Operation Menai Bridge is the code name for plans related to the death of King Charles III. The name refers to a suspension bridge in Wales. The plan includes the announcement of his death, the period of official mourning, and the details of his state funeral. Planning for the King's funeral began almost immediately after Charles's accession to the throne upon the death of his mother and predecessor, Queen Elizabeth II. [1] [2]
The death of King George VI was communicated by using the phrase "Hyde Park Corner", to avoid Buckingham Palace switchboard operators learning the news too soon. For Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Operation Tay Bridge was put into motion upon her death. Other code names used were Operation Forth Bridge for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Operation London Bridge for Queen Elizabeth II. Since the latter died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Operation Unicorn was also put into effect upon her death. [3] [4]
Following the accession of Charles III, planning for his funeral began "in earnest" on 20 September 2022, the day following the Queen's state funeral. [2] [5] As of 2024, details for Operation Menai Bridge continued to be regularly updated and reviewed, in light of Charles's diagnosis with cancer that year. [5]
Elizabeth Woodville, later known as Dame Elizabeth Grey, was Queen of England from 1 May 1464 until 3 October 1470 and from 11 April 1471 until 9 April 1483 as the wife of King Edward IV. She was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic civil war between the Lancastrian and the Yorkist factions between 1455 and 1487.
Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
The royal standards of the United Kingdom are presently either of two similar flags used by King Charles III in his capacity as sovereign of the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies, and the British Overseas Territories. Two versions of the flag exist, one for use within Scotland and the other for use elsewhere.
Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the royal Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV.
In the United Kingdom, the Accession Council is a ceremonial body which assembles in St James's Palace in London upon the death of a monarch to make formal proclamation of the accession of the successor to the throne. Under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, a new monarch succeeds automatically. The proclamation confirms by name the identity of the new monarch, expresses loyalty to the "lawful and rightful Liege Lord", and formally announces the new monarch's regnal name, while the monarch and others, in front of the council, sign and seal several documents concerning the accession. An Accession Council has confirmed every English monarch since James I in 1603.
Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk,, styled Earl of Arundel between 1975 and 2002, is a British peer who holds the hereditary office of Earl Marshal and, as Duke of Norfolk, is the most senior peer in the peerage of England. He is also the titular head of the House of Howard.
David George Coke Patrick Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, was a Scottish landowner, soldier, banker and peer.
Counsellors of State are senior members of the British royal family to whom the monarch can delegate royal functions through letters patent under the Great Seal, to prevent delay or difficulty in the dispatch of public business in the case of their illness or of their intended or actual absence from the United Kingdom.
An equerry is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a sovereign, a member of a royal family, or a national representative. The role is equivalent to an aide-de-camp, but the term is now prevalent only among some members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Vigil of the Princes refers to occasions when members of the British royal family have "stood guard" during the lying in state of one of their relatives during or as part of a British state or ceremonial funeral. This occurred for King George V in 1936, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, and for Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. Prior to 2022, only male members of the British royal family joined the vigil. In 2022 however, female members of the royal family took part in the vigil. Anne, Princess Royal, took part alongside her three brothers in both vigils for their mother, Queen Elizabeth II while all four of the Queen's granddaughters took part in a separate grandchildren's vigil.
Birkhall is a 210 km2 estate on Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, owned by King Charles III. It is located alongside the River Muick to the south-west of Ballater.
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states over the course of her lifetime and remained the monarch of 15 realms by the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch or female monarch, and the second-longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history.
James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor, Earl of Wessex, styled Viscount Severn from 2007 until 2023, is the younger child and son of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. He is the youngest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the youngest nephew of King Charles III. At the time of his birth, he was 8th in line to the British throne. He is now 15th in line.
Operation London Bridge was the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. The plan included the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning, and the details of her state funeral. The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in September 2022.
On 6 February 1952, George VI, King of the United Kingdom, died at the age of 56, at Sandringham House, after a prolonged cancer. His state funeral took place on 15 February 1952. A period of national mourning commenced and his elder daughter and successor, Queen Elizabeth II, was proclaimed the new monarch by the Accession Council. George VI's coffin lay in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham until 11 February when it was carried, in procession, to the nearby Wolferton railway station. The coffin was carried by train to London King's Cross railway station where another formal procession carried it to Westminster Hall where the king lay in state for three days. Some 304,000 people passed through Westminster Hall with queues up to 4 miles (6.4 km) forming.
The following lists events in the year 2022 in Belize.
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, died on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. Elizabeth's reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.
Charles III became King of the United Kingdom and of 14 other Commonwealth realms upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, on 8 September 2022. Royal succession in the realms occurs immediately upon the death of the reigning monarch. The formal proclamation in Britain occurred on 10 September 2022, at 10:00 BST, the same day on which the Accession Council gathered at St James's Palace in London. The other realms, including most Canadian provinces and all Australian states, issued their own proclamations at times relative to their time zones, following meetings of the relevant privy or executive councils. While the line of succession is identical in all the Commonwealth realms, the royal title as proclaimed is not the same in all of them.
The King George VI Memorial Chapel is part of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England. The chapel was commissioned by Elizabeth II in 1962 as a burial place for her father, George VI, and was completed in 1969. It contains the final resting places of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the ashes of Princess Margaret. It was designed by George Pace.
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