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A symbol of Britishness
Close relatives
of the monarch of the United Kingdom are known by the
appellation The Royal Family. Although there is no
strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the
Royal
Family, and different lists will include different people, those
carrying the style His
or Her Majesty (HM) or His or Her
Royal
Highness (HRH) are generally considered members, which usually
results in
the application of the term to these persons:
- the monarch (the king or queen);
- the consort
of the monarch (his or her spouse);
- the widowed consorts of previous
monarchs (Queen Mother or Queen Dowager);
- the children of the monarch;
- the grandchildren of the
monarch;
- the spouses and the widowed
spouses of a monarch's son and male-line grandsons; and
- before 1917,
great-grandchildren in the male line.
Many millions of
people are related to the British Royal Family more distantly than this
by
virtue of a Royal Descent.
The current
British Royal Family are members of the House
of Windsor.
Royal Ceremonies
& rituals
London is a royal city and has preserved its ceremonies and
traditions over hundreds of years. Some are every day and some are
every year.
The most traditional ceremonies and most popular attractions are the Trooping
of the Colour
and the Changing of the Guard.
Searching the Houses of Parliament.
Before
every State Opening of Parliament, the Yeomen
of
the Guard search the cellars beneath
the Palace
of Westminster by
the light of old
candle-lanterns. This precaution has been undertaken every year since
1605,
when the "Gunpowder Conspirators" attempted to blow up parliament on the day of
the
State Opening.
The State Opening of Parliament.
Dating
back to Medieval London, this ceremony marks the beginning of the new
parliamentary year and features peers and bishops in traditional robes
and a
royal procession involving the State Coach. State openings
usually take place in November, or soon after a General Election.
On
the day of the Opening, the Queen travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in the Stage Coach
(a gold
carriage). Once the Queen arrives at Parliament the union flag is
lowered and
replaced by the royal standard.
The Queen,
wearing her crown and ceremonial robes then processes through the Royal
Gallery
to take her place on the throne in the House of Lords, from where she
send her
messenger (Black Rod) to summon the MPs. When he arrives at the House
of
Commons, the door is slammed in his face, symbolizing the right of the
Commons
to freedom from interference. He must then knock three times to gain
entry and
deliver his summons.
The Queen sits
on a throne in the House of Lords and reads the "Queen's Speech".
It is tradition for the
monarch to open parliament in person, and The Queen has performed the
ceremony
in every year of her reign except for 1959 and 1963, when she was
pregnant with
princes Andrew and Edward respectively.
No King or Queen
has entered the House of Commons
since
1642, when Charles l stormed in with his soldiers and tried to arrest
five
members of Parliament who were there.
Ceremony of the Keys.
One
of London’s most timeless ceremonies,
dating
back 700 years is the ceremony of the keys which takes place at the Tower of London.
At 21:53 each night the Chief Yeoman Warder of the Tower, dressed in
Tudor
uniform, sets off to meet the Escort of the Key dressed in the well-known
Beefeater
uniform. Together they tour the various gates ceremonially locking
them, on
returning to the Bloody
Tower archway they
are
challenged by a sentry.
"Who goes there?"
"The Keys."
answers The Chief Warder
"Whose Keys?" the
sentry demands.
"Queen Elizabeth's
Keys."
"Pass Queen Elizabeth's
Keys. All's well."
A
trumpeter then sounds the Last Post before the keys are secured in the
Queen’s
House.
Changing of the Guard.
Outside Buckingham Palace, you
can see
guardsmen
dressed in their bright red uniforms and bearskin hats. the place of
the
"old guard". This is known as the Changing of the Guards ceremony and
it dates back to 1660.
The monarch and the royal palaces have been guarded by
the
Household Troops since 1660.
Maundy Money.
Maundy Thursday is the day before
Good
Friday, at Easter. On that day the Queen gives Maundy money to a group
of old
people. This tradition is over 1,000 years old. At one time the king or
queen
washed the feet of poor, old people on Maundy Thursday, but that
stopped in
1754.
Swan Upping.
On the River
Thames there are hundred´s of swans and a lot of these beautiful white
birds
belong, traditionally, to the king of queen. In July, the Queen´s swan
keeper
sails up the River Thames, from London
Bridge to Henley.
He looks at all the young swans and marks the royal ones.
The Queen's Telegram
This fairly new
custom assures aspiring centenarians that they will receive a birthday
telegram
from the queen on their one-hundredth birthday.On his or her one
hundreth
birthday, a British person gets a telegram from the Queen.
