Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband and consort to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, died Friday at Windsor Castle at the age of 99, following a long recent hospital stay. The queen once described the duke as “my strength and stay,” and over the course of their 73-year marriage, he was a constant presence by her side at public events, until his retirement from public duty in 2017.
In a statement Buckingham Palace said, “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.”
The Duke of Edinburgh spent the final weeks of his life at Windsor Castle recuperating after a heart operation in March, during what was the longest hospitalization of his life. He spent his final days with the queen by his side at the monarch’s favorite residence. The couple, who were married for 73 years, moved to Windsor when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020 and remained there throughout his final illness.
While she rarely shows her feelings, there will be no masking the sadness of the queen—affectionately called “Lilibet” by Philip—as the royal family, the nation, and the Commonwealth mourn a great loss. Those who know her say the monarch will turn to family and her faith for strength and support in the coming weeks and months. “Her grief will be very private,” says her former press secretary Charles Anson. “It will show on the day itself, but inside the Queen is very strong and she will, I’m sure, draw on her faith to get her through this.”
Anson continued, “I’m sure that she and the duke would have discussed this inevitable moment in time. The duke would want her to carry on and that’s how the Queen will want to be. His view would be ‘don’t make a fuss about it.’ That’s always been his way.”
Philip was born of a royal soup, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (exiled from Greece a year after Philip was born on the island of Corfu), and Princess Alice of Battenberg, a relative of the British royal family. Though high in title, the family were relative paupers, surviving on various generosities and grace-and-favor arrangements. Philip was educated mainly at British boarding schools, where he proved driven and well liked. He joined the Royal Navy at 18, taking to military service with aplomb. It was around that time that Philip first met then Princess Elizabeth, who, at 13, was immediately smitten with the dashing young sportsman five years her senior. (And was her third cousin through Queen Victoria, their shared great-great-grandmother.)
As Philip and Elizabeth’s courtship was slow but deliberate, and the two struck up a private romance—amidst plenty of rumor and some sniping about Philip’s pennilessness and German ancestry—before announcing their engagement in 1947. In order to wed Elizabeth, Philip gave up his previous royal titles and took the surname Mountbatten—effectively severing his official ties to Greece and Denmark. He also quit smoking, at his future wife’s behest, just before the wedding.
After they were married Philip stayed in the navy and the royal couple lived in Malta, a time described as some of the happiest and carefree years of their life together. The death of King George VI in 1952 was life-changing not just for the queen who was then just 25, but also for Philip. It marked the end of his naval career and the beginning of a new chapter of public life serving the queen and the nation.
From the outset Philip knew he would have no place or voice in state matters. The queen was Head of State but at Buckingham Palace he was head of the household, running the royal estates and making many of the key decisions around the lives of their four children—Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. But navigating his professional royal role wasn’t always seamless and took him years to finesse. “I just tried to find useful things to do,” he said.
He started working with charities and taking on patronages; by his retirement in 2017 he had 800 charities to his name and was colonel in chief of eight regiments. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program, a youth initiative founded more than 60 years ago, has changed the lives of millions of young people in Great Britain. He also pursued hobbies, like sports, painting, and aviation, which he first took up in the early 1950s. He went on several long, solo flying missions—though, as with much of Philip’s postcoronation life, there were limits on what he was able to do while still meeting his royal duties.
After Prince George, husband to Queen Anne, and Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria, Philip was only the third man to be married to a British monarch, a role he approached with a studied mix of public pride and, by most accounts, private humor. Theirs was one of the most successful royal marriages in history, eclipsing the 57-year-long marriage of King George III and Queen Charlotte. In 2007 the queen and the duke celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with a public service of thanksgiving. It was a historic milestone, but the celebrations were characteristically low-key, with a private dinner at Windsor Castle for their loved ones.
Philip was there alongside the queen for countless events over the decades, always one step behind her and clear of his position as her consort. While he has been criticized for his gaffes and insensitive jokes, in the past Philip’s sense of humor often amused the queen, who can be shy. She found Philip to be a wonderful icebreaker and aides recall there was often laughter between the couple.
