LONDON – His coffin was carried by a military green Land Rover he helped design. Prince Philip was buried at Windsor Castle on Saturday in a rigorous, carefully choreographed funeral that captured his steely role in the British royal family and offered a solemn glimpse into his uncertain future.
Queen Elizabeth II said goodbye to Philip, her husband, who died of solitude in St. George’s Chapel on April 9, two months before his 100th birthday. She was dressed in a mask and kept away from her children and grandchildren by pandemic social distancing requirements that limited attendance to 30 people.
Her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry were also separated from one of their cousins as they walked behind Philip’s coffin. This quirk of royal protocol dramatized the brotherhood gap that opened following Harry’s marriage to a former American actress, Meghan Markle.
That wedding took place almost three years ago in the same Gothic chapel on a similarly crystal clear Saturday. It was both a joyful contrast and a poignant reminder of the turmoil that has gripped the House of Windsor since its patriarch retired and a new generation of royals took the spotlight.
A thaw shimmered between Harry and William as the brothers walked together after the funeral and spoke softly to each other. But this was a dire occasion, a family sadly gathered to mark the death of a man who many credited with providing stability and discipline to younger kings as they struggled to face the pressures of duty and fame .
If Harry and Meghan’s wedding was a vivid depiction of a new-age royal family with a gospel choir and African-American preacher, Philip’s funeral was a throwback to the traditions of the monarchy. There was no eulogy, despite some reports that Prince Charles would pay tribute to his father.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, and the Dean of Windsor, the Right Rev. David Conner, recited the readings and not the family members. A four-member choir, cut off by the pandemic and standing apart on a stone floor, sang hymns chosen by Philip, the voices of which echoed in the empty nave of the chapel.
The royal family listened in silence, separated in family bubbles, their faces softly lit by lamps. Harry sat alone and bowed his head during a hymn.
Less than an hour later, Philip’s coffin was lowered into the royal vault when the dean said, “Go on your journey of this world, oh Christian soul” and the pipe major of the Royal Regiment of Scotland was playing. The brisk schedule matched the uncomplicated manner of Philip, a man known for both his distant demeanor and fondness for gaffes, as well as his constant loyalty to the Queen.
Still, the ceremony was rich in symbols of the military career that Philip, whose official title was Duke of Edinburgh, abandoned when his young wife unexpectedly ascended to the throne in 1953 after the death of her father, George VI.
The Duke’s coffin was wrapped in his personal standard and carried his sword and naval cap. On nine pillows on the altar were military insignia, including the wings of the Royal Air Force of Philip and the staff of the field marshal, as well as the Order of the Elephant given to him by Denmark and the Order of the Savior of Greece. These symbolized his royal ancestry as Prince of Denmark and Greece.
After Philip was buried, the Royal Marines trumpeters played “The Last Post” and “Action Stations,” a call to battle stations that is seldom played at funerals but can be requested by a Royal Navy veteran. During World War II, the Duke saw combat aboard a British destroyer and battleship.
Updated
April 17, 2021, 10:28 p.m. ET
Nothing captured the military feel of the day quite like the bespoke Land Rover Defender that carried Philip on his final trip to the chapel. The Duke tinkered with the vehicle’s design for 18 years, settling on an open back and metal pins to secure his coffin. He asked for the military green paint.
At 3 p.m. after the Land Rover had passed under Windsor’s crenellated towers and arrived at the chapel – to the metronomic crack of cannons and bells – there was a national minute of silence.
The BBC and other broadcasters respectfully covered the ceremony but avoided the blanket programming that generated more than 100,000 complaints last week when the BBC anticipated popular shows to analyze every aspect of Philip’s life. Some compared the wall-to-wall approach to that of North Korea.
Yet for a country that worships its queen, her husband’s funeral was a truly national moment – as some have said, with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002 that saw more than a million people attending Her Cortege Pass from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle.
“There is a tremendous, almost subconscious sense of the monarchy in Britain that is not appreciated by the metropolitan media,” said Vernon Bogdanor, a research professor of British Politics and Government at King’s College London. “It’s inarticulate, but it comes out at those crucial moments.”
Philip’s funeral, however, did not attract the crowd of other royal ceremonies. Because of the pandemic, Buckingham Palace urged people not to come to Windsor, the city west of London that the castle overlooks. On a quiet Saturday, it seemed like most people had followed this advice.
The restrictions meant Philip’s converted Land Rover made a journey of just a few hundred meters, rather than the 22 miles from Buckingham Palace to Windsor. Instead of crowds lining the route, the focus was on troops from the Royal Navy, Marines, Highlanders and the Knights of Windsor in passing.
Queen Elizabeth, who will turn 95 next week, followed the procession in her shiny eggplant Bentley, not at the head, as would have been the custom for a sovereign. Charles, her heir, led the procession, along with his sister, Princess Anne.
These boundaries also meant a circumscribed guest list within the chapel. Among those who weren’t in attendance: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who, according to Downing Street, gave up his seat so the royal family could invite an extra guest, and Meghan, who is pregnant and was not there on her doctor’s advice.
The Queen invited three German relatives of Philip, a reminder of his non-British roots and a sign of the march of history. In 1947, in the shadow of World War II, the Duke’s German family was kept away from the couple’s wedding.
The Queen had other delicate protocol decisions to make. She decreed that none of the male family members would wear military uniforms at the ceremony – a decision that saved Harry the outrage of appearing in civilian clothes despite serving in Afghanistan. As part of the agreement with the palace under which he retired from royal life, Harry was stripped of his military honorary degrees.
The British news media reported that Prince Andrew, the Queen’s second son, had forced the problem by demanding that he wear an admiral’s uniform, a title he was supposed to acquire on his 60th birthday last year. He moved for the appointment to be postponed after he became embroiled in a scandal over his friendship with disgraced financier and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein that led to Andrew’s exile from royal duties.
The scandal that erupted after an interview Andrew gave the BBC in 2019 sparked a tumultuous time for the royal family. Two months later, Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step down from their official duties and leave the UK.
They settled in Southern California and reappeared last month for an extraordinary interview with Oprah Winfrey in which Meghan said a member or members of the royal family raised concerns about the skin color of the couple’s unborn child.
Royal observers have attributed some of the family’s dysfunction to the diminishing role of their patriarch. Philip retired from his duties in 2017 and moved to a cottage on the grounds of one of the Queen’s estates, Sandringham, where he painted in oils and pursued his hobby of driving carriages.
At the funeral there was a slight nod to Philip’s hobby: as his coffin drove through the square in Windsor, he passed a polished dark green car with his two beloved ponies Balmoral Nevis and Notlaw Storm.
Stephen Castle contributed to the coverage.
