After Prince Philip’s funeral on Saturday at St. George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle, his coffin will be lowered into an opening in the stone floor – but the so-called Royal Vault will not be his final resting place.
Instead, Philip will be exhumed and relocated when Queen Elizabeth, his wife of 73, dies, the Telegraph reported Thursday.
Elizabeth will be buried elsewhere in the same stately Gothic church, in a vault in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, named after her father, who was buried there in 1952, the British newspaper reported.
That vault also contains the remains of Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, and of their mother, who died just months later, also in 2002.
Only after Elizabeth’s death will Philip – required by centuries of protocol to follow two steps behind the Queen in a public procession – be exhumed and buried by her side.
Philip died on Friday at the age of 99.