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Lying in state: A royal tradition which dates back to the 17th century

Lying in state: A royal tradition which dates back to the 17th century
Lying in state is usually reserved for sovereigns, current or past queen consorts, and sometimes former prime ministers (Picture: Getty)

Hundreds of thousands of mourners have been heading into London to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II.

Herr Majesty is lying in state at Westminster Hall, where a steady stream of people will continue to file past 24 hours a day until 6.30am on Monday, the day of her funeral.

Lying in state is usually reserved for sovereigns, current or past queen consorts, and sometimes former prime ministers.

For a royal lying in state, the coffin is draped in a royal flag, usually a personal standard, and rests on a catafalque – a raised platform covered with a purple cloth, flanked by a military guard around the clock.

A priceless crown and other regalia are traditionally placed on top of a sovereign’s coffin.

Elizabeth II’s casket is draped with a Royal Standard and adorned with the Imperial State Crown.

Each corner of the platform will be guarded at all hours by units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London.

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 14: A general view as King Charles III, Princess Anne, Princess Royal and Camilla, Queen Consort view the coffin carrying Queen Elizabeth II being laid to rest in Westminster Hall for the Lying-in State on September 14, 2022 in London, England. Queen Elizabeth II's coffin is taken in procession on a Gun Carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she will lay in state until the early morning of her funeral. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
King Charles III, Princess Anne, and Camilla, Queen Consort, view the coffin carrying Queen Elizabeth II being laid to rest in Westminster Hall (Picture: Getty)
Procession with the coffin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth arrives at Westminster Hall from Buckingham Palace for her lying in state, in London, Britain, September 14, 2022. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Pool
The procession arrives at Westminster Hall from Buckingham Palace (Picture: Reuters)
The Coffin Carrying Queen Elizabeth II Is Transferred From Buckingham Palace To The Palace Of Westminster
Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is draped in the Royal Standard and bearing the Imperial State Crown (Picture: Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 14: A general view as the coffin carrying Queen Elizabeth II rests in Westminster Hall for the Lying-in State on September 14, 2022 in London, England. Queen Elizabeth II's coffin is taken in procession on a Gun Carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she will lay in state until the early morning of her funeral. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The Royal Family follow the coffin into Westminster Hall (Picture: Getty)
People queue to pay their respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II during the Lying-in State, at Westminster Hall in London, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. The Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four full days before her funeral on Monday Sept. 19. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People queue to pay their respects (Picture: AP)
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/Shutterstock (13391574k) Mourners are queuing opposite the UK Parliament for the Lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster. Authorities expected the queue for the Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster to be 10 miles long into Bermondsey and attract a million people. The UK Government has released a tracker to tell the public how long the queue will take. Long queues to view Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II in London, UK - 14 Sept 2022
The queue is stretching on for miles (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/Shutterstock (13391574l) Mourners are queuing at Southbank for the Lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster. Authorities expected the queue for the Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster to be 10 miles long into Bermondsey and attract a million people. The UK Government has released a tracker to tell the public how long the queue will take. Long queues to view Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II in London, UK - 14 Sept 2022
Hundreds of thousands are expected to file past (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/Shutterstock (13391574j) Mourners are queuing opposite the UK Parliament for the Lying-in-state of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster. Authorities expected the queue for the Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Westminster to be 10 miles long into Bermondsey and attract a million people. The UK Government has released a tracker to tell the public how long the queue will take. Long queues to view Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth II in London, UK - 14 Sept 2022
The line passes landmarks right across central London (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

The last person to lie in state in the UK was the Queen Mother in 2002.

On top of her coffin in Westminster Hall was her coronation crown, set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond, and a hand-written message from her daughter, the Queen, reading: ‘In loving memory, Lilibet.’

An estimated 200,000 people turned out to pay their respects over three days.

It was the first lying in state where members of the public were subjected to a security check, which slowed the movement of the mourners.

At their longest, queues stretched across Lambeth Bridge and all the way along the South Bank to Southwark Cathedral, with people being warned to expect a wait of up to 12 hours at peak times.

Police were drafted in to deal with the security, large crowds and road closures.

Such were the numbers of people waiting that Scout volunteers were called in to help out and the London Ambulance Service issued warnings to people to wrap up warm and take a hot drink.

