Philip and the lost Age of Fortitude

Apr 17, 2021 by Jill

by Francis Phillips, The Conservative Woman:

AT THE conclusion of his sonnet On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic, Wordsworth writes, ‘Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade/Of that which once was great is passed away.’ Often only poetry finds the right words for historic events and the death of the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 99 is one such occasion.

There has been enormous public and media response to his death, almost as if Prince Philip had to die before they could begin to appreciate his legacy. For years he was typecast by the media as a bluff, gaffe-prone ex-naval officer who enjoyed the sports of rich men such as polo, or caricatured in films such as The Queen; now we are discovering the extraordinary range of his interests and charitable work and – no doubt a surprise to many – his thoughtful, highly intelligent, inquiring mind.

There is genuine public sympathy for the Queen, who has lost the one person who made it possible for her to carry the burden of the monarchy in the exemplary way she has done. King George VI once commented about his daughter: ‘Poor girl; she will always be lonely’ – but she wasn’t, and this was owing largely to the man she chose to marry. People write of a ‘love match’, as indeed it was, but not of the modern Hollywood kind. During his courtship of his future wife, Philip wrote to her mother, the Queen: ‘My ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will have a positive existence for the good.’ The wording might sound slightly wooden for a young man romantically in love (he was 26 when he married the 21-year-old Princess Elizabeth in November 1947), but it is remarkably prescient of the way their marriage – the rock on which all Philip’s future achievements were built – was such an enduring success.

The Duke understood that, given Elizabeth’s destiny, they had to be a strong team, not merely a comfortable married couple; that the slings and arrows of a life lived relentlessly under public scrutiny would be theirs in full measure, and that their marriage could and should be used to enhance and enrich the lives of her subjects. For this deeply serious young man (perhaps a talent for humorous one-liners always conceals latent seriousness?) human existence had a purpose beyond itself; the choice to do good to others with the chances you are offered.

Read here

Read also: Prince Philip: farewell to the stiff upper lip by Tim Black, spiked

Watch: Prince Philip: An Example for Woke Prince Harry. Has Traditional Britain Died With Prince Philip? Peter Whittle and Rafe Heydel-Mankoo discuss.

See funeral details here

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