LOS ANGELES (AP) – In “The Crown,” a front-line naval officer captures the heart of a future queen. But he is annoyed to play the second royal violin and crosses the boundaries of decorum and, perhaps, fidelity. He finally finds his way as a trusted partner and family patriarch.
How does the portrayal of Prince Philip, who died on Friday at the age of 99 of the Netflix drama, compare himself to the man himself and the life he lived with Queen Elizabeth II of Britain?
Prince Philip lived in the shadow of his wife, and the same goes for Philip in “The Crown,” as the title indicates. But some episodes take a more complete measure of the man, or at least the character (played successively by Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies, with Jonathan Pryce on the wings).
Peter Morgan, creator of the series that is on hiatus before its fifth and penultimate season arrives in 2022, has said that “The Crown” is the product of historical research and imagination and includes scenes that should not be take as fact.
Except for one case by the parties involved, for example, we do not know whether Philip was as rigid in his approach to the parental son Charles as he was sensitive to the daughter Anne, as “The Crown” says. Or what about the delicate notes of Philip’s marital infidelity on the part of the drama?
The series so far has taken Philip to the Middle Ages, covering only half of the nearly 100 years of the real world. “La Corona” also lacks Philip’s unapologetic fondness for degrading women and people of color.
But there are aspects of the life of the prince of Greek origin that justify the comparison with the fictitious version, which “The Crown” represents with a mostly favoring light: a bold and restless spirit, bound to the end by duty and devotion to the queen and the country.
DOMESTIC STRIFE
“The Crown”: Reluctant to hand over the traditional male privilege, Philip wants his children to bear his last name (Mountbatten), not his (Windsor). The answer is no.
When the death of Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, brings her to the throne, Philip leaves military service to play the role of consort. Disputes continue with Elizabeth, including her reluctance to kneel during her coronation.
They find a balance, with Philip half worthy of an affectionate marriage.
In fact, when Philip lost his attempt to use Mountbatten as a family name, according to Gyles Brandreth’s “Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage,” he complained, “I’m just a bloody amoeba.” man who could not give his children his name.
Eight years later, it was decided that the couple’s descendants would use a split surname, as in Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the son of Harry and Meghan.
In protest or not, Philip knelt before the newly crowned queen in 1952 and vowed to become his “lay man of life and limbs, and of the worship of the earth.”
On her 50th wedding anniversary, Elizabeth called him “my strength and my stay.”
MAN OF ACTION
“The Crown”: In 1969, Philip finds himself immersed in the television coverage of the first lunar landing and fails in his life by comparison. After prosaic real commitments to dental and textile facilities, the trained steering wheel has a chance to take control of a private jet.
He pushes the plane to the edge of space and, while the pilot protests that the trembling plane is at the limit, Philip responds: But look, we’ve lived too. Just a minute. “
Meeting with the American astronauts when they visit England as part of a victory round, Philip explains their position and their marriage prevented him “from the things I would have liked, as a man, as an adventurer “.
In fact: during World War II, Philip saw action while serving in battleships and destroyers, was decorated and, at the age of 21, achieved the rank of first lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
While conducting a full program of royal assignments and leading hundreds of charities, he learned to fly in the 1950s and was an avid polo and nautical player, as well as a painter and art collector. Still driving at age 97, he took a turn on the Land Rover.
MAN OF FAITH
“The Crown”: Philip is asked to create a spiritual retreat on the grounds of Windsor Castle for clergy who need inspiration in the Middle Ages. He ridicules the plan as “hot air,” but accepts it and ends up finding solace in his version of a male therapy group.
“How is your faith?”, Remembers his mother asking him anxiously, and then says to the meeting and his dean, “I’m here to admit to you that I lost him … I say : “Help. ‘”
In fact: Robin Woods, the then Dean of Windsor, proposed the founding of St. George’s House in 1966 and Philip became its enthusiastic co-founder and fundraiser, according to a companion book to “The Crown” by historian Robert Lacey. According to its website, the center encourages discussion on contemporary issues.
Woods and Philip were lifelong friends, and the prince criticized his sermons in St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Philip’s funeral will be held there on April 17.
Baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, although practicing Anglican, married to the supreme governor of the Church of England, Philip visited Mount Athos, a monastic community and a religious shrine in Greece. Leaders of various denominations in Britain say he was deeply interested in spiritual matters.
His shield bears the motto, “God is my help.”
TO THE DIANA TEAM
“The Crown”: When Diana Spencer is introduced to a family reunion at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, she and Philip are related during a day of deer hunting and he supports his marriage to Charles.
The relationship becomes bitter and Diana tells Philip that she is thinking of breaking up with Charles and the royal family whom she considers indifferent. Philip warns him against the step and fails his perspective: everyone is a stranger apart from the queen, “the only person, the only person who matters,” he says.
Actually: in letters between Diana and Philip that were said to have leaked, Philip supported Diana and criticized her son’s extramarital affair with his current wife Camilla.
But after Diana’s candid interview on television and a revealing biography, Philip’s tone supposedly became more severe and he wrote that she had to “fit in” or leave the family.