Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022): Scotland Says Goodbye to the Queen (Published 2022) (2024)

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No bears or balloons as tributes to the queen, please. And skip the marmalade sandwiches, too.

The charity, Royal Parks, asks well-wishers to bring only “organic or compostable material” to the designated site for tributes to the queen, in Green Park near Buckingham Palace.

Mourners have already contributed stuffed Paddington Bears, a marmalade sandwich in a plastic bag, a tea set, rubber ducks shaped like the queen and plastic flamingos outside the palace, all in honor of the late monarch.

Paddington is an especially popular tribute because of a video released around the time of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in June, in which the queen and the bear have tea and discuss keeping marmalade sandwiches on hand for emergencies. (He keeps one in his hat; she, supposedly, kept one in her purse.)

But Royal Parks says mourners should choose their tributes “in the interests of sustainability.” Any form of floral tribute is acceptable, but wrappings should be removed and put in the trash, the charity said.

“Removing the wrapping will aid the longevity of the flowers and will assist in subsequent composting,” the charity said.

As for candles, Royal Parks advises: “It will not be possible to light candles in the parks. Lit candles will be extinguished and periodically removed.”

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What is a constitutional monarchy?

For some foreign observers, that has raised the question: How can you have a constitutional monarchy when you don’t have a written Constitution?

While Britain does not have a single constitutional document like the one ratified by the United States in 1788 — or the one rejected by Chilean voters earlier this month — it still has laws and carefully documented traditions that together form a Constitution, one that binds the king.

These rules have accumulated in centuries of legislation and a surrounding mass of convention. (The explanation of Britain’s constitutional monarchy provided by the House of Lords Library begins with Magna Carta in 1215, and the initial restraints on royal power, and continues though a thicket of legal dates to 1701, when Parliament intervened in the royal succession.)

Together, they make the king a constitutional monarch: an embodiment of power and statehood with no personal public role in politics, and tight constraints even on private influence.

Charles acknowledged those conventions to lawmakers by beginning with praise of “vital parliamentary traditions,” linking them to the vaulted medieval timber roof of Westminster Hall, the parliamentary building in which he spoke.

Constitutional traditions came under some strain in Parliament in recent years, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to drive through his legislation on leaving the European Union. One use of executive powers, a weekslong suspension of Parliament, drew a rebuke from Britain’s Supreme Court.

“Our constitution basically depends on very British sentiments of decency and fair play, and it assumes people who reach high office will respect conventions, precedents and unwritten rules,” Professor Meg Russell, the director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, told The Times in 2019.

The queen, by contrast, maintained the popularity of the monarchy in part by what her son described to lawmakers on Monday as “unsurpassed devotion” to a tradition of restraint.

That’s one reason that Charles raised eyebrows in his long decades as Prince of Wales. He publicly championed what might otherwise have seemed an innocuous set of causes: the environment, organic farming, complementary medicine, traditional architecture. He touched on the matter in his very first address as monarch last week, saying: “It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply.”

He would leave all that, he said, “in the trusted hands of others.” After the example of his mother, it may be what the British Constitution has come to require.

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New Zealand will probably be a republic one day, but not now, its leader says.

“King Charles has long had an affection for Aotearoa New Zealand and has consistently demonstrated his deep care for our nation,” using the Maori and English names for the country at a proclamation ceremony for the new head of state. That relationship is “deeply valued by our people,” she said, and added: “I have no doubt it will deepen.”

New Zealand has had few publicly republican leaders before Ms. Ardern. But she is unlikely to shepherd in a referendum on the matter. “I believe it’s likely to occur in my lifetime, but I don’t see it as a short-term measure or anything that is on the agenda anytime soon,” she said on Monday, citing a lack of “urgency.”

Former British colonies around the world have begun to re-examine their relationship with the monarchy in the wake of the queen’s death. On Saturday, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda announced plans to hold a referendum on becoming a republic within three years. That follows in the footsteps of another Caribbean nation, Barbados, which last year voted to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

“This is a matter that has to be taken to a referendum for the people to decide,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda said. Charles III serves as head of state for 15 countries, including Britain.

In New Zealand, there appears to be little public appetite for a major constitutional change away from the monarchy. In a 2021 poll, just one third of New Zealanders surveyed said they would support abandoning the country’s ties to the royal family, while a proposal in 2016 to remove the Union Jack from New Zealand’s flag was roundly defeated.

New Zealand’s Indigenous population has a complex relationship with the British monarchy. In 1840, Maori chiefs joined with representatives of the British monarchy to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, a legal document that has played a key role in the relationship between New Zealand’s government and the Maori population. “They’ve always seen the monarch as the other partner in the Treaty of Waitangi, so that relationship has always been important,” said Jock Phillips, a New Zealand historian.

