On 19 September 2022, Westminster Abbey hosted the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. 19 September 2026 marks four years since that day. The Queen had died at Balmoral Castle on 8 September 2022, aged 96, after a reign of more than 70 years. Her eldest son immediately became King Charles III.

In the days between the death and the funeral, the coffin travelled from Scotland to London and lay in state in Westminster Hall. The public formed long queues to pay last respects. The Abbey service, set for 11 a.m., brought together the Royal Family, British leaders, heads of state, monarchs and Commonwealth representatives. The day was a bank holiday in the United Kingdom.

The coffin was borne from the Palace of Westminster to the Abbey on the Royal Navy’s State Gun Carriage. After the service came a procession through London and then the journey to Windsor. Those stages are distinct: the state service, the cortege and the chapel ceremony are not the same event.

At 4 p.m., St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle hosted the committal service. That evening a private burial took place in the King George VI Memorial Chapel. Elizabeth II was laid to rest alongside her husband, Prince Philip, and her parents. Prince Philip’s remains, temporarily interred after his 2021 funeral, were moved to the same chapel.

The funeral closed the national mourning period and made visible the transition to a new reign. It should not be confused with the proclamation of the King or with the 2023 coronation. The four-year anniversary concerns a day of public commemoration, not a balance sheet of the entire reign.

The west front of Westminster Abbey, photographed in another year, illustrates the place of the state service, not the procession of 19 September 2022. The image does not replace the orders of service published by the Royal Household and the Abbey.

Image: Philip Pankhurst / geograph.org.uk / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. West front of Westminster Abbey. Photograph of the state-funeral setting, not from the procession of 19 September 2022. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: The State Funeral for Her Majesty The Queen | The Royal Family; The State Funeral | Westminster Abbey; Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II | GOV.UK.