A handwritten note, a crown and a wreath: items on Queen’s coffin and what they signify

1. Handwritten note

Nestled among the flowers of the Queen’s funeral wreath was a handwritten card by her son King Charles III, which read: “In loving and devoted memory, Charles R.”

2. Flowers

At King Charles’s request, the wreath on top of the Queen’s coffin contains flowers and foliage from the royal properties of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, in London, and Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. Also at the King’s request, the wreath was sustainable, and affixed in a nest of English moss and oak branches.

The wreath contains myrtle, the ancient symbol of a happy marriage, cut from a plant that was grown from a sprig of myrtle in the Queen’s wedding bouquet in 1947. It also contains rosemary as a symbol of remembrance and English oak, a national symbol of strength, in a nod to the Queen’s constancy and steadfast duty. Other foliage includes pelargoniums, garden roses, autumnal…