• Born in an age of deference to monarchy, Philip helped Elizabeth navigate the political and social upheaval of the 20th century to craft a monarchy fit for a different time.
• Often facing a deeply traditional court, he reformed the palace and tried to harness the growing power of television to project royal influence.
Image: REUTERS
A blunt-speaking naval officer who as Queen Elizabeth’s dutiful consort helped modernise the British monarchy, Prince Philip might be best remembered for his gruff public persona.
Outspoken and irascible, Philip lived in the shadow of the woman he married at Westminster Abbey in 1947 and always walked a step behind the queen at the thousands of ceremonial events they attended during her reign, the longest in British history.
Though he had no official role, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was one of the most influential figures in the royal family for more than 70 years. He died aged 99 on Friday.
While Philip was often criticised for his demeanour and sometimes brusque remarks, friends said that as Queen Elizabeth II’s closest confidant he brought wit, impatient intelligence, and unflagging energy to the monarchy.
“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” Elizabeth said in a rare personal tribute to Philip during a speech to mark their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.
“I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
If Philip harboured frustration at his life as consort, he never publicly showed it.
But in a tetchy interview with the BBC to mark his 90th birthday, he did reveal that in the early days he struggled to find a role for himself.
“There was no precedent. If I asked somebody ‘what do you expect me to do?’ they all looked blank - they had no idea, nobody had much idea,” he said.
Born in an age of deference to monarchy, Philip helped Elizabeth navigate the political and social upheaval of the 20th century to craft a monarchy fit for a different time.
Often facing a deeply traditional court, he reformed the palace and tried to harness the growing power of television to project royal influence.
He pushed for the queen’s coronation in 1953 to be televised live and behind the scenes removed outdated behaviour in the palace, he regarded as stuffy. He was the first royal to do a TV interview.
However, later in life, Philip was criticised for impeding the monarchy’s ability to adapt to the times, and detractors partly blamed his overbearing manner for his children’s failure to produce happy families.
STRENGTH AND STAY
For Elizabeth, Philip was a supportive husband who courtiers said was the only person to treat the monarch as a human being.
Despite rumours about his infidelity, the couple stayed together and in old age, they clearly enjoyed affection and regard for each other. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in November 2017.
However Philip, the son of the exiled Prince Andrew of Greece, a descendant of Elizabeth’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria and his wife’s third cousin, never quite won the hearts of all Britons.
Elizabeth was the sovereign, but in family matters, it was Philip who was viewed as the head of the family.
As first Princess Anne, then Prince Andrew, and then finally Prince Charles suffered a broken marriage, royal watchers pointed the finger at Philip as a doughty father, calling him domineering and cold, particularly with his sons.
When the popularity of the House of Windsor plunged after the death of Charles’s first wife Princess Diana in 1997, he was accused of helping stop the monarchy adapt to a new Britain.
A decade after Diana was killed in a Paris car crash at 36, Philip had to suffer the embarrassment of hearing Mohamed al-Fayed, the former owner of London’s luxury Harrods store whose son was the princess’s lover, allege the prince had ordered her death.
A jury rejected the claims after hearing no evidence to back them up. But such accusations illustrated the country’s mixed feelings about him.
The couple had four children: Charles, Prince of Wales (born in 1948), Princess Anne,(1950), Prince Andrew (1960), and Prince Edward (1964), three of whose marriages ended in divorce.
CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE
Philip was also the most controversial member of the royal family until the travails of his children and their spouses became regular tabloid fodder in the 1990s.
The duke was attacked for his views on everything from nuclear power to nature conservation. Critics called him a hypocrite for heading the World Wide Fund for Nature while taking part in blood sports such as pheasant shooting.
“I think that there’s a difference between being concerned for the conservation of nature and being a bunny-hugger,” he told the BBC.
It was such blunt comments that gained him the greatest attention. A remark about “slitty eyes” during a visit to China in the 1980s became symbolic of his often unguarded manner, which contrasted with the queen’s restraint.
Those who knew him said his reputation hid an urbane wit, devotion to his family, love of sport and a dedication to the business of being royal.