Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth II, died on Friday morning at the age of 99. He had recently been hospitalized and underwent heart surgery.
“With deep sorrow, the queen’s majesty announces the death of her beloved husband, her royal highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” said a statement from Buckingham Palace. “Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle,” the statement specified.
The British media have already echoed the news and reflected it on their covers. “Phillip is dead”; “The Duke of Edinburgh died at the age of 99” and “Good night, Phillip”, were some of the headlines that the press dedicated to the announcement of the Prince’s death. The BBC, UK’s public television station, interrupted its regular programming to report the Duke’s death with regret.
Prince Philip died after becoming the royal consort of the most longevity of the British Crown with more than 70 years alongside Queen Elizabeth II. He was always in the shadow of his wife with great loyalty and a propensity to show little respect for political correctness.
If his wife, who came to the throne in 1952, broke all longevity records as a monarch, Philip was the longest-serving consort of that honor. He has been since 2009, when he surpassed Charlotte, the wife of George III. “He is my rock. He has been my strength and my support,” Queen Elizabeth once said, even as someone usually not inclined to show affection in public.
In 2017 he retired from public activities after having participated in more than 22,000 official events, but his main value was being “the only man in the world to treat the Queen as a human being, as an equal,” Lord Charteris, a former private secretary of the Monarch once explained.
Phillip, always standing tall, was always behind the Queen as required by protocol, The Prince assumed his secondary role with better or worse disposition.
By his own admission, it took years of apprenticeship to find his place in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth II and in the hearts of the British people, but then he enjoyed a high popularity score amongst them, as did his wife.
