The United Kingdom will remain in a period of national mourning until the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, after Buckingham Palace set in motion a detailed accession plan that has been honed over a period of decades.
On Saturday a special accession council will confirm Charles as the new King Charles III.
It is understood that Prince Charles, his wife Camilla and Elizabeth’s daughter Princess Anne made it in time to be at Balmoral in Scotland before she passed away yesterday afternoon.
However, her other children, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and her grandson are understood to have arrived afterwards.
Prince Harry arrived in Scotland an hour after her death was announced. Both the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex, Kate and Meghan, remained in London.
Over the next 10 to 12 days, the British public, world leaders and the royal family will come together to remember the queen and give thanks for her reign in what is likely to become a truly global event.
Operation London Bridge, as the queen’s funeral plans are codenamed, will be combined with Operation Unicorn, the plan for a monarch dying at Balmoral, which is named after the national animal of Scotland.
The plan will cover the queen’s final journey from her favourite home to her resting place beside Prince Philip at Windsor, via Edinburgh and London, where she will lie in state for the public to pay their respects in person.
The date of the funeral is yet to be decided. The plans made provision for 10 days of mourning before the funeral itself, but because the queen died at Balmoral that period could be extended.
Balmoral was her favourite home, and if she could have chosen the place of her death it would have been at the castle bought by Queen Victoria as a summer retreat.
Her coffin is expected to be placed in the drawing room at Balmoral, where it will be covered with a royal standard and a wreath of flowers.