Prince Philip’s last will remains a mystery. And so it should be 90 years

A private hearing on the request to seal the last will of the British Queen’s husband took place in July with Sir Andrew McFarlan, the Supreme Judge of the Family Courts, who heard arguments from lawyers representing the Duke’s administration, the Chief Government Adviser and the Attorney General. He made his decision on Thursday, September 16.

According to McFarlane, as head of the Supreme Court’s family division, he manages the vault, which houses more than 30 envelopes, each containing the sealed last will of a deceased member of the royal family. And for the first time in more than 100 years, he set out a process by which these wills could be made public.

Judge: There is no public interest in this privacy

“In my view, given the monarch’s constitutional status, it is appropriate to have a special practice in relation to royal wills. The protection afforded to the truly private aspects of this limited group of individuals .

He added that he had not personally seen Prince Philip’s will, nor had any of its contents been communicated to him, except the date of its drawing up and the identity of the executor of the executed will. He also stated that he had decided to hold the hearing in private, as otherwise it would probably provoke “very significant publicity and conjecture”, which could be undermined by the original purpose of the request for sealing.

“I accepted the claim that although there may be a public curiosity about the private arrangements that a member of the royal family may choose in his or her last will, there is no real public interest in the public knowing this completely private information,” the judge said. He added that there was no legal reason for any statement for media organizations, because the public interest is represented by the Attorney General.

According to the lawyers representing Philip’s property, the reports of the hearing could “provoke completely unsubstantiated speculation”, which would be “very upsetting” for the queen and the royal family.

He left emeralds for a lover? Seal it

Judge McFarlane added that the first member of the British royal family, whose last will was sealed by the court, was Prince Francis of Teck, the younger brother of Queen Mary, who died in 1910 (Prince Francis of Teck was the son of the Austrian nobleman Francis of Teck, also known as Francis von Hohenstein, who married into the British royal family in 1866 (editor’s note).

At the same time, this court decision had a slightly spicy touch at the time. As the Royal Legal Expert Michael L. Nash (author of “The Royal Last Will and Testament in Britain from 1509 to 2008”) recalled, a whole new legal mechanism for sealing and storing last wills was proposed after it became clear that Prince Francis of Teck bequeathed valuable emeralds, which Queen Mary, her lover, the Countess of Kilmore, regarded.

The envelope containing Prince Francis’s will is stored in a vault with Judge McFarlan, along with others, with the latest additions being the envelopes of the deceased queen’s mother and the last will of Princess Margaret’s sister, who died in 2002.

Seal it, I’m an illegitimate son! Don’t bother…

The case of the wills of these two ladies also led to a slight change in the process of depositing the last wills. In 2007, a man named Robert Andrew Brown, who claimed to be Margaret’s illegitimate son, asked for the will of both wills, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.

Although his claim was described as “annoying” and “abuse of process”, it had some effect – Judge McFarlane amended previous instructions to seal royal wills “indefinitely” (and therefore forever), and issued a decision that they could be privately inspected after the 90 years since their imposition.

Thus, according to this McFarlan verdict, every royal will should be opened and reviewed after 90 years by the monarch’s private lawyer, the administrator of the royal archives, the attorney general, and any personal representatives of the deceased who may still be available.

They decide whether a will can be published at this stage. However, according to Judge McFarlan, some of the king’s last wills will never be published, not even in part.

Sealing should be performed by a professional archivist to ensure proper storage of documents and seals. The court shall decide on the further details of the proceedings before the first will is sealed.

One hundred and twenty-five years is too much, 90 is enough

The Queen’s Attorney and Attorney General demanded the sealing of wills for 125 years, but Judge McFarlane ruled that 90 years was “reasonable and sufficient” and significantly reduced the risk of disclosing something that would affect the private lives of members of the royal family.

The judge further stated that he intended to publish the list of names appearing on 30 envelopes in his safe, but added that he would not do so until the time limit for a possible appeal against his decision had expired and a decision on that possible appeal had been decided.

However, the name of Diana, Princess of Wales, is not on the list. Unlike the other last wills of the members of the royal family, her will was published after her death in 1997, with all her property to be retained by her sons, who could take it in when they reached the age of 25.

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