Philip’s aides have long said that he has adamantly insisted that he doesn’t want the ‘fuss’ of lying-in-state or a full state funeral.
Although Philip would undoubtedly be entitled to a full state funeral like that bestowed on Margaret Thatcher or The Queen Mother, it’s the last thing he wants.
The Queen would prefer Philip’s service to the nation to be celebrated with a state funeral, but will not go against her husband’s wishes.
Instead of being placed in Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament, his body is expected to lie in St James’s Palace where Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid for several days after her death in 1997.
The public will not be allowed to view the body.
He will be buried quietly in Frogmore Gardens in the grounds of Windsor Castle after a service for family and friends, including some Commonwealth countries’ heads of state at St George’s Chapel in the castle.
The Queen will enter an official period of mourning, believed to be eight days, during which she will stop work. Laws will not be given the Royal Assent, and affairs of state will be paused out of respect for her consort. After a further period of official Royal Mourning is over 30 days later, it is widely believed that Elizabeth, unlike Queen Victoria, who locked herself away in Balmoral after Albert’s death and was infrequently seen again, will resume public duties and engagements and things will carry on as normal—outwardly at least. But the private mourning, her friends and courtiers concede, will last the rest of her life.