Rise of Australia

Chapter 55 The Funeral Begins

On November 1900, 11, Queen Victoria's funeral, which had been prepared for a long time, finally began grandly.

As a highly prestigious former British monarch, Queen Victoria had extremely detailed arrangements for her funeral, and Edward also allowed all of these arrangements.

One of the more personal characteristics is that Queen Victoria specifically requested that all people attending the funeral should have white elements, and even the horses at the funeral should be covered with white cloth.

This of course also includes the protagonist of this funeral, Queen Victoria.The Queen is wearing a white wedding dress and a white veil covering her head, which symbolizes the Queen's loyalty to love and marriage.

In order to comply with Queen Victoria's will, William II, Edward, Arthur, Princess Beatrice and the queen's confidant James Reed, as well as three loyal servants, respectively located on the head and sides of the queen's body, placed the queen Lift it gently into the coffin.

This is not an easy job, because Queen Victoria has passed away for a month, even though the body is well protected, Arthur and others must be very careful when carrying it, so as not to cause unnecessary damage to the Queen's body. destroy.

The oversized sarcophagus belonging to Queen Victoria was covered with thick charcoal and then covered with Prince Albert's nightgown.

Even though Prince Albert has passed away for more than 40 years, Queen Victoria still keeps her husband's nightgown, which is enough to show how deep the love between the prince and queen is.

Queen Victoria also has special instructions for the place next to the funeral objects.Unlike other monarchs who like to put a lot of jewelry and gold coins, Queen Victoria's funeral is just his favorite shawl handkerchiefs, rings, books and small things such as photos, jewelry boxes and bracelets.

After enjoying a luxurious life for most of her life, what Queen Victoria wanted after her death was not extreme luxury, but warmth and memories as much as possible.Although the value of each funeral object may not be too high, it has special meaning to Queen Victoria.

Bereaved her father in her childhood, her husband in her middle age, her son in her old age, and all the tragic situations in her life were encountered by Queen Victoria.

Combined with the British hegemony in the Victorian era, various deeds pushed this great queen to the point of legend.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Queen Victoria's funeral officially began in London.

Long before Queen Victoria's state funeral, royal families and high-level officials from European countries and countries around the world have also arrived at Westminster Abbey, also known as Westminster Abbey.

Before the funeral, Westminster Abbey specially rang the bell for Queen Victoria 81 times to commemorate Queen Victoria's 81-year-old legendary life.

Due to Queen Victoria's request for a militarized funeral, the queen's coffin was carried on a gun carriage before the funeral began, and hundreds of soldiers from the Royal Navy pulled the gun carriage.

Originally arranged according to Queen Victoria's will, the gun carriage should be pulled by eight white army horses.

But under Arthur's proposal, hundreds of Royal Navy soldiers were used to pull the gun carriage instead.

The reason why Edward VII and British officials agreed was that doing so would strengthen the sense of ceremony of the entire funeral, at least the grandeur and human touch would be stronger than that of carriages.

Initiated by Queen Victoria, the coffin was placed on a cannon cart and pulled by soldiers. After that, it became a high-standard royal tradition.

In the original history, another Queen Elizabeth, who reigned for a longer time, also reproduced the burial method of Queen Victoria.

As the gun carriage containing the coffin was slowly escorted by naval soldiers to Westminster Abbey, countless British people along the way sent their high respect and infinite blessings to the great queen.

Although the entire funeral route was only a few kilometers long, the cannon carriage walked for more than two hours in order to allow Queen Victoria to be watched by more people.

A kind of senior royal family members such as Edward VII and Arthur walked behind Queen Victoria's coffin and followed the cannon carriage parade, also sending Queen Victoria for the last time.

At this time, both Edward VII and Arthur were dressed in military uniforms, covered with medals and honors of their countries.

But Arthur's heart was very heavy at this time. After losing Queen Victoria, perhaps the only thing Arthur could rely on was himself.

Although Princess Louise and the two younger sisters also cared about Arthur very much, they could only give Arthur spiritual comfort at best, but they couldn't help Arthur at all.

At eleven o'clock at noon, Queen Victoria's coffin officially arrived at Westminster Abbey, and the state funeral ceremony officially began.

Nearly a thousand guests attended the ceremony, many of whom included high-level leaders and royal families from various countries.

First, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the Queen's achievements, and praised her for following the example of Christ and serving the country and the people all her life.

Because Queen Victoria's achievements are indeed impressive, there are indeed many words of praise for Queen Victoria, including the rise of the British Empire to become the strongest in the world, the spread of Britain's territory around the world, the establishment of the Indian Empire and other honors.

British Prime Minister Robert also read a passage from the Gospel of John in the Bible at the funeral.

A three-minute silence was then observed in honor of Queen Victoria, followed by a moment of silence across the British Empire.

This moment has already been determined, starting from 11:29 noon on November 55, and the silence will last until 58, and any colonies and regions will do so at the same time.

At the end of the ceremony, the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" was played in the church, and the state funeral ceremony was also declared over.

After this, Queen Victoria's coffin will be moved to Wellington Arch in the southeast corner of Hyde Park in London, and from there to Windsor Castle for burial.

Queen Victoria's coffin team is quite large, the entire team has more than 2000 soldiers and hundreds of civil society personnel.

Because Queen Victoria's prestige in Britain is indeed not low, soldiers and police are on both sides of the line to maintain order.

Big Ben is called every 1 minute. In the slow bells, the coffin of Queen Victoria accompanied the parade slowly through the streets of the capital, passing through rows of mourners, stretching over One mile, set off to Windsor Castle mightily.

After arriving at Wellington Arch, Queen Victoria's coffin was transferred to the new State Hearse, before heading straight to Windsor Castle.

At this time, the number of British people who came to see them off was the largest.Because the coffin arrived at Windsor Castle, ordinary people were not eligible to enter.

Therefore, the journey from Wellington Arch to Windsor Castle is also the last moment for all British people to see Queen Victoria's remains.

As the hearse passed the street, the frantic and mourning crowd threw flowers at the carriage and applauded.

People are reluctant to part with the queen, but they have to accept the queen's departure.Therefore, people can only crazily express their lofty respect to Queen Victoria. The bunches of flowers thrown at the hearse also represent Queen Victoria's status in the hearts of the British people.

You know, because of the end of Queen Victoria's funeral, the price of flowers in London has risen.

Under such circumstances, people bought bouquets of flowers just to throw them at the procession when the queen's coffin passed by, which was enough to show Queen Victoria's status and popular support in Britain.

　To say a few words, the details of the funeral are indeed difficult to find out, because many of them have been lost for a long time.Therefore, part of the material in this chapter refers to Queen Elizabeth's funeral.

　　In addition, I saw some book friends talking about the name of Windsor Castle. In fact, the name of Windsor is the name of Windsor Castle used by the British royal family.Finally, kneel down for support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)