“It is with deep sorrow that the Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness died peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle,” the British Royal Family tweeted.
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Philip was a month and a half ago hospitalized for another month. He was struggling with an infection and also underwent heart surgery.
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Prince Philip was originally a Greek, and then of Danish descent. He was born in 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu and was a nephew of the then Greek king Constantine I. He was related to almost all European royal houses, the British Queen Victoria was his great-great-grandmother.
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Prince Philip in 1922, one year old.
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He is only eighteen months old when the monarchy in Greece is overthrown. The family is banished and the then British King George V sends a Navy ship to evacuate them. Prince Philip is hastily hoisted on board in an orange box, because there is so soon no carrycot available.
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Watch a short overview in video of the life of Prince Philip below (and read on below):
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The young Philip goes to strict boarding schools in England, Nazi Germany and Scotland. Immediately after high school, he opts for a course in the Navy at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. During a royal visit to that school, he is chosen to escort the young Crown Princess Elizabeth. She is then 13 years old, but never loses sight of him. And vice-versa.
A year after the Second World War, in which Philip is awarded for his bravery, he asks her to marry him. The couple married at Westminster Abbey in London in 1947. By the way, they are distantly related, because Queen Victoria is of course also Elizabeth’s great-great-grandmother.
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Philip and Elizabeth on their honeymoon at the Broadlands estate, Hampshire, 1947.
© 2017 by Keystone USA via ZUMA
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Philip and Elizabeth in the same spot on the Broadlands, Hampshire estate, 60 years later, 2007.
Photo Pool / Anwar Hussein Collection / WENN
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Leading up to his marriage, Philip must convert from Greek Orthodox to Anglican, renounce his titles as Greek and Danish Prince, and use an Anglicized and inverted version (Mountbatten) of his German name (Battenberg), because all that sounds German is loaded so shortly after the Second World War.
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But even that name, Mountbatten, is not allowed to be given to his wife at their wedding – so Elizabeth will continue to be called Windsor – and not initially to his children. He bitterly notes that he has been reduced to an amoeba, the only man in the UK not allowed to pass on his family name to his children.
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He had to swallow more. He has – finally – been appointed commander of his own ship, HMS Magpie, but in 1952 King George VI dies and his wife becomes queen. That means the end of his career in the Navy, and the end of his career tout court.
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His main task will now be to support the Queen. On all official occasions, he will be two steps behind the queen throughout the rest of his life. That step back is a tough nut to crack, but when asked if he finds this difficult, there is invariably a typical “stiff upper lip” answer: “What’s the point? You just get on with it.” (What’s the point of moping about that? You just carry on with your task.)
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Prince Philip: Always two steps behind the Queen on official occasions.
Mandatory Credit: Photo Pool/Anwar Hussein Collection/WENN.com
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Initially, his son Charles even preceded him in the protocol pecking order: Charles is a prince, and Philip is “only” Duke of Edinburgh, a title bestowed upon him at his marriage. Queen Elizabeth will straighten things out for her disaffected husband: she will grant him the title of prince, and from 1960 his children will be allowed to change their family name to Mountbatten-Windsor.
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By the side of the Queen in the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament in May 2010.
Belgian
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But otherwise, Prince Philip has to content himself with a lot of honorary positions. He will include chair of the World Wildlife Fund, Chancellor of the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Salford and Wales, as well as patron of more than 800 organizations. And he can also modernize the landscaping of Windsor Park.
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The Queen also gives him a free hand in raising their children. With mixed results. Crown Prince Charles enters into a doomed marriage to Lady Diana Spencer, and after her death remarries his high school sweetheart Camilla Parker Bowles. Princess Anne and Prince Andrew will also divorce, only his youngest son Prince Edward is still married to Sophie Rhys-Jones, Countess of Wessex.
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On the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London, with the Queen, her mother and Crown Prince Charles.
Belgian
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Prince Philip is much appreciated as the initiator of “The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award”, a system whereby young people who have no interest in the youth movement can still receive recognition for a sustained effort to work on themselves.
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They have to pass tests – it could be volunteering, sports, gaining technical skills or completing an expedition – and can win a bronze, silver or gold medal. Since 1956, more than 8 million young people worldwide have participated.
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Prince Philip’s role in this worldwide organization has since been taken over by his youngest son, Prince Edward. He will also reportedly take over the title of Duke of Edinburgh from his father.
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Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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But the prince will probably be remembered above all as the man who manages to elevate tactlessness to an art form. His faux pas are legendary. He once called the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl Reich Chancellor, which was not very sensible.
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When the Queen is introduced to Stephen Menary, an army cadet nearly blinded after an IRA bombing, she inquires with interest how much vision he has left. “Not much, judging by his tie,” says Philip.
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Avalon.red. All rights reserved.
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He greeted Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, dressed in a traditional robe, saying, “You look like you are ready to go to bed.” And in 1999 he asked the first black Member of the House of Lords: “And from which exotic part of the world are you from?” “Birmingham”, Lord Taylor replies.
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PA Wire/Press Association Images
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Even at an advanced age, he is sometimes spectacularly in the news. In January 2019 – at the age of 97 – he causes a car accident and rolls over with his Range Rover. He himself is not injured, but two occupants of another car are. He decides that from now on he will no longer be behind the wheel – or at least not on the public road.
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A year and a half earlier, he had announced that he was retiring from public life, so he would no longer appear on official occasions (unless he felt like it himself, such as at his grandson Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle.
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Immediately there were wild speculations about his health, but that was not the point. He was 96, had 65 years of service on the counter, and he had had enough now. He thought he was allowed to retire at that age.
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In a small part of the world, Prince Philip will remain immortal. In Tanna, an island that is part of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean, the inhabitants of the remote village of Yaohnanen worship him as a god for an untraceable reason.
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Since his visit in 1974, they believe he is descended from ancestral spirits, and have erected a shrine around his portrait, adorned with the Union Flag. In their eyes, the prince attained an ever higher spiritual status towards the end of his life.
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AP
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See also the explanation of Great Britain expert Ivan Ollevier in “Het Journaal”:
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