In Memoriam: Prince Philip of Edinburgh

 

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the time of her coronation.

I'll be frank that I'm not one to gush over the British Royal Family.  I'm not even in the category of fan.  I think that monarchy has outlived its day, and really ought to go, particularly because its inseparably tied in most of the European lands which it retains a toehold in the Reformation, which makes it a somewhat retrograde anachronism in addition to simply being an anachronism.

Be that as it may, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh were probably the ideal monarchs for the the post World War Two United Kingdom.  I don't envy them the role.  During this period they saw the decline and evaporation of the English Empire, the massive diminishment of the Commonwealth, the shunning of British Dominion status and the enormous decline of the Church of England, of which the Queen is the titular head.  

And this doesn't even begin to address their greater family, which has been full of unfortunate occurrences, ranging from the drama over Prince Charles and Lady Diana, to the the most recent goings on.  Through it all, while they've taken heat from time to time, they've remained pretty dignified.  

Prince Philip was of a different age in many ways.

Born of Danish and Greek linage, and into the Greek royal family, he symbolized an era in which, while monarchy was in decline, it remained practically its own nationality.  Born at Mons Prepos on Corfu to Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, he was a member of the Greek and Danish royal families.

Prince Andrew.

His father was an active, and at least somewhat insubordinate, Army officer in the Greek army and was exiled along with the Greek royal family following the September 1922 coup in that country that resulted from Greece's military disasters in Turkey.  Given this, Philip, who was only one year old at the time, grew up outside of Greece and Philip was educated in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Princess Alice.

Philip was a naturalized British citizen from early in his youth, through his uncle, Louis Mountbatten.  At the start of World War Two, he joined the Royal Navy and served in it throughout the Second World War.  He met Elizabeth, his future wife and the future Queen, in 1934 and began corresponding with her during World War Two, starting in 1939, when she was 13 and he was 18.  They married following the war.  Philip was baptized in the Orthodox Church, which is not surprising given that he was part of the Greek royal family, but the easy switching of religions was a hypocritical feature of royal families.  His mother had been a Protestant who converted to Orthodoxy and became very sincere, so genuine changes in religious fealty did occur in royal families of course.  It'll be interesting to see, now that he has passed, if any lingering attachment to Orthodoxy will be evidenced in his funeral, particularly now as the British Royal Family has been departing from strict tradition.  As the husband of the Queen, he became the Prince Consort, a role which he served in for a very long time.

Prince Philip was almost 100 years old, and Queen Elizabeth is not that far behind.  They've endured the recent embarrassments brought about first by Prince Andrew and now by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan.  They seem to be a symbol of an earlier time, and in some ways, his passing emphasizes that.  The Queen of course continues on, and indeed, if there's going to be a Royal Family in the United Kingdom in the future, it practically depends on her ability to survive, carry on, and pass through the current era.