Prince Charles (C) and his brother Edward (L) stand vigil beside the Queen Mother's coffin while it lies-in-state at Westminster Hall in London 08 April 2002. The funeral ceremony will be held at Westminster Abbey 09 April. AFP PHOTO Adrian DENNIS WPA POOL (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Then Prince Charles and his brother Edward stand vigil beside the Queen Mother’s coffin lying in state at Westminster Hall (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
The Queen Mother waves to well-wishers during the celebration of her 90th birthday (Picture: Getty Images)
The Queen Mother waves to well-wishers during the celebration of her 90th birthday (Picture: Getty Images)
The British Royal family watch as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is prepared to be carried from Westminster Abbey at the end of her funeral service 09 April 2002. After the service, the Queen Mother's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel in Windsor, where she will be laid to rest next to her husband King George VI. WPA SOLO ROTA (Photo by BEN CURTIS / EPA/SOLO ROTA / AFP) (Photo credit should read BEN CURTIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The British Royal family watch as the coffin of the Queen Mother is prepared to be carried from Westminster Abbey (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
The Queen Mother's coffin arrives at Westminster Abbey for the funeral service in London 09 April 2002.The funeral is the culmination of more than a week of mourning for the royal matriarch, who died March 30 at the age of 101. AFP PHOTO Adrian DENNIS WPA POOL (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The Queen Mother’s coffin arrives at Westminster Abbey for the funeral service (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: The Duke of Edinburgh (R) leads the Prince of Wales (C), the Duke of York (L), Prince Harry (2nd row, R) and Prince William (2nd row, C) as members of the Royal Family follow the gun carriage bearing the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in a procession from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey for the funeral ceremony in London 09 April 2002. The funeral is the culmination of more than a week of mourning for the royal matriarch, who died March 30 at the age of 101. AFP PHOTO FRANCOIS GUILLOT (Photo credit should read FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP via Getty Images)
The late Duke of Edinburgh (right) leads the procession behind the gun carriage bearing the coffin of the Queen Mother (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

The tradition of lying in state stretches back to the 17th century when Stuart sovereigns lay in state for a number of days.

Edward VII set the modern tradition of royal lying in state in Westminster Hall.

He lay in state in 1910, as did King George V in 1936 and King George VI in 1952.

George VI – the Queen’s father – was the last sovereign before Elizabeth II to die.

On top of his coffin, from the Crown Jewels, lay the Imperial State Crown, the Orb, and Sceptre.

More than 300,000 people queued day and night in bitter, frosty conditions to say their final goodbyes to the king.

1st May 1910: British monarch King Edward VII (1841 - 1910) lies in state in Buckingham Palace, London. He was succeeded by his son, King George V. (Photo by W. & D. Downey/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
King Edward VII lies in state in Buckingham Palace (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The crypt under the chancel of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the body of King Edward VII lies, 1910 (1911). From Edward VII: His Life and Times, Volume II Edited by Sir Richard Holmes, K.C.V.O., [The Amalgated Press, Ltd., London, 1911]. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)
The crypt under the chancel of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the body of King Edward VII lies (Picture: The Print Collector/Getty Images)
UNITED KINGDOM - CIRCA 1910: Funeral of the king Edward VII (1841-1910), in London (England), in may 1910. The king George V, the emperor William II and the duke de Connaught. (Photo by Branger/Roger Viollet via Getty Images)
Funeral of King Edward VII (Picture: Roger Viollet via Getty Images)
The crowd waiting to pass by King George V's catafalque in Westminster Hall, London, January 1936. Illustration from George V and Edward VIII, A Royal Souvenir, by FGH Salusbury, a souvenir book published as Edward VIII was crowned following the death of his father, George V, (Daily Express Publication, London, 1936). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
The crowd waiting to pass by King George V’s catafalque in Westminster Hall (Picture: Print Collector/Getty Images)
King George V lying in state in Westminster Hall, London, January 1936. The King's four sons, the future King Edward VIII, the Duke of York (the future King George VI), Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Prince George, Duke of Kent, mounted the guard at the catafalque on the night before the funeral as a mark of respect to their father. Illustration from George V and Edward VIII, A Royal Souvenir, by FGH Salusbury, a souvenir book published as Edward VIII was crowned following the death of his father, George V, (Daily Express Publication, London, 1936). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
King George V lying in state in Westminster Hall (Picture: Print Collector/Getty Images)
Photograph taken during the burial of King George V (1865-1936) at Westminster Abbey. Dated 20th Century. (Photo by: Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Photograph taken during the burial of King George V at Westminster Abbey (Picture: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
King Edward VIII and his three brothers follow the gun carriage', 1936. From The Sphere - The Funeral of King George V. (The Sphere, London, 1936). (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)
King Edward VIII and his three brothers follow the gun carriage during the funeral of King George V (Picture: Print Collector/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria requested that she should not lie in state.

When she died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in 1901, a semi-private lying in state was arranged for three days to allow Victoria’s servants and friends to pay their respects.

Two prime ministers – William Gladstone in 1898 and Sir Winston Churchill in 1965 – also lay in state at Westminster Hall, attracting hundreds of thousands of people.

Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, insisted she did not want to lie in state, saying that it would not be ‘appropriate’.

Just like the Queen Mother, Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, also lay in state when she died in 1953.

The widow of Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, lay in state in 1925, but in Westminster Abbey, not Westminster Hall.

There was even a lying in state for the abdicated Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, who lay in state for two days in the nave of St George’s Chapel when he died in 1972.

Some 58,000 people turned out to see his coffin.

(Original Caption) Londoners read the news of the death of 56 year-old King George VI of Great Britain, who succumbed peacefully in his sleep in his country home at Sandringham early on February 6th. The Monarch had planned to take a cruise in March.
Londoners read the news of the death of 56 year-old King George VI (Picture: Bettmann Archive)
The coffin of King George VI, draped in a Royal Standard and guarded by workers from the Sandringham estate, in the little Church of St Mary Magdalene in the grounds of Sandringham House. Standing in front are keeper William Clarke (left) and head keeper Edward Dodds.
The coffin of King George VI, draped in a Royal Standard and guarded by workers from the Sandringham estate, in the little Church of St Mary Magdalene in the grounds of Sandringham (Picture: PA)
February 1952: The coffin of King George VI of Great Britain (1895 - 1952) at Westminster Hall guarded by Horse Guards and Beefeaters. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The coffin of King George VI guarded by Horse Guards and Beefeaters (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
15th February 1952: The coffin of King George VI lies on a gun carriage drawn by naval officers, and accompanied by men of the Household Cavalry. On top of the royal standard are the symbols of royalty - a crown, sceptre and orb. The procession is passing along St James' Street en route to Paddington Station, before being transported to Windsor Castle for the funeral. (Photo by Derek Berwin/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
The coffin of King George VI lies on a gun carriage drawn by naval officers (Picture: Fox Photos/Getty Images)
11th February 1952: The cortege of King George VI in Parliament Square, London, en route for Westminster Hall where the King will lie in state before his funeral. The Dukes of Gloucester and Edinburgh are walking behind his coffin, carried on a gun carriage. (Photo by PNA Rota/Getty Images)
King George VI’s cortege in Parliament Square (Picture: PNA Rota/Getty Images)

But there was no lying in state for Diana, Princess of Wales, who was not an HRH when she died, nor a sovereign’s consort.

In 1930, there was an unusual lying in state in Westminster Hall for the victims of the R101 Airship disaster.

The experimental rigid British airship caught fire as it crossed northern France, killing 48 of the 54 people on board.

The House of Commons was in recess at the time, and the decision to arrange the lying in state for the 48 coffins seems to have been taken by the King, George V, on the advice of ministers.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 12: King Charles III, Prince Edward, Duke of Wessex, Princess Anne, Princes Royal and Prince Andrew, Duke of York hold a vigil at St Giles' Cathedral, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II as members of the public walk past on September 12, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Queen???s four children attend to stand vigil over her coffin where it lies in rest for 24 hours before being transferred by air to London. (Photo by Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
King Charles III, Prince Edward, Duke of Wessex, Princess Anne, Princes Royal and Prince Andrew, Duke of York hold a vigil at St Giles’ Cathedral (Picture: Getty)

The Queen’s children honoured her by joining the guard over the coffin – a tradition which has been called the Vigil of the Princes.

This has happened on two occasions.

The Queen Mother’s four grandsons – the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and Viscount Linley, now the Earl of Snowdon – stood guard over her coffin in her honour in 2002 as people continued to walk through Westminster Hall.

King George V’s sons – Edward VIII, the Duke of York (later George VI), Henry, Duke of Gloucester and George, Duke of Kent – carried out the first such tribute in 1936 for their father, late in the evening on the final night of his lying in state.

Previously, the vigil had only been carried out by male members of the family.

Funeral of King George V (1936), King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. the four sons of the late king (King Edward VIII, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent) take stand guard at Westminster Hall, London. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The four sons of the late King George V, King Edward VIII, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, stand guard at Westminster Hall (Picture: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Britain's Princess Anne and other members of the royal family hold a vigil at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland, Monday Sept. 12, 2022, as members of the public walk past. (Jane Barlow/Pool via AP)
Princess Anne is the first female royal to take part in the Vigil of the Princes (Picture: AP)

The Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, became the first female member of the royal family to take part in the tribute while the coffin lay at rest at Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral.

She is expected to do so again when the ritual is repeated at Westminster Hall on Friday evening.

There was no such vigil for George VI – when he died, he had two daughters and his grandchildren were very young.

Westminster Hall, which dates back to 1099, is the oldest part of the parliamentary estate and forms part of the Westminster Unesco World Heritage Site.

The building has been the site of key events throughout history, such as the trial of Charles I, coronation banquets, and addresses by world leaders.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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