Great Britain's Prince Philip Dies At Age 99

Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband and therefore the Duke of Edinburgh, died Friday at age 99, Buckingham Palace announced. He was the primary male royal consort since Queen Victoria's time within the 1800s — and therefore the longest-serving consort in British history.

"It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Philip, Duke of Edinburgh," the Royal Family's official website said. "His Royal Highness gave up the ghost peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements are going to be made in due course. The royalty joins with people around the world in mourning his loss."

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced 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. pic.twitter.com/XOIDQqlFPn
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 9, 2021

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was a dashing young officer when he courted then-Princess Elizabeth after war II when he had served with the Royal Navy's Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.

"To are spared within the war and seen victory, to possess been given the prospect to rest and to re-adjust me, to possess fallen crazy completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty," he wrote Elizabeth in 1946.

By the time of their wedding in 1947, he had renounced his royal titles and naval career, taken British citizenship, and agreed that his children would carry his wife's surname of Windsor.

These were significant sacrifices, says Karina Urbach of the University of London's Institute of Historical Research. "He must have regretted it tons," she says. "It's a privileged life, of course, but it is also a boring life. It also meant that a person like him, who is an alpha man, who wants to steer, who wants to be recognized in his profession, you know, couldn't fulfill that."

Later in life, Philip took to describing himself as "the world's most experienced plaque unveiler."

Philip was born in Corfu, Greece, into a deeply dysfunctional branch of the Greek royalty. His father was notorious as a philanderer and gambler. His mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a psychiatric hospital, became deeply religious. Young Philip grew up couch-surfing between royal relatives across Europe.

"I had vaguely thought, 'What could I do?' " he told the BBC in 1995. "Bit difficult being stateless."

In the early years, Philip was considered a rebel and a modernizer. He bristled at stuffy courtiers and allowed cameras behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace.

But by the 1970s, Philip was widely seen as a crotchety, angular figure trailing his wife at royal walkabouts, emitting intermittent and much-reported gaffes. He called Beijing a "ghastly" city while on a visit there. He once asked a female navy cadet if she worked during a strip club. And he congratulated a British backpacker in Papua New Guinea for not being eaten.

Matthew Glencross, a historian at King's College London, says these statements may are intentional. "The man was no idiot," he says. "The man knew when he was saying certain things. and that I think he almost deliberately did it. He quite enjoyed it, because it provided the sunshine side of a royal tour."

If it bothered Queen Elizabeth, she never discloses. Philip was her closest companion and confidant and one among the last links to her life before the throne.

"He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments. But he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay of these years," she said 50 years after their wedding. The couple had four children: Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Edward.