A Few Words On Prince Phillip

 

 By Joe Mack

Britain's royal family said farewell to Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband of 73 years, who died last week, a few months short of his 100th birthday.

We all recall the wedding-disaster of Harry and Meagan.  The vulgar Black minister encouraging the couple to engage in erotic-activities. The Black choir noisily bouncing off the venerable walls. A time and place for everything. The funeral was a much classier event. I was in London a few years ago. I marveled at the castles and Churches! It dawned on me then, as it does now. The chorus is singing. The melody familiar and profoundly-beautiful to my Western-civilization sensibilities. 

 

Uh oh...just as I typed this I hear them break into a more modern dissonance tune. An affront to my ears! God, spare me! So far the only misstep. Glancing about the venue, I realize it is not the Kings and Queens who make a country great. It is the Artists. Those who pass the test of time. When looking at all the impressive tombs of Kings and Queen, my great regard was for the craftsmen. I wondered if my Literary Hero, Oscar Wilde was represented. One of the ushers bid me look up. There shining through the stained glass was the great man! The State condemned him to a year of hard labor for the crime of being Gay. There is a longer story concerning Royals you may wish to explore. Regardless. My point is to celebrate Prince Philip's illustrious life.  

 

Prince Phillip was a member of both the Greek  and Danish royal families.He was born in Greece, but his family was exiled from the country when he was eighteen months old.After being educated in France, Germany and Great Britain, he joined the Royal Navy  in 1939, at age 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, whom he had first met in 1934. During WWII he served with distinction in the British Mediterranean and Pacific  fleets.

 

When WWII ended, Phillip was given permission by King George VI to marry Elizabeth. After their engagement was announced,  July 1947, he abandoned his Greek and Danish titles and became a naturalized BritishSubject.

 

Prince Phillip went over well with the British public because he was known for always being straight foward and speaking his mind openly, although It got him into trouble a few times with the British press!

 

A moment of silence was observed across the United Kingdom at 3 p.m., Saturday, its beginning and end marked by a gun fired by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. The final shot signaled the start of a funeral service.

The Duke of Edinburgh, the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, was buried in a service attended by only 30 people who maintained social distancing in accordance with the country's COVID-19 regulations.

His was not a state funeral, as Philip was not a monarch. Instead, it was  a ceremonial funeral akin to the burial of the queen mother in 2002. The service lasted less than an hour.

Philip's coffin was draped with his personal standard, topped with his Admiral of the Fleet Naval Cap and a sword given to him by his father-in-law, King George VI, on the occasion of his marriage to the queen in 1947.

 

The Duke of Edinburgh was entombed in Royal Vault. The queen and Philip are expected to be buried together in the Royal Burial Ground on the Frogmore Estate close to Windsor Castle.

 

When the Queen joins him the Monarchy may fall. It's not certain those of the Royal Family who remain will be able to uphold the Kingdom.