The long day devoted to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II suffered no missteps. Display of the coffin, ceremony at Westminster Abbey, procession to Wellington Arch, procession on The Long Walk… At each stage, the tributes were orchestrated to the minute, rehearsed for months, prepared for years.
Since taking office as Earl Marshal in 2002, following the death of his father, the Duke of Norfolk has built this event. “We had annual meetings in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace,” he told the Times. We started with twenty people. In April of this year we reached 280 people. I received a lot of help from Buckingham Palace staff. »
Descendant of one of Britain’s oldest aristocratic families (dating back to Edward the Confessor in the 11th century), Edward Fitzalan-Howard has a unique role among royalty. He carries on a 350-year family tradition of crowning the heads of British monarchs and organizing their funerals. His ancestors have held this post uninterruptedly since 1672. But it was not until the 20th century that the Norfolk family were entitled to their own offices at Saint-James Palace, the British newspaper The Guardian specifies.
Before him, his grandfather crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and organized Sir Winston Churchill’s state funeral in 1965. He was also responsible for the investiture of King Charles III. in charge as Prince of Wales in 1969.
A conservative who opposes abortion
At 65, Edward Fitzalan-Howard also made history by orchestrating the days after the Queen’s death on September 8 through the funeral on September 19. He will also be the coronation of Charles III. organize next year. As Count Marshal, he is also responsible for supervising the opening of the parliamentary session and the annual procession of the Order of the Garter, specifies Le Point.
Before embarking on this path, Edward Fitzalan-Howard studied at Oxford and ran a cylinder gas business. He also tried his hand at motorsport, says Sud Ouest. As the country’s eighth Grand Officer of State, he sits in the House of Lords as he does not belong to any political party and is President of the College of Arms in London. He is also a Knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta and was involved as President of the British Scouts and Guides Organisation.
Edward Fitzalan-Howard lives in Arundel Castle, West Sussex. He publicly defends conservative values that have brought him some controversy, reports Francetvinfo: he does not hide his opposition to gay marriage and abortion, and wants to preserve the male primogeniture within the aristocracy.
At the end of the day, Edward Fitzalan-Howard will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief. This funeral, the culmination of twenty years of work (unpaid, as he specifies), will remain unique in the history of the crown: if those of George VI served as a reference, the curator Duke of Norfolk nevertheless adapted to his time. It is the first time in 200 years that Westminster Abbey has held a state funeral large enough to seat 2,000 people.