Britain’s royal family gathered on Tuesday, hours before the state visit of President Trump, for a more somber, and rarer, ceremony: a Roman Catholic requiem mass for Katharine, the Duchess of Kent, who died last week at 92.
It was the first Catholic funeral for a member of the royal family in modern British history, and the first attended by a sovereign, King Charles III, in many years. The British monarch is also the “supreme governor” of the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth II attended a Catholic funeral mass for King Baudouin of the Belgians in Brussels in 1993.
A longtime patron of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the duchess was familiar to television audiences as the elegant, well-dressed woman who bestowed trophies on the winners of the men’s and women’s finals, and consoled the losers, most famously a distraught Jana Novotna in 1993.
As mourners were gathering at Westminster Cathedral in London, Buckingham Palace announced that the king’s wife, Queen Camilla, had canceled plans to attend after contracting an acute case of sinusitis.
The palace said Camilla, 78, hoped to recover in time to attend a banquet at Windsor Castle and other events planned for Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, who will arrive in Windsor on Wednesday for their second state visit.
On Thursday, after Mr. Trump leaves for meetings with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his official country residence, Chequers, Camilla is scheduled to show Mrs. Trump Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, a scale model depicting royal life in the early 20th century that is on display at the castle.
The royal family was otherwise out in force at the duchess’s funeral. Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and other royals filled the pews at the Catholic cathedral, which has not been the site of a royal funeral since its construction in 1903. The author Jeffrey Archer and the race-car champion Jackie Stewart were among the other prominent people who turned out.
On Wednesday, Katharine’s husband, Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, bowed his head as her coffin was carried into the cathedral by soldiers from the Royal Dragoon Guards. At 89, he is now the oldest living member of the royal family. In a sign of the respect and affection for the duchess, her coffin was transported from her home in Kensington Palace in the royal hearse.
The duchess converted to Catholicism in 1994, the first member of the royal family, which is officially Anglican, to do so in 300 years. Pope Leo XIV recognized her in a letter of condolence to Charles, released by Buckingham Palace.
“I readily associate myself with all those offering thanksgiving to Almighty God for The Duchess’s legacy of Christian goodness,” the pope wrote, praising her “many years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.”
An aristocrat by birth, Katharine had little use for some of the perquisites of royal life. She preferred to be called Mrs. Kent at a primary school in Yorkshire where she worked quietly as a music teacher.
But it was on the most hallowed ground of tennis — center court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club — where she made her public mark. The duchess rejoiced with champions and commiserated with runners-up, none more famous than Ms. Novotna, a Czech player, after she lost to Steffi Graf.
“From the far side of the net, her face crumpled,” the duchess recalled in an interview with BBC. “It’s a natural thing, isn’t it? You built yourself up. You played the Wimbledon finals, and you didn’t make it.”
Ms. Novotna came back to win Wimbledon in 1998 and shared another memorable moment with the duchess, who grasped her hands in jubilation. The two had become friends, the duchess said. Ms. Novotna died of cancer in 2017.
The duchess’s display of sympathy surprised royal watchers, who were accustomed to royals putting the public at a polite remove.
“We are quite normal people,” the duchess said to the BBC with a laugh. “We do hug people who cry.”
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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