Earlier this year, Te Pati Maori, a minority party that seeks to represent the interests of New Zealand’s Indigenous population, called for the British royal family to be removed as head of state.

“This is an opportunity to rebalance the scales of power,” Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the party, said at the time.

Republicanism is more entrenched in Australia, which has a larger population of Irish descent, Dr. Phillips said, and it was hard to know what might bring on a more active debate in New Zealand. “If Australia were to become a republic, I think that would precipitate a much more intense discussion,” he said.

There is some evidence that public sentiment is shifting. During her reign, the queen made 10 visits to New Zealand: In 1953, her first visit to the country, some 75 percent of New Zealanders made an effort to see her. In her most recent trip in 2002, those crowds had dwindled, Dr. Phillips said. “We’re simply not that tied into Britain,” he said.

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Prince Andrew will join memorial ceremonies, but not in military uniform.

The palace said Andrew, who served in the Royal Navy during the 1982 Falklands War, would wear a uniform in the final vigil for the queen, held at Westminster Hall, “as a special mark of respect.”

Officials did not say whether Prince Harry would wear civilian dress. He stopped being a working member of the family when he and his wife, Meghan, moved to Southern California in 2020.

Andrew settled a sex abuse lawsuit brought against him by a woman who said she was trafficked to him by Mr. Epstein, who committed suicide in 2019. The palace stripped Andrew of his honorary military titles and royal charities.

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In Edinburgh, mourners gathered from the early hours.

After attending a religious service at the cathedral, the king is scheduled to hold an audience with Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and will then receive condolences in the nearby Scottish Parliament.

The queen’s coffin will remain in the cathedral until Tuesday afternoon, when it will be flown to London. That allows people in Edinburgh a little under 24 hours to pay their respects and large numbers are expected to stand in line to do so.

Mourners will be asked not to linger in front of the coffin to allow the maximum number to pass through the cathedral.

In a doorway opposite the cathedral, Marisa Ippolito, a travel counselor from Biggar, about an hour’s drive south of Edinburgh, said that she had arrived at 1 a.m. to identify a place to stand and then returned at around 8 a.m., by which time it had been filled.

“Scotland loved her and she was our queen. My belief is that the queen chose Balmoral to spend her last days,” said Ms. Ippolito, referring to the country estate where the queen spent her summer vacations and where she died last week.

“I believe that she had an ulterior motive to unite the country and that she wanted to spend her last days in Scotland, which she loves to so because she wants to maintain the union,” added Ms. Ippolito.

Callie Waddle, age 10, from Kilmarnock in western Scotland, said she had arrived before 5.30 a.m., persuaded by her father to witness a moment of history. “I came to show some respect to the queen,” she added.

Mandy Geens, from Solihull in central England, was visiting her daughter at university but extended her stay to take part in the events and, hopefully, to pay her respects in person. “She was everyone’s favorite grandmother and I will miss her smile. We feel honored to be here, I said to my husband it was probably fate that we were here at this moment,” she added.

King Charles addresses Parliament, promising to uphold Britain’s Constitution.

The ceremony showcased the harmonious and occasionally fraught intersection of British royalty and government. There were expressions of fealty from Parliament to the king and a reciprocal pledge by him to abide by the limits of his constitutional role, which stipulates that he remain above politics.

But the speaker of the House, Lindsay Hoyle, made a wry allusion to more turbulent times. King Charles I was tried on charges of tyranny and treason in Westminster Hall in 1649, and outside it stands a statue of Oliver Cromwell, who led armies on Parliament’s behalf against Charles in the English Civil War and went on to rule the country as lord protector.

“It is perhaps very British,” Mr. Hoyle said, to take note of revolutions in a formal statement to the monarch. That drew a faint smile from the king.

Charles struck a more poignant note, paying tribute to the queen, whom he said was a “pattern to all princes living,” quoting from Shakespeare. He referred to her constancy, symbolized by a stained-glass window that was installed to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

“While very young, her late majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lie at the heart of our nation,” the king said.

“This vow, she kept with unsurpassed devotion,” Charles said. “She set an example of selfless duty which with God’s help and your counsels I am resolved faithfully to follow.”

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Prince Harry pays tribute to ‘Granny,’ saying thanks for her ‘infectious smile’ and ‘sound advice.’

Writing largely as if speaking directly to the queen, Harry, 37, said he was grateful for the time he had spent with her, “from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my commander in chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved great-grandchildren.”

