What does it mean to “lie in state”?

HAVING BRIEFLY lain at rest at St Giles’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, the body of Queen Elizabeth II was moved to London on September 13th. The late monarch will now lie in state in Westminster Hall, adjacent to the Houses of Parliament, until the morning of her funeral on September 19th. The hall, which dates from the late 11th century and has hosted some of the most celebrated events in British history, including the trial of King Charles I, will be open around the clock. As many as 750,000 people are expected to file past the coffin. The queue could stretch for over ten miles, presenting Britain’s capital with one of its biggest-ever logistical headaches. In keeping with the seriousness with which Britons treat queuing, it has earned its own official designation: Operation Feather. These days will thus become the focal point for national mourning before the funeral itself. But what does it mean to lie in state, and who qualifies for it?

The ritual is observed by many countries, allowing mourners to pay their respects to a departed head of state or revered public figure. To preserve the prestige of the occasion, such events are rare. The length of time for a lying in state can vary, as does the ceremony itself. Soviet Russia’s leaders would gaze back at their mourners from an open coffin; the queen’s casket in Edinburgh was draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland and adorned by the Crown of Scotland. Over time the tradition has become more common in America: private citizens such as Rosa Parks, a civil-rights pioneer, can be honoured according to a vote by Congress, as well as former presidents. (Citizens like Parks “lie in honour” and presidents “lie in state”, but all in the rotunda of the Capitol building.) Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian racing driver killed in a crash in 1994, lay in state in São Paulo’s legislature.

In Britain, lying in state has become the preserve of sovereigns (as heads of state), their consorts and, occasionally, prime ministers. Ironically, given that the ceremony has become so closely associated with royalty, it was a commoner, William Gladstone, who started the modern tradition; the four-times prime minister was the first to lie in state in Westminster Hall, in 1898. Lying in state is usually accorded as part of a state funeral, but can also be included in a “ceremonial funeral”, one notch down in importance.

Queen Victoria, who died in 1901, requested that she be spared the public ritual, so it was her son Edward VII who became the first monarch to lie in state at Westminster, in 1910. Since then all former monarchs have done so, as did Sir Winston Churchill. After he died in early 1965, 320,000 people paid their last respects to Britain’s wartime prime minister in the bitter cold. The most recent person to lie in state was a consort, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, as part of a ceremonial funeral. She died in 2002 and about 200,000 people shuffled past her coffin over three days.

The queen’s coffin in Westminster will be draped in the Royal Standard, with the orb and sceptre, symbols of monarchical rule, on top. It will be guarded by a vigil of soldiers from the Household Cavalry and the Sovereign’s Bodyguard. Her four children are also likely to stand vigil at some point, as they did in Scotland, in a ritual known as the “Vigil of the Princes”. But that name might have to change. By doing so in Scotland, Anne, the Princess Royal, became the first woman to take part in such a vigil. Thus, in death as in life, the queen coaxes the royal family just a little bit further into the modern world, ensuring its continuing relevance and survival. ■