Only 30 mourners were able to attend his funeral at the time due to the strict rules of the coronavirus, which meant that the queen was sitting alone in grief as her 73-year-old husband descended to the Royal Dome of St. George’s Chapel. Tuesday’s Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey in London was a much bigger event, with the Queen uniting her heir, Prince Charles, William’s son and wife Kate, and other members of the royal family, including . With them in the church were foreign kings and queens, friends of the late duke, politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, military figures and more than 500 representatives of charities and other organizations he supported. Buckingham Palace said the 95-year-old queen was actively involved in its design. The monarch herself was forced to cut her duties after spending a night in hospital last October for an unspecified illness and was advised to rest, and there have been health concerns since she canceled a series of engagements since then. The occasion also marked the first public event for her second son, Prince Andrew, since she made an unknown payment to settle a lawsuit in the United States over allegations that she sexually assaulted a teenage girl decades ago, a claim she denied. The queen arrived through a side entrance to the Abbey for her first public appearance after illness, using a cane and next to Andrew. Prince Harry, who has moved to the United States to live with his wife Megan, did not attend the service following a dispute with the government over security concerns.
“Rare ability”
“A man of rare ability and distinction, rightly honored and celebrated, has never diverted our attention away from himself,” said David Hoyle, Westminster’s dean, about Philip. Philip, who married Elizabeth in 1947 in the Abbey where he was also crowned six years later, helped his wife adjust the monarchy to the changing times of the post-World War II era, as the loss of the empire and the decline of respect people. the most prominent royal family. On their golden anniversary, he described Philip, who was known for his stupid attitude and the tendency for occasional blunders, as “power and perseverance.” Forced to carve out a role for himself, as there was no clear precedent, he focused on helping young people through the Duke of Edinburgh Award program and promoting environmental issues. It was “a great life lived to the fullest,” Hoyle said. The service for the life of the once royal modernizer comes as his grandson and future King William, 38, also wants to carry the monarchy into the future. On Monday, three tabloid newspapers headlined stories, all citing an anonymous source, saying that William and his wife Kate wanted to “rip the rule book” and do things differently after criticism that parts of their recent weekly tour of Cara appeared “stressed”. -deaf “and a flashback to the colonial era. “It’s not a criticism of how it was done in the past. But times are changing,” the source was quoted as saying.
