Philip was the ‘strength and stay’ who kept two paces behind the Queen
The public often saw a caricature of Prince Philip, but over the years he was admired for his dedication to royal duties and his gaffes were seen as jokes.
Britain’s Prince Philip had considerable influence on the Queen and the monarchy’s development over 70 years. AP
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who has died aged 99, was the longest-serving royal consort in Britain’s history and the figure on whom Queen Elizabeth II has depended throughout her nearly 70 years on the throne.
Thanks to a famously testy relationship with the media, the public sometimes saw a caricature — a cantankerous man, living in his wife’s shadow with no constitutional role, whose frustration was vented in outbursts of candour that showed him ill at ease with the times.
