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The United Kingdom and the world will begin a week of public mourning for Queen Elizabeth II with a service of prayer and reflection in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the 96-year-old monarch’s coffin arrived Sunday.
St. Giles Cathedral will host a Monday afternoon service attended by King Charles III, Camilla, the queen consort, and Princess Anne, princes Andrews and Edward, and other family members and dignitaries.
Elizabeth died Thursday at Balmoral Castle after more than 70 years on the British throne, two days after appointing Conservative leader Liz Truss as the 15th prime minister of her reign.
Earlier Monday, the king and the queen consort will receive the condolences of both Houses of Parliament in a session at Westminster Hall in London. Charles will “make his reply,” Buckingham Palace said, and then travel to Edinburgh by air for the service.
The queen’s coffin, which arrived in the Scottish capital on Sunday afternoon on the first leg of its journey to London and a Sept. 19 funeral, will lie at rest at the cathedral where the public can pay their respects beginning in the late afternoon and concluding Tuesday. The coffin will then be flown to London where it will lie in state at Westminster Hall before moving to Westminster Abbey for the state funeral.
Elizabeth will be interred in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, alongside her parents, sister Princess Margaret, and her late husband Prince Philip, who died 17 months before her, aged 99.
Charles has declared a “bank holiday” on the day, meaning most businesses will close and many will have a day off to view the service.
Princess Anne, the late monarch’s only daughter, curtseyed as the coffin arrived Sunday at Holyroodhouse, the official palace when the monarch is in Scotland. Princes Andrew and Edward also viewed its arrival, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier Sunday, Anne, the princess royal, and her husband Sir Tim Laurence, accompanied the coffin on a six-hour procession from Balmoral Castle, where Elizabeth died on Thursday afternoon.
The late queen was on her annual summer holiday at the residence, long a favorite of hers.
Silence fell on the Edinburgh strand known as the Royal Mile, where people stood 10 deep in some places, as the cortege passed. It had earlier traveled through towns, rural roads and over bridges past crowds of mourners.
