7 details you may have missed from Queen Elizabeth II's funeral

The name Emma began trending Monday morning because of a small black pony. Emma — full name: Carlton Lima Emma, according to People — is a Fell pony who was reportedly the queen's favorite. Fell ponies are a type of working pony from the Fells of northern England. With her shiny coat and long black mane, Emma stood out and stood at attention, posted stalwartly on a cleared path between flower tributes, witnessing the queen's coffin make its final journey to St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle. 

 

 

The queen was a noted animal lover who kept a series of dogs and horses. Two of those dogs, her beloved corgis, were also brought out by pages to witness her final arrival at Windsor Castle. The queen rode horses well into her ninth decade. At the funeral, her great-granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, wore a horseshoe pin on her black dress in honor of the queen.

 

The small diamond horseshoe brooch was not the only jewelry of significance at the funeral. Charlotte's mother, the Princess of Wales, wore a choker that once belonged to the queen. According to the BBC, the queen commissioned the design "using cultured pearls from the Japanese government." Kate wore the pearl choker on the queen and Prince Philip's 70th wedding anniversary, and again at his funeral four years later. Many photos exist of the late Princess Diana also wearing the necklace, which was first loaned to her by the queen in 1982.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wreath for the funeral also held significance. As the BBC writes, "It included foliage chosen for its symbolism: rosemary for remembrance." Along with rosemary, the wreath contained myrtle, which had been grown from a cutting from the queen's 1947 wedding bouquet. Leaves of English oak and pink roses were also woven into the wreath, the plants cut from the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Highgrove House at the request of the queen's son, King Charles III, who also placed a handwritten card amid the blooms.

The queen's wedding was a theme throughout the funeral, present not only in the wreath but also in the music. A hymn sung by the mourners, "The Lord's My Shepherd," was reportedly a favorite of the queen's and also sung at her wedding.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Lord Chamberlain, which is the most senior officer role appointed by the royal household, currently occupied by Lord Parker of Minsmere, the former head of MI5, broke a wand over the queen's coffin. That was the wand of office, and his snapping it was symbolic, as People reported, "signify[ing] the end of his service to the queen as sovereign. The wand was then placed above the Queen's coffin and will be buried with the monarch." The queen's funeral marks the first time this wand ceremony has been televised and as such, witnessed by the public. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English oak also ran through the theme of the funeral, as the queen's coffin was made from English oak wood, which has a notable grain pattern and is now quite rare and pricey. Preparations for the queen's funeral were made well in advance, including the coffin, which was constructed 30 years ago. Andrew Leverton, funeral director for Leverton & Sons, which serves the royal family, told The Times, "Oak coffins are now made from American oak. I don't think we could use English oak for a coffin now."

 

In keeping with another antiquated tradition, the queen's coffin was lined with lead, a tradition that can be traced back to the Victorian era when such airtight protection was necessary for coffins that rested above ground in mausoleums, for example. Lead is also extremely heavy, and as People reported, eight military pallbearers were needed to carry the coffin.

With all attention on the ceremony, viewers streaming on TV or online may not have been aware of the tight security behind the scenes that gripped the country in advance of the funeral. London is already, as Wired wrote, "one of the most surveilled cities in the world," with approximately 1 million CCTV cameras. A huge operations room was set up to gather surveillance of the funeral proceedings with input from intelligence officers, police and emergency services. In advance of the funeral, manhole covers were checked for explosives, drones were banned from zooming over central London (air traffic in general was decreased) and snipers were positioned on top of nearby buildings. 

 

Around the country, police were brought into London, and more than ever, some of them were armed. Historically, most British police do not carry firearms. But according to Wired, in advance of the funeral and the potential security risk of a huge amount of world leaders gathering together, "officers authorized to carry firearms have been called in from around the UK. Overall, the UK has 6,192 armed police officers." That's a little over 4% of the country's total officers.