Slovak actor Milan Lasica once said that as husband of the ambassador for a time he was simply Herr Vášáry. The Duke of Edinburgh has been “Mr. Elizabeth” for almost 74 years. He liked it and did great.
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He never shaded the queen in the spotlight. And whenever Elizabeth needed him, she could lean on him. For example, with the certainly difficult upbringing of four children. Philip was the glue of the royal family in many difficult times. “I owe him more debt than he would ever claim,” the British queen once said to her wife at a state dinner.
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Condolences are raining down on all sides in the United Kingdom, extremely numerous and strong, as if their writers feared the devastating effect that a husband’s death could have on the queen herself. It’s like taking the battery out of your cell phone and expecting it to continue to work fully.
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The big photo of the always upright prince peeked at me in a black frame from the Premier League mobile application. Philip was such a prominent figure in British life that no one could turn his back on his death. And he probably doesn’t even want to. As the head of Czech diplomacy, Tomáš Petříček, reminded, one of the indigenous tribes living in the Vanuatu archipelago worshiped Philip as a god.
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Three of Philip’s four sisters married the Nazis. He himself fought against Nazi Germany and Italy as a naval officer. And when I say fought, I don’t mean the handsome war in the General Staff deep in the rear. Philip commanded the headlights of a British battleship in the Mediterranean Battle of Matapan, escorting convoys and repelling attacks by German submarines, and finally watching the Japanese surrender in the Gulf of Tokyo in 1945.
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Prince Philip was a symbol of the British generation of World War II. His departure is a loss to that good old Britain, bony and survived for someone. The version of the British royal family we knew from the 20th century is leaving with Philip. Measured by some ill-considered and some downright stupid statements, the Duke of Edinburgh froze in the 20th century and was not “compatible” with the correct, even hypercorrect, Britain of the 21st century. A man who would have called Istanbul Constantinople in the 22nd century without leaving diplomatic or armed conflict has left us.
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According to the people who met the prince in person, you first noticed on him his giant hands resembling lion’s paws. He created the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which gave thousands of young talents a chance to fulfill their dream. Philip has loved sports since childhood. A passionate cricketer and a former excellent polo player left.
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Prince Philip was a devoted man. Devoted to the Queen, devoted to his wife, devoted to the United Kingdom. As for devotion, he set the bar so high that it would be extremely difficult for Prince Charles, Prince William, or any other prominent figure in the royal family to match Philip.
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