Queen Elizabeth kept her stoic rule throughout her husband’s funeral service on Saturday, alone and extremely small under the ecological stones of St. George’s Chapel.
Lonely in the pew because of the strict social distance, she let her 73-year-old girlfriend mourn, as widows of all ranks and fortunes could do.
But a random photo of the monarch dabbing his eye earlier During the day, she may have caught the only manifestation of pain.
Elizabeth, 94, who was rarely seen crying in public, was rushed to touch her hands with black gloves and adjusted her mask as she sat behind her black Bentley and followed the funeral procession.
“The queen wipes away a tear while saying goodbye to her 73-year-old husband,” said the Royal Central photo.
“Did Queen Elizabeth weep at Prince Philip’s funeral?” USA Today wondered in a headline.
“Unable to contain his pain,” insisted the UK’s more restless expression of his majesty.
Whether it was a tear or not can never be known. The queen was clearly gloomy, but she was in control of herself until she reached the church and throughout the gloomy service that followed.
Perhaps the best known intensity of her short walk from Windsor Castle to St. George’s Chapel was her Bentley position in procession.
Throughout their marriage, Philip followed her behind the queen during any public procession, according to royal protocol.
But the queen, who looked small and fragile as she grieved, especially as she sat alone in the church, followed the funeral procession in her car on Saturday.
She was behind her husband’s body and marches, rather than in front of them, where a monarch would normally be, as if letting him lead her, for a change and for their last procession together.