Icon of an era, Elizabeth II, who died after 70 years of historic reign, ended her last trip on Monday Windsorwhere she arrived in procession after her grandiose funeral in London to be buried with her parents and husband.
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Thousands of people amassed in the great avenue that leads to Windsor Castle to see the arrival of the coffin of the queen, transported about 40 km by hearse from the British capital.
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On the eve of the funeral, Buckingham Palace released a rare photo of Elizabeth II, taken for her “platinum jubilee” in June, showing her dressed in pale blue and sporting a beaming smile.
Elizabeth II died on September 8 at the age of 96, when she spent the summer at her Scottish residence in Balmoral. Her health had been deteriorating for a year, but the disappearance of a monarch whose presence seemed almost eternal shocked the country and the world.
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The United Kingdom honored her with 10 days of national mourning, parades and processions, and a massive popular emotion that made the protests of a minority of Republicans almost imperceptible.
Her eldest son, 73, succeeded her as Carlos III. Until now one of the least appreciated members of the British royal family, his popularity has risen in recent days.
Westminster Abbey could not accommodate the throngs of Britons eager to see their queen to the end.
Thousands of people waited from early in the morning on the Mall, the famous avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace, some with British flags, to see the procession pass after the funeral.
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Other famous funerals
In history, the death of other personalities has shocked the world. Perhaps the most recent occurred in Argentina, when the footballer died Diego Armando Maradona in 2020, in the middle of the year of the pandemic.
Local press estimates that the farewell of the legendary player was attended by around a million people in Buenos Aires.
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It was also the case of the singer Michael Jacksonwho died on June 25, 2009. His funeral was held on July 7 of that year at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, United States.
Some 1.6 million people signed up to attend, so a lottery had to be made to allocate the 17,500 available seats. And more than 31 million people watched the funeral live on television in the United States alone.
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The funeral of Diana of Wales, who died in 1997 in a traffic accident in Paris, France. Her ceremony was attended by 2,000 people and another 2.5 million viewers followed her on television.
Massive was also the burial of John Paul II. The Vatican invested some seven million euros for the ceremony on April 6, 2005, in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which was attended by thousands of faithful from different parts of the world.
Other examples are John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, Umm Kalzum, among others.
*With information from AFP and Efe
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