“I saw endless examples of how they worked together as a team,” Anson said. “You saw that togetherness all the time on walkabouts. The duke would often spot people in the crowd, lift them up over the railings, and take them to the Queen.” When asked the secret to the success of their marriage Philip said that the queen “has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”
In public he was always there with her and for her. In November 1992, Philip cut short a trip to Canada when Windsor Castle caught fire to be with the queen. In 2002, during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he was a pillar of strength in a year when the monarch lost her mother and her sister Princess Margaret. It was during these Jubilee celebrations she paid tribute to the duke and his “invaluable contribution to my life over these past 50 years.”
According to royal author Ingrid Seward, when the duke contracted a bladder infection after standing in the rain and cold for hours during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant, the queen told him, “Don’t you die on me.” The duke responded, “Of course I won’t. Not until this is all over anyway.”
In May 2017 he retired from public life with the queen’s blessing, having carried out roughly 22,000 engagements, 5,500 speeches, and 637 official overseas visits. He then enjoyed a peaceful life out of the spotlight at Wood Farm in Sandringham. His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were regular visitors, but the duke also enjoyed being on his own. Fit for much of the time, he drove around the royal estates until he was involved in a serious car crash in January 2019, which resulted in him rescinding his driver’s license. But he continued to pursue other hobbies including carriage driving, which he continued even after his 98th birthday. Teaching his great-granddaughter Lady Louise Windsor to carriage drive was one of his great joys.
While he had few friends in later life—Philip outlived almost every one of his friends—the duke found great pleasure in painting, walking, and reading his vast collection of history books. Because the queen continued to work, the couple lived largely separate lives toward the end of the duke’s life with Her Majesty based at Windsor and London and Philip at Sandringham, but they remained close by speaking on the phone regularly. When coronavirus lockdowns began in 2020, the queen and duke were able to spend more time together than ever before, which one source described as “wonderful” for the couple. According to royal sources, the couple enjoyed daily walks around the private gardens and made a point of dining together each evening.
The duke, who was seen on several occasions during the pandemic including at the wedding of his granddaughter Princess Beatrice, had appeared in good health. Neither he nor the queen contracted the COVID-19 virus and were among the first people in the world to be vaccinated against the disease. While residing at Windsor Castle they were supported by household staff dubbed “HMS Bubble.”
Although he had formally retired from public life, the duke emerged for a series of official pictures with the queen on what was the Duke’s 99th birthday and he was at Windsor Castle for a short military ceremony to hand over the colonel in chief of the rifles title to his daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall in July 2020.
“The Queen and Philip made a decision when the duke retired that they would be apart more, but they were on the phone to each other very often,” said the queen’s biographer Sally Bedell Smith. “Philip always loved Wood Farm which became his base and the Queen would go and spend time with him when she could and visit her racehorses. She wanted him to be in a place where he could be happy and comfortable. He was able to go on walks, paint, and go out on his carriages in the morning. He loved nothing more than to ride around the Sandringham Estate.”
Charles and Camilla would often visit the duke when they were at the Sandringham estate, as did William and Kate, who live at nearby Anmer Hall. “The Queen will be well-supported,” says Bedell Smith. “She has her children and her grandchildren to take care of her, she’s certainly not alone. Most of her friends and relatives are no longer with us, but some of them are and she has long-standing ladies in waiting like Lady Susan Hussey and Lady Virginia ‘Ginny’ Airlie who will be there for her. The Queen is incredibly resilient. She has a real enviable quality of equanimity and her deep religious faith, both have enabled her to weather a lot.”
The queen was enormously proud of Philip’s achievements and encouraged him to retire so that he could enjoy his final years in peace away from the spotlight he often resented. Before he retired from public life she bestowed the greatest honor, appointing Philip with the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) for services to the sovereign. It was her way of publicly acknowledging everything that he had done for her over the years.
— Princess Anne Opens Up About Her Lifetime as a Royal
— Inside Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s First Meeting
— The Most Surprisingly Relatable Mishaps of Queen Elizabeth’s Wedding Morning
— Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth’s Key Conflicts
— How Meghan and Harry’s Royal Exit Affected the Queen and Crown
— Why a Modest Farmhouse Became the Royal Family’s Favorite Private Retreat
— The Life of Queen Elizabeth, in 11 Photographs
— From the Archive: The Dynastic Struggle That Rocked Queen Elizabeth’s Marriage
