Poignant photos of Queen Elizabeth II dominated the front pages of Britain’s funeral newspapers on Friday, tracing her journey from coronation to matriarch of the nation.

A picture of 27-year-old Elizabeth, taken at her coronation in 1953, full of royal finery, clutching the orb and scepter of the sovereign within the vaulted walls of Westminster Abbey, covered the front pages of The Times, Guardian, Daily Star and Independent.

The Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and Daily Mirror instead chose images of the white-haired monarch as she neared the end of her record-breaking 70-year reign.

The Telegraph carried a quote from the Queen for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. “Sorrow is the price we pay for love,” it said.

Most tabloids celebrated the occasion with muted black-and-white front pages, although the Sun splashed its headline in royal purple above the headline “We Loved You Ma’am.”

“Rest in peace ma’am. The sun and our readers loved you. We are proud that you were our queen,” she added.

The Daily Express headlined ‘Our Beloved Queen is Dead’ while the Daily Mirror simply wrote ‘Thank you’.

“Our hearts are broken,” read the Daily Mail headline.

“How do we find the words? Our grief is made up of a hundred different emotions, all elusive to grasp,” the front page read.

“When God Save the Queen played on the radio and television when we heard that our beloved monarch had died, it broke the heart of a nation,” she added.

The story unsurprisingly filled the inside pages of the souvenir issue’s papers, with most dedicating at least 20 pages to the seismic events.

“A light has gone out in our lives. The day Britain and much of the world have feared is upon us. She’s gone,” The Sun’s editorial said.

“The mother of our nation. The most famous, popular and respected woman in the world. Britain’s backbone.

“It’s just hard to imagine British life without her around,” she added. “The new world will seem strange.”

In her obituary, The Times described Elizabeth as “the woman who saved the monarchy”.

“It is thanks to their commitment and seriousness that an institution that at times seemed outdated and incompatible with the values ??of today’s society is still relevant and popular today.”

In the left-wing Guardian, columnist Jonathan Freedland wrote that her death heralded the dawn of a “new future”.

“The only element in our collective life that has always and reliably been the same… is gone.”

The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, paid tribute to Elizabeth’s “lifetime service”.

“She was more than a distant, matriarchal symbol of the nation; she was our constant companion and guide, reassuringly composed even in the most turbulent of times.

“The second age of Elizabeth has come to an end. Long live King Charles III,” it said.