He continued: “I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over.”

Harry and his wife, Meghan, the duch*ess of Sussex, have had a strained relationship with the royal family, particularly since they stepped back from royal duties in 2020. But Harry was said to have remained close with the queen; the couple, who named their daughter Lilibet after her childhood nickname, paid her a surprise visit in April.

In what was widely perceived as an olive-branch moment, Harry and Meghan made a rare joint appearance on Saturday with William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales, as the two brothers and their wives greeted crowds outside Windsor Palace.

Harry’s full statement is below.

In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen — and in mourning her loss — we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty. She was globally admired and respected. Her unwavering grace and dignity remained true throughout her life and now her everlasting legacy. Let us echo the words she spoke after the passing of her husband, Prince Philip, words which can bring comfort to all of us now: “Life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.”

Granny, while this final parting brings us great sadness, I am forever grateful for all of our first meetings — from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my commander in chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved great-grandchildren. I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over. And as it comes to first meetings, we now honor my father in his new role as King Charles III.

Thank you for your commitment to service. Thank you for your sound advice. Thank you for your infectious smile.

We, too, smile knowing that you and grandpa are reunited now, and both together in peace.

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Anti-monarchists tread lightly after queen’s death, but their goal persists.

Normal business then tentatively resumed on Saturday, when Republic criticized King Charles III’s formal accession to the throne as undemocratic, while still expressing “every sympathy for King Charles” as he mourned his mother.

“It’s just a sensible thing to do, really,” said Graham Smith, Republic’s chief executive. “Let all this run its course, and we will get into the more serious things later.”

This is the careful line that Britain’s leading anti-monarchists, known as republicans, believe they must tread in the early days of the new reign — balancing long-term opportunity with short-term pitfalls.

Polling shows that Britons are far less enamored with Charles than with his mother, providing republican campaigners with their biggest chance to build momentum in a quarter-century. But they are wary of alienating potential supporters by appearing to be unmoved by the outpouring of grief for the queen.

The United Kingdom or the nation that dominates it, England, has been led by a hereditary monarchy for more than nine centuries, barring a brief period of republican rule in the 1600s.

While monarchs gradually ceded governing power to Parliament over the centuries, it still governs in the monarch’s name, and the king or queen still plays a significant if almost entirely symbolic role in important British functions: the transition from one government to another, the administration of the Church of England and the judicial system.

Republican campaigners want to change all of that — by replacing a hereditary king or queen with an elected president.

Since the end of the short-lived British republic in 1660, the concept has rarely, if ever, attracted significant popular support, but it has had its moments. Thomas Paine, the anti-monarchist philosopher whose writing helped build the intellectual underpinnings of the American Revolution, was born in Britain and wrote at least one of his major works there.

Much more recently, in 1991, Tony Benn, a prominent left-wing lawmaker, tried to get Parliament to vote to abolish the monarchy. In 2000, The Guardian newspaper led a campaign for the creation of a republic, hoping to spur public debate.

Both efforts failed. And for years, campaigners have known that the accession of King Charles — more awkward and opinionated than his mother, and less popular — would represent their best chance of garnering support for their cause.

Polling in May showed that Charles’s national approval rating stood at 65 percent, 21 points lower than the queen’s.

Charles has “neither the kind of celebrity, the kind of charisma or the kind of authority of years that Elizabeth had,” said David Edgerton, a historian of 20th-century British history.

For now, most British republicans are biding their time.

One protester disrupted a proclamation on Sunday in Oxford about the king’s accession, leading to his arrest, while another was arrested in Edinburgh in a separate incident. But republicans have otherwise mostly left the streets to the thousands of mourners and well-wishers.

The Green Party, one of the few British political parties to include opposition to the monarchy’s political role in its manifesto, called the queen’s death “a moment of great sadness for our nation,” avoiding any hint of criticism.

Opponents of the monarchy who have taken a less diplomatic position — criticizing the public for falling victim to establishment groupthink, for example — have been called out by other republicans for estranging would-be allies. “A republicanism that has no faith in the public is no republicanism at all,” wrote one columnist in Spiked, a libertarian online magazine that opposes the monarchy but often takes potshots at what it often sees as the “woke left.”

Still, some see an opportunity once the queen is buried and the public’s focus shifts to Charles.

“We will be campaigning pretty hard from not long after the funeral through to the coronation,” said Mr. Smith, the head of Republic. The queen, he said, was a “heat-shield that deflected a lot of criticism, and you just don’t get that with Charles.”

“It’s going to be a very much easier campaign to run,” Mr. Smith added.

