In April he was admitted to hospital for a planned hip operation scheduled for the following day. He had missed several public events in the previous weeks, including an Easter church service in Windsor.
Ten days after his successful surgery, his daughter Princess Anne visited him in hospital , with the Queen revealing that he was "getting on very well" as he learned to walk again. Just months later, he became the first lieutenant of HMS Wallace - making him one of the youngest in that position in the Royal Navy at just 21 years old.
They have four children - Prince Charles , Princess Anne , Prince Andrew and Prince Edward - as well as eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. On January 17, , Philip was left "conscious but shocked and very, very shaken" after his Land Rover flipped during a shocking crash near the Sandringham estate. He was uninjured after the 4x4 he was driving was "T-boned" and then overturned on the A at Babingley, Norfolk, at 3pm.
But two days later, he received a warning from police after he was snapped driving without a seatbelt. He gave up his licence in April Prince Philip has been a patron of more than organisations, serving as chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards.
A famous sneer since attributed to more than one official claimed the prince was "rough, ill-mannered, uneducated and would probably not be faithful". But naysayers could do nothing to deter the future Queen. According to biographer Philip Eade, Philip's letters from reveal an ardent young man with a new sense of purpose. He wrote to his soon-to-be mother-in-law: "I am sure I do not deserve all the good things that have happened to me.
To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty. King George gave Philip permission to marry his daughter. But first there were some tweaks to make. The erstwhile Prince of Greece and Denmark became a naturalised British subject, formally joined the Church of England and abandoned his foreign titles.
On his wedding day, 20 November , he was made Duke of Edinburgh, a name he was widely known by for the rest of his life. He was 26, and his new wife The royal couple would have just over four years and two children together before duty came knocking. The fateful news reached them at a game lodge in Kenya, during their tour of the Commonwealth. King George VI, Elizabeth's father, was dead at Commander Michael Parker, the Duke of Edinburgh's friend and private secretary, described the moment he realised his wife was now Queen.
I have never felt so sorry for anyone in all my life. He just breathed heavily, in and out, as though he were in shock. He saw immediately that the idyll of their life together had come to an end. Philip's naval ambitions were curbed. The new Queen Elizabeth would need her husband by her side. The Duke of Edinburgh was named as the Queen's consort. His primary function was to support his wife. A long-running row broke out in the early s when Philip wanted the Royal Family to take his surname, Mountbatten.
Philip struggled to find purpose in the limited role set out for him. But as a natural pragmatist, he was determined to blow fresh air through the stuffier corridors of Buckingham Palace. The Duke never forgot his family's forced exodus from Greece, and believed monarchies must adapt to survive. He set up informal lunches where the Queen could meet people from a broader range of backgrounds. The footmen - palace servants with a traditional uniform - stopped powdering their hair.
And when he learned the palace was running a second kitchen exclusively to feed the royals, he had one shut down. Some changes were more personal, and reflected his childlike love of gadgets. Before the Coronation, when Philip and the future Queen moved into Clarence House in , he happily installed an array of labour-saving devices, including one in his wardrobe that would eject a suit at the push of a button.
The Duke also championed a minute fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary entitled Royal Family, which aired in and was considered landmark television. It featured the Queen feeding carrots to her Trooping the Colour horse, watching TV and discussing salad at a Balmoral barbecue while Princess Anne cooked sausages.
At Buckingham Palace, Philip had intercoms put in so that servants no longer had to ferry written messages to his wife. He carried his own luggage, and cooked his own breakfast in his rooms with an electric frying pan - until the Queen objected to the smell. As the longest-serving consort in British history, the prince took on some 22, solo engagements.
When he retired from royal duties in , he was said to be patron, president or a member of more than organisations. Accompanying the globetrotting Queen on Commonwealth tours and state visits, he visited countries in an official capacity, making use of his fluent French and German.
The countries included Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation, where he is revered by one rainforest community as the reincarnation of an ancient warrior. But one of his most enduring legacies is the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, founded in at the urging of his former headmaster, Kurt Hahn.
Participants aged can gain awards by doing volunteer work, learning physical activities and skills, and undertaking an expedition like a mountain trek or a sailing trip.
In , almost 1. In his spare time, Philip was a talented sportsman. He learned to sail at Gordonstoun, and became a regular competitor in the regatta at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, where sailing races are held each summer. He loved equine sports, including carriage driving, and was among the UK's top four polo players in the mids. While largely avoiding personal scandals, Philip was known for his outspoken nature and controversial remarks. In honor of his 90th birthday, in , the Daily Mirror published a list of "90 classic gaffes" that were attributed to Philip over the years.
Within his family, Philip intervened in personal relationships, at times leading to conflict. In , he pressured his son Charles to either wed or leave Lady Diana Spencer.
When their subsequent marriage proved difficult, Philip and the queen reportedly pushed for reconciliation. After Princess Diana died in a car crash in , Philip participated in her funeral, walking with grandsons William and Harry in the procession. Months later, Mohamed Al-Fayed publicly accused Philip of being a racist who orchestrated the car crash that killed Mohamed's son, Dodi Fayed , and Diana.
An official inquest found no evidence of conspiracy, however, and the crash was ruled accidental. Having previously dealt with such ailments as a blocked coronary artery and a bladder infection, in early June , days before his 92nd birthday, Philip underwent exploratory abdominal surgery. He was released from the London Clinic on June 17, following more than a week in the hospital. In May , it was announced that year-old Philip, the longest-serving royal consort in British history, would retire from public engagements in the summer.
One month later, he was hospitalized again with an infection, but was said to be in "good spirits. The operation was successful, and the prince was discharged from the hospital eight days later. In February , Philip was admitted to a London hospital as "a precautionary measure" after he felt unwell. Two weeks later he was transferred to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, also in London, "where doctors will continue to treat him for an infection, as well as undertake testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition.
Philip passed away the morning of April 9, , at Windsor Castle. He was His funeral service was held on Saturday, April 17 at St. George's Chapel in Windsor. Due to COVID, it was only attended by 30 members of the royal family, who sat socially distanced and wore masks.
Instead of a traditional hearse, Philip's casket was driven to the church in the back of a custom Land Rover at his request.
0コメント