The Birthday Honours list and the New Year
Honours list:
Twice a year at Buckingham Palace,
the Queen gives titles or
'honours', once in January and once in June.
Honours received include:
C.B.E. - Companion
of the British Empire
O.B.E.
- Order of
the British Empire
M.B.E. - Member of the British
Empire
These honours
began in the nineteenth century, because then Britain
had an empire.
Knighthood - a knight has
"Sir" before his name. A new knight kneels in front of the Queen. She
touches first his right shoulder, then his left shoulder with a sword.
Then she
says "Arise, Sir...and his first name, and the knight stands.
Peerage - a peer is a lord.
Peers sit in the House of Lords, which is one part of the Houses of
Parliament.
The other part is the House of Commons.
Dame/Baroness - these are two of
the highest honours for a woman.
Coronation
& Royal ceremonies
The coronation of
the new monarch follows the accession after an appropriate interval.
The formal
mourning of the sovereign at the time must be respectfully acknowledged
before
the heir can be newly anointed. The ceremony has remained the same for
over a
thousand years! For the past 900, the ceremony has taken place at
Westminster
Abbey, the site for many royal occasions. The service takes place in
the
presence of representatives of the Houses of Parliament, Church and
State, and
is conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has performed this
duty since
1066. Prime ministers, leading citizens from the Commonwealth, and
representatives
from other countries also attend.
The
coronation is an occasion for grand pageantry and celebration for the United Kingdom,
but it is a sacred and religious ceremony. The Sovereign takes the
coronation
oath; to rule according to law, to exercise justice with mercy -
promises
symbolised by the four swords in the coronation regalia (Crown Jewels)
- and to
maintain the Church of England.
The Sovereign is
then seated in King Edward's chair, anointed, blessed and consecrated
by the
Archbishop. King Edward's chair was made in 1300, and used by every
Sovereign
since 1626. After receiving the orb and sceptres, the Archbishop places
St.
Edward's Crown on the Sovereign's head. After homage is paid by the
Archbishop
of Canterbury and senior peers, Holy Communion is celebrated.
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The Queen will
be suceeded by her
son,
Charles, The Prince of Wales, upon her death. He will be known as King
Charles
III (unless he chooses a different name), and his son William will be
heir
apparent.
Funerals
The large-scale
public reactions that followed the death of Diana, Princess of Wales,
on August
31, 1997, and that of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on March 30,
2002,
illustrate the longstanding tendency of prominent British royal deaths
to stir
an emotional response from millions who had never personally been
acquainted
with the deceased. Royal deaths have also evoked important forms of
ritual and
symbolic commemoration that are significant both in the context of the
evolution
of British civil religion and national identity, and in shaping and
representing wider social and cultural responses to death. Despite
occasional
subversive undertones, the expression of such collective grief usually
provided
a potent legitimation of the institution of the monarchy and the
existing
social and political order.
Overall
responsibility for the funerals of sovereigns rests with the Earl
Marshal, an
office of state held on a hereditary basis by the dukes of Norfolk,
who are assisted by the heralds of the College of Arms.
The funerals of other members of the royal family are organized by Lord
Chamberlain's office, which is part of the permanent royal secretariat.
Numerous other agencies are involved in more complex and large-scale
rituals.
These have included the Office of Works (for temporary additions to
buildings),
the church, the armed services, the police, and the railways.
Until
the beginning of the nineteenth century royal funerals were usually
held in London
with interments in
Westminster Abbey. George III, however, moved the royal burial place to
St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle,
thus focusing ceremonially on what was then a relatively small country
town,
several hours journey from the capital in pre-railway days. Scope for
public
participation was therefore limited. Only following the death of Queen Victoria was
there a
decisive move back to a more public and large-scale ceremonial. Her
funeral,
which included a spectacular naval review and a military procession
through
central London,
represented a return to a "theatre of death" on a scale not seen
since the early seventeenth century. The trend was confirmed upon the
death of
her son Edward VII when a further ritual of a public lying-in-state in
Westminster Hall was added and proved enormously popular.
Major
royal funerals, especially those of sovereigns, were made up of a
series of
ceremonies extending over several days, public and private, religious
and
secular, and presenting different aspects of the deceased. For example,
Edward
VII's body initially lay privately in his bedroom at Buckingham Palace,
before
being moved ceremonially to the Throne Room, and then in a street
procession to
Westminster Hall. After the three days of the public lying-in-state,
there was
a further street procession to Paddington Station, a train journey to
Windsor,
a procession from the station to the Castle, and a culminating
religious
service in St. George's Chapel.