While the queen was generally seen as a paragon of personal virtue, Charles’s judgment and propriety has been the subject of perpetual scrutiny from his time as a young prince even up until a few months ago.

Among other controversies, the police announced an investigation in February into allegations that one of Charles’s charities offered to help secure a knighthood and citizenship for a Saudi businessman, in exchange for a large donation. Charles’s spokesman said the royal had been unaware of any deal, and a top aide stepped down under pressure over the transaction.

Charles is also remembered for his fractious divorce during the 1990s from his first wife, Diana, in which the news media often presented him as cold and distant. The public has largely moved on, as has Charles with his second marriage to Camilla, now the queen consort, but the impression that the split created has not entirely dissipated.

Republicanism is also rising among a younger generation of Britons. An estimated 41 percent of Britons 18 to 25 said they wanted an elected head of state, according to polling from 2021 — 15 points higher than in 2019.

Demand for a republic has remained fairly static for decades — the most recent polling suggested nearly 70 percent of Britons support a monarchy, about the same as in the early 1990s.

But some commentators and historians believe that public backing for the monarchy is based less on a strong belief in the institution than on affection for the queen herself — giving republicans a glimmer of hope that they can swing opinion their way.

Much of the current grief for the queen “is a reflection of her particular contribution to the nation and longevity of her reign,” said Professor Edgerton, the historian. “It’s not a reaffirmation of the essence of the hereditary principle or an aristocratic principle — or even, actually, the notion of a constitutional monarchy.”

Part of the queen’s appeal was in the opacity of her beliefs, said Laura Clancy, who researches the public image of the royal family at the University of Lancaster.

The queen revealed little about her personal opinions, creating an aura of mystery about her core beliefs, allowing others to project onto her whatever views they hoped she might hold. Before and after Britain’s exit from the European Union, the inscrutability of the queen’s own position allowed both supporters and critics of Brexit to claim her as their own.

“You couldn’t possibly do that with Charles,” Dr. Clancy said. “Because we know what he thinks about lots of things.”

Charles’s views on architecture, aesthetics and the environment are widely reported. He is seen by some as a meddler, achieving notoriety for sending handwritten messages to government ministers about political matters — messages known as “black spider” letters because of the messiness of his handwriting and the black ink of his pen.

But even if Charles’s accession offers a chance for republicans to construct a different narrative about monarchy, commentators and campaigners say that any success will be slow.

The ruling Conservative Party strongly supports the monarchy. The Labour Party, the largest opposition group, contains prominent republicans, but an elected head of state is not a priority for the party, let alone official policy. Under Keir Starmer, the current Labour leader, the party has sought to build a reputation of sobriety and respect for tradition — an effort that would be undermined by pushing for major constitutional change.

A British republic is still a “very long way off,” Dr. Clancy said. Instead, Charles’s accession offers the chance for a slight shift in discourse.

“Talking about Republicanism in the U.K. is still, actually, quite taboo,” Dr. Clancy said. “Is there going to be a moment when it becomes less taboo? That’s what I feel like is coming.”

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Official guidance for mourners: Warm clothes, no teddy bears and practice common sense.

The palace will open to mourners at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and stay open continuously for more than four days.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected, and the warnings and guidelines the authorities have offered are similar to those issued before top soccer matches or major concerts.

“You will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down as the queue will be continuously moving,” the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport warned in a statement early Monday. The Times of London predicted a five-mile line and a 20-hour wait.

The official statement said the queen’s closed coffin would rest on a raised platform, called a catafalque, in Westminster Hall, and would be draped in the royal standard with the royal orb and scepter placed on top.

The government expects large crowds, delays on public transportation and road closures around the area. Visitors will go through airport-style security checkpoints, with a bag-drop facility and tight restrictions on what they can take in, including a ban on flowers, candles, soft toys, and photographs inside the Palace of Westminster. Other restrictions — no knives, screwdrivers or fireworks — are more common sense.

Although the weather forecast was for a dry spell in the upcoming days, the government recommended those intending to join the queue to bring warm clothes and an umbrella.

“Do not wear clothes with political or offensive slogans,” the department said in its statement. The government added that mourners should not “bring or erect gazebos or tents” and should not “light barbecues and fires.”

Similar guidance was given for mourners who planned to visit the queen’s “Lying-at-Rest” at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday and Tuesday. Official guidance published by the Scottish government advised that mourners would be issued with wristbands before walking 1.5 miles to the cathedral. “There is mixed and challenging terrain due to the nature of the Old Town including cobbles, steep incline and uneven surfaces,” it said in a statement.