Behind the coffin of Elizabeth II, Harry, William and the painful reminiscence of Diana

On the finish of the day on Wednesday, they walked from Buckingham Palace to Westminster, behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II. Prince William and King Charles III, in army uniform, Princess Anne, additionally in uniform, but in addition Prince Harry, in his black go well with, marched previous Her Majesty’s topics, accompanying her on her final journey earlier than his funeral on Monday. If this conventional parade marks a spotlight of the ceremonies organized for the reason that loss of life of the queen final week, it additionally recollects the tragic reminiscence of that organized on September 6, 1997.

That day, William and Harry, then nonetheless younger boys, needed to make the lengthy stroll from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey, behind the coffin of their mom who had died a number of days earlier in a horrible automotive accident in Paris. . In 2017, Harry defined in a BBC documentary: “It was one of many hardest issues I’ve ever completed, that stroll.”

Requested by biographer Angela Levin for the e book “Harry: Conversations with the Prince”, launched in 2018, the Duke of Sussex had once more shared the extraordinary problem of this parade. “My mom had simply died and I needed to stroll behind her coffin, surrounded by hundreds of individuals watching me and tens of millions watching it on TV. I consider that such a factor shouldn’t be requested of any baby, underneath any circumstances. I do not suppose that may occur as we speak. No baby who has simply misplaced his mom at such a younger age ought to have his grief noticed by hundreds of individuals,” he defined.

Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, had additionally referred to as the choice to make the 2 brothers stroll behind their mom in 1997 “merciless”, specifying that he was in opposition to this group. Prince William, he, conserving a sure reserve, has by no means publicly expressed himself with a place as marked as that of his youngest brother or his uncle. In the identical documentary as Harry in 2017, he claimed it was a ‘collective household resolution’. “We have been simply overwhelmed with so many individuals coming to see us, it was wonderful. There was this steadiness between our responsibility and our household, and that was what we needed to do”. Harry and William have been on the time accompanied by Prince Philip, Charles Spencer and their father Charles.