Royal
funerals—unlike coronations, jubilees, and weddings—need to be arranged
in a
timescale measured in days rather than months. Although
some discreet advance planning can be made, the exact
circumstances of a death are unforseeable and, in particular, the
unexpected
death of a relatively young person, as in the case of Princess Diana,
is likely
to catch the authorities almost wholly unprepared.
During
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the days of royal funerals
were
increasingly marked by parallel processions and church services in
provincial
towns and cities. By this means many people remote from London
or Windsor
were
able to achieve a sense of participation in a national ritual.
Solidarity in
grief was expressed by the wearing of mourning clothes and emblems such
as
black armbands. In this period instructions for the general wearing of
mourning
for periods of several weeks drew general compliance, giving a somber
atmosphere to the streets. From the mid–twentieth century onward, the
advent of
radio and, eventually, television intensified this sense of involvement
while
shifting it from the communal public religiosity of streets and places
of
worship to the individualistic and domestic environment of people's
homes. Film
and television have increased consciousness of royal funerals as mass
spectacles, as manifested in the unprecedented size of the worldwide
television
audience that watched Princess Diana's funeral.
Since the death of Queen Victoria, ceremonial or state
funeral
processions have been carried out on the death of a British Monarch, a
close
member of the British Royal Family or, in some cases, a highly regarded
statesman or woman. These are probably the most powerful and
moving
ceremonies of state which take place in Britain. State funerals are
normally reserved for the death of the reigning Monarch or can be
granted by
the Monarch to others.
The
coffin is carried on a gun carriage, escorted in a long procession by
members
of all the armed forces and by members of the Royal Family, to
Westminster Hall
where the body lies in state, allowing ordinary people to pay their
last
respects by filing past the coffin.
The
practice of allowing the body to lie-in-state goes a very long way back
in
history. The people who surrounded the body, be they soldiers or
relatives of
the deceased sovereign, were essentially representing the feelings of
the
people and ordinary people were therefore allowed to see the body
lying-in-state in order to bond the people and the Nation together.
The
processional ceremony,however, is relatively recent in origin,
beginning only
with the death of Queen Victoria
in 1901 and continuing with the funeral of Edward VII.
In
the modern procession the gun carriage is formed from a detachment from
The
Kings Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. However, during a state funeral,
the gun
carriage would be drawn by members of the Royal Navy rather than
artillery
horses.
The Bearer Party carry the coffin towards the gun
carriage
before the procession begins and carefully place it on the prepared
carriage.
The
Garrison Sergeant Major first gives the order to the procession to
reverse arms
and then to slow march and
the procession moves off to the beat of the muffled drums of the bands
which
play funereal music. The gun carriage is followed by members of the
Royal
Family, walking behind, along with other dignitaries and members of the
Royal
Household. During
the procession, guns are fired from Hyde Park
at one minute intervals. The
funeral procession, which is usually more than half a mile long,
continues on
its way towards Westminster.
The
funeral procession passes through the Horse Guards Arch, which was once
the
main gateway to Buckingham Palace, before turning right onto Whitehall and
proceeds along Whitehall
towards Westminster Hall. On arrival, the Bearer Party remove the
coffin from
the gun carriage and carry it into the ancient Hall where
the
catafalque awaits.
The coffin is borne to the centre of
Westminster Hall and placed upon the catafalque where it will remain
for the
three days of the lying-in-state. A short receiving service takes place
which
is led by the Archbishop of Canterbury attended by dignitaries and
members of
the Royal Family.
As the final prayer ends, the first vigil
begins. In a tribute evocative of Arthurian legend, four officers march
down
the steps of the Hall, past the heraldic beasts, across the stone floor
and
mount the catafalque, one at each corner of the coffin. The coffin is
guarded
in this way, during the lying-in-state, by officers from
Household Division, The Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard,
Her
Majesty's Bodyguard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms and
The Royal
Company of Archers in turn and turn about.
They
reverse their ceremonial weapons, resting their hands upon the hilts
and bowing
their heads. Each unit mounts guard for six hours at a time with the
guard
being changed at twenty minute intervals.
The
body normally lies-in-state for three days in order to allow time for
the
ordinary people to file past and pay their last respects.
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