Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s final resting place honours their marriage
In death, as in life, the Queen will have Prince Philip by her side, with the pair to be reunited at Windsor Castle. This is how it will work.
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In death, as in life, the Queen will have Prince Philip by her side, with the pair to be interred together in a vault at Windsor Castle.
Queen Elizabeth will be laid to rest in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, adjoining St George’s Chapel, within the Windsor Castle walls.
There, her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, will join her.
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was buried in the Royal Vault under St George’s Chapel following his death in April 2021 at the age of 99.
He will now be transferred the few metres to the King George chapel, to join his lifelong love in their final resting place.
The pair had been married since November 20, 1947, a love match which stood the test of time and sustained the Queen through seven decades of her reign.
The famously outspoken Queen’s consort had been by her side all her adult life, walking several steps behind her as protocol dictated and giving her unwavering support and devotion.
Neither the Queen nor the Duke was given to outward displays of emotion, which makes the comments she made about him at their 50th anniversary 20 years ago so significant. She described him as “my strength and stay’’ and said she owed him a great debt.
“Yesterday I listened as Prince Philip spoke at the Guildhall, and I then proposed our host’s health. Today the roles are reversed,’’ she told a group gathered to celebrate their anniversary.
“All too often, I fear, Prince Philip has had to listen to me speaking. Frequently we have discussed my intended speech beforehand and, as you will imagine, his views have been expressed in a forthright manner.
“He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.’’
Former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter said the Queen had made known several times how important Prince Philip had been in her life.
“(It was) made clear she couldn’t have done the job without his support and wise counsel,’’ Mr Arbiter told News Corp.
“He’s not let her down. Their marriage is a true love story – there are not many of those about today.’’
Majesty Magazine managing editor Joe Little agreed, and told News Corp the Queen couldn’t have done everything she had in her extraordinary career without the support of Prince Philip.
“She couldn’t really have done it without him,’’ he said.
“They have their moments but one most definitely needed the other.’’
Mr Little said Prince Philip had not caused the Queen any real problems during their long union.
“As he got older he cared a bit less about what people think.
“At times he was rude and had been all his life.’’
As for Prince Philip’s famous gaffes – such as telling British students that if they stayed in China too long they’d get “slitty eyes” – Mr Little and Mr Arbiter both believed less offence had been caused than the media coverage would suggest.
“A lot of it was Philip’s way of relaxing people,’’ Mr Little said.
“When the Queen was appearing at an event a lot of people get very nervous. He will say something to lighten the mood.’’
Mr Arbiter agreed, saying most people saw the funny side in his comments.
He said the 1986 comments to the Scottish students in China had been “laughed off’’ by China, who “couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.’’
He’d also caused a minor uproar in 2002 when he asked a group of indigenous Australians: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”
Distant cousins, Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Prince of Greece and Denmark, first met as children, and again when the princess was 13 years old, when she accompanied her father King George VI to a visit at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
A cadet at the school, Prince Philip was dispatched to entertain the young princess with a game of croquet in 1939.
They exchanged letters, and by 1946, became secretly engaged when Prince Philip asked King George VI for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
The King agreed provided the young couple kept it a secret until the Queen’s 21st birthday the following year, and the engagement was announced in July 1947.
The wedding was held on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey.
In preparation, Philip converted from Greek orthodoxy to become a member of the Church of England and renounced his Greek and Danish titles.
He also changed his name to Philip Mountbatten, from his British mother’s side of the family, and was granted the titles of His Royal Highness and the Duke of Edinburgh.
He later gave up his naval career, after serving with distinction throughout World War II.
The wedding, despite coming so close after the end of the war, was a marvellous spectacle: Princess Elizabeth had eight bridesmaids and the wedding party was transported in horse-drawn carriages through the streets of London as hundreds of thousands turned out to cheer and wave.
Despite his royal upbringing – born in Greece on June 10, 1921, the youngest child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice – Prince Philip’s early life was not easy.
He was exiled to France as a baby after a revolution in Greece, and was essentially raised by his British relatives after his mother was committed to a mental institution after suffering a breakdown, and his father moved in with his mistress.
His rudeness and lack of political correctness aside, there was one controversy that dogged Prince Philip and the Queen, and that was the perception of links to the Nazi party.
This related to family links and not through any sentiments expressed by the Prince himself: indeed, he fought for the Allies against the Nazis during the war.
Mr Little said of the Nazi link, “if you can call it that, was that his sisters were married to German princes, some of the princes had been members of the Nazi parties to various degrees.
“When they were married in 1947 his sisters were not able to attend the wedding, it was too soon after World War II.’’
Originally published as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s final resting place honours their marriage
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