During a ceremony, in a select committee due to the pandemic and with military accents, the Queen and the United Kingdom said their farewells, Saturday, April 17, to Prince Philip, who tirelessly served the crown and supported Elizabeth II during over seven decades. Died “peacefully” on April 9, the husband of the queen, known for his outspokenness and his humor – sometimes flirting with racism or sexism – would have been 100 years old on June 10.
Shortly before 3:00 p.m. (local time), the funeral procession accompanying Prince Philip’s coffin set out from the courtyard of Windsor Castle towards St. George’s Chapel. For this final eight-minute journey, the coffin was carried by a Land Rover, a vehicle the prince helped design, followed by the closest members of the royal family, including his four children, on foot, and the Queen, in a Bentley. Then, at 3 p.m., the United Kingdom observed a minute of silence, before the start of the religious ceremony.
The Duke of Edinburgh was buried in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The Prince of Greece and Denmark, born in Corfu, breathed his last there after a life devoted to the service of the monarchy since his marriage, seventy-three years ago, to Elizabeth, then heir apparent to the Crown. The queen loses the one who was in her own words her “strength” and “support”. Since the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1952, he had stayed in the background to unwaveringly support his wife and become a pillar of the monarchy.
Ahead of the funeral, the palace released a personal photo of the Queen and Prince Philip smiling in the grass of Cairngorms National Park in Scotland in 2003.
A funeral ceremony for thirty people
The circumstances helping, the wish of the Duke of Edinburgh to avoid a funeral with great pomp was respected even more than he expected. Under the health rules in force in England, only thirty people – instead of eight hundred – were able to attend the ceremony, masked and spaced. An approach intended to show that the instructions do not suffer from exceptions, and greeted in London by Roger Charles Brackin, who came to meditate in front of Buckingham Palace, “Because other people who have lost a member of their family have had to deal with these constraints”.
Although the public has been urged not to congregate outside the royal residences due to the pandemic, Windsor was buzzing with onlookers and locals, bouquet in hand. Broadcast on television, the funeral reflected the military past proudly carried by this Prince Consort of record longevity in British history, who fought in the navy during World War II.
Covered with his personal standard, his sword, his navy cap and a wreath of flowers, his coffin had left at the end of the morning the private chapel of the castle for the hall of the castle. The Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the Army were thus present in Windsor to receive his coffin.
The Grenadier Guards Marching Band, of which Philip was colonel for 42 years, led the procession to St. George’s Chapel. The Dean of Windsor praised his “Unshakeable loyalty” to the queen, her “Courage”, her “Strength of soul” and his “Faith”. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Anglicans, gave the blessing at the end of the service.
Reunion
For the Windsors, this funeral was also an opportunity to reunite after the recent crises. It was the first time since his thunderous withdrawal from the monarchy and his departure across the Atlantic that Prince Harry had found the royal family in public, marked by the shadow of accusations of racism and indifference that he and his wife – even worn in a resounding interview with Oprah Winfrey. Pregnant with their second child, Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, remained in the United States, on the advice of her doctor.
United in 1997 behind their mother’s coffin, Diana, the two brothers, William and Harry, walked in the same line to follow their grandfather’s coffin. But their cousin Peter Phillips took his place as planned between them, a choice widely commented on in the press. On leaving the chapel, however, the two brothers were seen walking side by side and exchanging with the Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William.
In terms of clothing, the British royal family has endeavored to present a united front. All were in civilian clothes, a way to avoid distinguishing between Princes Andrew and Harry, both very attached to the army, but withdrawn from the monarchy. Even if he still belongs to the Navy, the appearance in uniform of Prince Andrew, second son of the Queen and former helicopter pilot, would have looked bad in view of his friendship with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, prosecuted for trafficking. minors.
At the end of the ceremony, the coffin was lowered into the royal crypt, where it will remain until the queen joins it there, upon his death. The spouses thus reunited will then have as their last residence the memorial of King George VI, father of Elizabeth II.
