Prince Philip’s funeral will not have attracted the usual crowd at Windsor Castle. Pandemic obliges, the government asked the population not to go there.
Some fans of the royal family have decided to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh anyway. It’s a historic moment!
, explains, moved to tears, Catalina, a history teacher. This Romanian came to England six years ago and this event makes her feel like part of the country’s culture. I knew we wouldn’t see anything in front of the castle, but it was important to come. Either way, we couldn’t have stayed at home!
William and Paul, two in their forties who live in Windsor, decided to follow the ceremony on their cellphones from the table in the Horses and Groom pub, located just in front of the entrance to the castle. The pubs have just reopened, it was an opportunity both to be part of the event and to come back to our local pub!
, explains Paul. The two men say they are saddened by the event, especially in relation to the Queen. They spent 74 years together, they were true companions
, points out William.
Queen Elizabeth II, during the funeral of her husband, who died on April 9 at the age of 99. © Yui Mok, WPA Rota
On the phone screen, placed on the pub table, we see the coffin of Prince Philip coming out of the State Apartments, carried by the Grenadier Guards, these famous British soldiers in red jackets, but without their long black hair caps. bear.
“To Prince Philip’s health! “
The coffin is slipped into a bronze-green Land Rover, designed in collaboration with the prince himself. Ah, here is the machine!
, exclaims Paul. A few minutes later, the vehicle leaves for the Saint-Georges chapel. The crown only invited around 30 family members to meet health restrictions. Around the hearse, the Queen’s children: Prince Charles, first in the line of succession to the throne, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward. Just behind, are William and Harry, the two brothers, separated in this procession by Peter Philips, their cousin, Princess Anne’s firstborn and the eldest of Elizabeth II’s grandchildren.
At the end of the procession marched Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, Anne’s husband, and the Earl of Snowdon, the son of Margaret, the Queen’s sister.
From the pub, hard to hear anything from the marching band playing inside the castle courtyard. But the sounds of all phones produce a sort of jarring background sound. To Prince Philip’s health!
exclaims an Englishman from another table in the pub. Suddenly, all the customers on the terrace raise their pints in honor of the deceased. As the conversations heat up, visitors lift their eyes from their screens and step away from the ceremony. But at 3 p.m. local time, everyone gets up to respect the national minute of silence. The calm lasts, just disturbed by a few foreign journalists reporting live, causing some indignation among the British.
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Taking advantage of the reopening of pubs, the English locals paid tribute to Prince Philip in their own way. © Ouest-France
In civilian clothes
The participants in the procession enter masked in the Saint-Georges chapel. All are dressed in civilian clothes. This choice would have been made to avoid highlighting the quarrels of the royal family. Prince Andrew, who retired from public service in 2019 because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire and sex offender who committed suicide in his cell that same year, could not have worn military attire for that reason . It would have been the same for Harry, who lost all his military titles at the start of the year by permanently withdrawing from royal affairs.
The pub empties before the end of the television program. Only a few passers-by still remain in front of the castle gates in the vain hope of seeing something of the event. At the end of the ceremony, Prince Philip is buried in the vault of the royal family within the Chapel of Saint George, where he will remain until the death of the queen. The living, for their part, resume their life.
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