Last Updated, Apr 17, 2021, 11:47 PM News
Queen Elizabeth captured dabbing her eye at Philip's funeral
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Queen Elizabeth kept her stoic composure throughout her husband’s funeral service on Saturday, alone and poignantly small under the echoing stones of St. George’s Chapel.

Solitary in her pew due to strict social distancing, she lowered her head to mourn her beloved consort of 73 years, as widows of any rank and fortune might.

But a chance photograph of the monarch dabbing her eye earlier in the day may have captured her only outward show of grief.

Elizabeth, 94, who’s rarely seen weeping in public, was snapped touching her black-gloved hands to her eyes and adjusting her mask as she sat in the back of her black Bentley and followed the funeral procession.

“The Queen wipes away a tear as she says goodbye to her husband of 73 years,” the Royal Central captioned the photo.

“Did Queen Elizabeth cry at Prince Philip’s funeral?” USA Today wondered in a headline.

“Unable to hold back her grief,” the UK’s more unbridled Express insisted of her majesty.

Whether it was a tear or not may never be known. The queen was clearly grim but in control of herself by the time she had arrived at the church, and throughout the somber service that followed.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrives for the funeral of Prince Philip.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II arrives for the funeral of Prince Philip.
Leon Neal/Pool via Reuters

Maybe the most knowable poignancy in her brief ride from Windsor Castle to St. George’s Chapel was her Bentley’s position in the procession.

Throughout their marriage, Philip had followed behind the queen during any public procession, in accordance with royal protocol.

But the queen, who seemed small and frail as she grieved, especially while sitting alone in church, followed the funeral procession in her car on Saturday.

She was behind her husband’s hearse and marchers, rather than ahead of them where a monarch would be normally, as if letting him lead her, for a change, and for their last procession together.



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