The Lord Chamberlain 'breaks' his Wand of Office and places it upon the Queen's coffin to mark the end of her reign. Latest: 📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube
, with commentary from Alastair Bruce and updates from our team of correspondents in London and WindsorThe day the world's royals were content to take a bus - as organisers oversaw diplomatic minefield with aplombNever have so many foreign dignitaries and world leaders been gathered together for a single event at such short notice.
Each one would be entitled to a full state visit in their own right in ordinary times but here they were arriving as just another group of guests content to discard the distinctions of rank and status to be bussed in to take their place among many others.Earlier we had watched heads of states and governments, prime ministers and diplomats also pour out of coaches and find their places inside the abbey.
The Queen was simply the most famous person in the world and this has been the biggest international event of this century.British diplomats have worked round the clock in a command centre nicknamed the hanger.This has been many rolled into one, organised in just over a week. Logistics have been a challenge.
Politics is officially off the agenda but in numerous meetings and what diplomats call pull asides, ministers and officials will have been taking advantage of having so many allies and friends in one place. As the procession came to a halt after its short journey around Parliament Square, the Prince of Wales saluted, while his brother bowed his head, as the coffin was lifted from the gun carriage.
After the funeral ended with a rendition of the national anthem, the two brothers joined the huge procession escorting the Queen on the beginning of her final journey, marching once again behind the gun carriage as their wives followed behind in slowly-driven cars. Keen observers noticed that Harry and Princess Charlotte shared a moment during the service at St George's Chapel.Harry was then seen briefly looking up and catching her eye, before smiling at the princess.As the sun rose over Washington DC, in a pub called the Queen Vic, a group of Americans gathered to watch a moment of history; a moment with which they feel peculiarly but profoundly intertwined.
Some watched in bars on big screens, others on laptops and phones in their palms. This was a moment accessible to all. It's thought the global audience has been as many as four billion people.In France, a Paris metro station, named after her grandfather, George V, for Britain's support in World War One, was renamed for the day - Queen Elizabeth II - a reminder of history binding nations.
Around the world, sometimes despite history, but so often because of it, she was for so many the focal figure.World leaders including US President Joe Biden, President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, joined hundreds of other royals, heads of state, and rulers from across the globe for the Queen's funeral.
But the poignancy of the moment that marked the end of the ceremony at St George's Chapel, Windsor, would appear to have been what tipped some viewers over the edge. "We're just seeing members of the Royal Family going back to other parts of Windsor Castle for their private moments before they're assembled for that final service this evening.
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