Quire of St George’s Chapel would take place in private but BBC cameras were allowed to film the scene.
Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine described its filming as “unique in British royal history” with the scene captured on live TV and online streams in a historic first.
“Clearly it’s an intimate moment, usually only witnessed by the Royal Family,” he said, earlier doubting it would be shown.
“I think it will be regarded as too private. I think it is the sort of thing you might see at funerals in European countries, but not in Britain.”
The coffin began to move down incredibly slowly, as the Dean of Windsor read the lengthy list of the duke’s regal styles and titles.
After the coffin descended, the open rectangular space leading to the vault could be seen in the floor of the Quire with cameras then cutting to a shot of Prince Harry glancing down briefly as he made his way out of the chapel at the end of the service.
The Royal Vault at Windsor was created between 1804 and 1810 for George III, who died in 1820 and is one of three kings buried there.
At George VI’s funeral in 1952, the king’s coffin was lowered into the vault but the proceedings were not televised.
Photographs of the occasion taken from a distance show the new Queen Elizabeth II standing in front of the space in the floor after the coffin had descended.
Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault, before being moved to the George VI memorial chapel with her parents’ coffins when the Queen Mother died just weeks later.
It is not to be the duke’s final resting place either.
When the Queen dies, he will be transferred to the gothic church’s King George VI memorial chapel to lie alongside his devoted wife of 73 years.
Princess Margaret wanted to be cremated because she found the alternative royal burial ground at Frogmore in Windsor Great Park too “gloomy”.
Lady Glenconner, a lifelong friend of the princess, said at the time that the princess preferred the memorial chapel instead.
“She told me that she found Frogmore very gloomy,” Lady Glenconner said. “I think she’d like to be with the late King, which she will now be. There’s room I think for her to be with him now.”
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Originally published as Queen seen leaving Windsor Castle after Philip’s funeral as Royal Family continues to mourn
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