Queen Elizabeth II said goodbye this Saturday to the man with whom she was married for 73 years, her “strength and support”, Prince Philip, at a sober military funeral with masks and few guests due to the pandemic.
The funerals of British royalty are usually large-scale, planned for years and attended by monarchs and rulers from around the world.
But restrictions imposed by the coronavirus forced plans to be modified for the burial of Philip, who died on April 9, two months before his 100th birthday. The ceremony was limited to 30 intimate guests with masks and safety distances.
The event began with a minute of silence before the religious service at St George’s, the 15th-century Gothic chapel in Windsor’s almost thousand-year-old Castle, about 50 km west of London.
Wearing their military medals on civilian clothes, the four children and several of the grandchildren of the royal couple accompanied on foot there the green Land Rover, specially designed by Felipe to carry his coffin, during a brief funeral procession through the gardens. of the castle.
The queen followed them in an official Bentley with a lady companion.
However, the monarch, who turns 95 next Wednesday, sat alone in the chapel to say goodbye to her husband, the man she married while still a princess in 1947 and whose death left her alone in the decline of his reign.
A choir of four distant singers on the huge nave sang songs chosen by the Duke of Edinburgh himself, including two he himself commissioned from British composers Benjamin Britten in 1961 and William Lovelady in 1996.
And the Dean of Windsor, David Conner, recalled Philip’s “service life.”
After the funeral, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Anglicans, the Duke was descended in private to the royal crypt of St George’s Chapel to be buried.
– Guillem and Enric –
The prince consort was a constant presence alongside Elizabeth II since, at just 25, she was crowned in 1952, when the United Kingdom was rebuilding after World War II and her empire was beginning to collapse.
The monarch posted a touching personal photograph on Saturday in which the two appeared relaxed and smiling in 2003 in Cairo’s National Park in Cairngorms.
And images of key moments of the marriage were spread on the social networks of the royal family.
Numerous real experts say that it was Felipe who managed with an iron fist a family marked by crises, helping the queen to endure scandals.
On Saturday, the eyes were on Princes Henry and William, relations are strained.
This was the 36th public appearance of Enrique, 36, with royalty since he and his wife Meghan, who did not travel to the UK to be pregnant, left their royal duties and went to live. in California.
Enrique did not walk after the coffin next to his brother, 38 years old. Among them was his cousin Peter Phillips, which fueled speculation about a persistent dispute.
However, the two left chatting out of the ceremony, accompanied by William’s wife, Catherine, in a possible sign of reconciliation.
– “The country will miss it” –
Due to the coronavirus the British were asked not to travel to Windsor. Yet some decided to make the trips while most of the country watched the event on television, as did Prime Minister Boris Johnson from his Checkers country residence.
“People are not supposed to come, but this is a big event, unique in a generation, the Duke was special,” Mark, 57, one of dozens of security guards, told AFP. deployed on the streets of Windsor.
“It was very important for me to be here today,” said Kaya Mar, a 65-year-old painter who arrived on the first train from London with a large portrait of Philip under his arm. “He was a good man” and “the country will miss him,” he said.
Covered with his sword, his naval cap and his personal banner, the coffin of the duke had been moved tomorrow by bearers of the First Battalion of Grenadiers – of which Felipe was colonel for 42 years – from the private chapel from the royal family to another castle hall.
Before the procession, the royal guards with their tall black bear-haired hats and dozens of representatives of other military corps lined up on the impeccable lawn of the castle’s central courtyard as they played the fanfares.
Under a bright sun, came the duke’s personal carriage, pulled by his two ponies and wearing the deceased’s cap and gloves.
On the steps of the chapel were positioned the representatives of the cavalry, dressed in finery, with their metal torsos and long feathered helmets.
The bearers then entered the coffin, for the final ceremony.