The most significant difference between the funerals of Victoria and Edward was that the latter was to be preceded by a three-day lying-in-state in Westminster Hall. It was something of an innovation, and one that added an additional layer of complexity to an already intricate exercise. The last monarch to receive such treatment had been George III, whose body had lain-in-state at Windsor for twenty-four hours in 1820. The tradition of lying-in-state at Westminster had been inaugurated with the death of the venerable Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone in 1898.
