The Crown, the Orb and the Sceptre: The Regalia at Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral
Three pieces of the Crown Jewels rode atop the late Queen's coffin — and their removal at the very end was one of the most moving moments of all.
When Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest in September 2022, three of the most significant objects in the nation rode with her: the Imperial State Crown, the Sovereign’s Orb and the Sovereign’s Sceptre, resting atop her coffin. Each is a piece of the working Crown Jewels, and each carried a meaning that made the final moments of the day almost unbearably poignant.
The regalia upon the coffin
Throughout the lying-in-state and the funeral, the three pieces sat together on the Queen’s coffin, on a velvet cushion above the Royal Standard. Placed there, they were not ornament but symbol — the visible signs of the sovereign’s authority, accompanying the longest-reigning monarch in British history one last time.
The Imperial State Crown
The Imperial State Crown is the crown the Queen wore as she left her coronation and at each State Opening of Parliament — the one most people picture when they think of her. Blazing with some of the most storied stones in the collection, it represented the duties she carried for seventy years. To see it on her coffin was to see her reign made solid.
The Sovereign’s Orb
The golden Sovereign’s Orb, topped with a cross, is placed in the monarch’s hand at the coronation. It symbolises that the sovereign’s power is derived from, and answerable to, a higher authority — the Christian world set beneath the cross. On the coffin it spoke of a faith that the Queen held quietly and deeply throughout her life.
The Sovereign’s Sceptre
The Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross represents the monarch’s temporal power and governance, and holds one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. Together with the Orb, it completed the set of regalia that defines the sovereign — the same objects that had marked the beginning of her reign now marking its close.
The moment of parting
The most moving moment came at the committal service in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Near the end, the Crown, Orb and Sceptre were carefully removed from the coffin and placed on the altar — separating the Queen, for the first and final time, from the symbols of the Crown she had carried since 1952. The Crown would pass on; Elizabeth, the woman, would not need it where she was going.
Then the Lord Chamberlain broke his Wand of Office and laid it on the coffin — the ancient gesture that ends an official’s service to the sovereign, seen by the public for the first time. It was a quiet, devastating full stop: the end of a reign, and of a life of service, told entirely in objects and ritual.
Why it mattered
For all their gold and diamonds, the regalia did something no eulogy could. They showed, wordlessly, what the Queen had borne and then set down — and reminded a watching world that behind the Crown there had always been a person who carried it with extraordinary grace.
Details of the state funeral and regalia are drawn from official and widely published accounts of September 2022.
