A funeral service for Queen Elizabeth II has been held at Westminster Abbey – the building in which she was married, and crowned Queen.

During his sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury said the late Queen touched “a multitude of lives” during her 70 year reign.€

Her coffin, draped in flags and topped by the Imperial State Crown, was drawn to the church on a gun carriage by Royal Navy sailors.

Hundreds of dignitaries are there, including the Queen’s former prime ministers as well as US President Biden and French President Macron.

The funeral just ended and the national anthem is being played, before the coffin is taken away for committal and burial at Windsor.

With the Queen’s burial later today, a door will swing shut and a reign of 70 years will come to a close.

Over decades of wrenching change, the Queen represented constancy for a largely still-conservative country. That profile on the stamps, that voice at Christmas, that bowed head on Remembrance Sunday.

As observed by one BBC analyst, “For 10 rather bewildering days we have spoken of the Queen and the new King as if they could somehow both be with us.

“Now that long week of transition comes to an end.” (Adapted from BBC reports)