Just over a week after Prince Philip‘s death, the British Royal Family will come together at Windsor Castle today for his televised funeral. For those watching in the U.S., it will begin at 10 a.m. ET, beginning with a three-minute moment of silence before a Ceremonial Procession inside the Windsor Castle ground. The service will be broadcast on CBS and CBS News, with CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King will also hosting a special report on CBS News beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Cord-cutters can watch live on Paramount+.
The Duke of Edinburgh will receive a “Ceremonial Royal Funeral,” according to Buckingham Palace. This is the same as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002. A “State Funeral” is reserved for the monarch. Philip, who died at 99, was the longest-lived male member of the British royal family. He was also the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch, having married Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.
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The coffin will leave from the State Entrance of Windsor Castle in the Quadrangle first, with members of the Royal Family following in the procession. It will then move towards St. George’s Chapel. The members of the Royal Family who will follow the coffin are Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth’s children – Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. Charles’ sons Prince William and Prince Harry will also be joining the procession, although they will notably not be walking side by side. Instead, Peter Phillips, Anne’s son, will walk between them, followed by Anne’s husband, Vice Admiral Tim Laurence, and David Armstrong-Jones, the son of the late Princess Margaret.
The funeral is expected to last about 50 minutes and will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor. After it is over, the coffin will be lowered into the vault. The Archbishop of Canterbury will say a blessing while a choir sings the British National Anthem. Queen Elizabeth II and the members of the Royal Family will then leave the chapel.
Although a royal funeral would typically have hundreds of guests, the number will be much smaller for Prince Philip’s due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Journalists and photographers will be there, but the public will not be allowed. “So, it’s a small guest list which will comprise mostly of immediate family, some extended family, and a few of Prince Philip’s closest aides, but had we not been in a pandemic… it would have been a bigger funeral than what we were expecting on Saturday with probably around 800 guests,” royal expert Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight. “So, aides will be working on reducing that guest list, crunching it down to 30, and of course it will be the queen who has overall signoff on who’s going to be at St. George’s Chapel on Saturday.”
One person not attending the funeral is Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. She is pregnant with the couple’s second child and her doctor did not give her clearance to travel from California to the U.K. The couple moved to Markle’s home state last year as they stepped down from senior royal roles.
