After Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, details are becoming public. As part of the crown she fell from the coffin in the street at her grandfather’s funeral, this time she cheated. The coronation perks were screwed.
Billions in front of the TV sets, millions on site watched the procession with the queen’s coffin from Westminster Hall to the Abbey and then on to Windsor and there to the monarch’s final resting place in the chapel.
Flowers, the crown, the orb and the scepter were enthroned in the English oak casket. PULS 24 commentators also wondered how the fragile million-dollar crown jewels remained so firmly in place, even as the eight coffin bearers lifted the monarch, moved her several times and even climbed steps.
The solution: the imperial state crown, orb and scepter were bolted together, as several English media outlets wrote a day later. It was not until St George’s Chapel in Windsor that they were removed before the closing hymn of the Mass and placed on the altar. The security measure was not accidental.
The funeral in pictures:
Bad omen of 1936
At the funeral of King George V, the Queen’s grandfather, the Maltese cross with some of the crown’s greatest jewels fell from the coffin and ended up in the gutter. A few months later, the king’s heir – Edward, the queen’s uncle – abdicated, triggering a state crisis. Some Brits say it was the bad omen of the fallen cross.