It was common knowledge that the queen was slowing down, sporadic mobility issues keeping her from appearing in public as much as usual and the April 2021 death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, sapping her of some of her usual vitality.
But it was still a huge blow when she died on Sept. 8, just two days after inviting the 15th prime minister of her reign, already-now-former PM Liz Truss, to form a government. The queen’s passing was officially attributed to old age.
Soccer games were postponed, businesses closed and thousands of people left flowers, notes and other mementos outside all of the queen’s homes—Londoners at one point were asked to please stop paying homage to her skit with Paddington Bear by leaving marmalade sandwiches outside Buckingham Palace—as a period of national mourning commenced.
The queen, who died at Balmoral Castle, her Scottish home, first lay in state at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh before she was transported to London’s Westminster Hall, where the queue to view her coffin stretched for miles and even David Beckham waited more than 13 hours to pay his respects. The BBC maintained a live feed of the solemn but touching scene, which at different points included the queen’s four children standing sentry and her eight grandchildren gathering for a silent vigil, up until the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.
An estimated 29.2 million people in the U.K. reportedly watched the state funeral on TV, and 11.4 million tuned in from the U.S., but neither figure includes streaming numbers.