Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were married for a happy 74 years after tying the knot in November 1947.
The late Duke of Edinburgh had caught her eye when she was just 13 years old, leading to a legendary love story and the later welcoming of their four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
This Thursday marks five years since Philip passed away aged 99 – on 9 April 2021 – a day that left the late Queen in mourning.
Royal author Hugo Vickers describes Philip’s final years in his new biography, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, during which the royal couple spent a considerable amount of time apart.
Philip had completed his final royal engagement on 2 August 2017 as Captain-General of the Royal Marines to mark the end of the 1664 Global Challenge. This was to be the last of some 22,219 public engagements – and it was clear the Queen thought this should be rewarded.
Prince Philip’s years of retirement away from the spotlight
According to Hugo Vickers, Prince Philip was left to do “exactly as he pleased” after stepping away from royal duties.
His final years saw him “more or less settle” at the five-bedroom Wood Farm Cottage in Sandringham, to where, in recent months, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was exiled after being stripped of his titles. He has since moved to his permanent home, Marsh Farm.
The author writes: “He was at his happiest at Wood Farm and he more or less settled there. In the course of the next two and a half years, that was his home. He enjoyed his carriage-driving, read voraciously and painted a little.
“From time to time she went up by train to Norfolk to stay the weekend. Once again she gave him a loose rein. In a sense they separated. Penny Romsey, the new Countess Mountbatten, often stayed with him there.”
Prince Philip’s final moments
Prince Philip had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and battled the disease for eight years before he passed away, Hugo Vickers revealed.
Speaking on HELLO!‘s A Right Royal Podcast, he went into more detail: “The night before he died, he went along on his Zimmer frame to the Oak Room, which was that room above the entrance out of which the Queen’s car came out for the funeral, and he was having a beer all by himself.
“He gave his nurses the slip. He did not want to live to be 100, and he just slipped away. He got up, I think he had a bath and didn’t feel well and lay down, and that was it.”
The royal biographer also spoke about how Philip would likely have disliked being celebrated if he had made it to 100; he died two months shy of the milestone. “He absolutely did not want to be celebrated,” he said. Tragically, Philip passed away without his loyal wife, the Queen, by his side.
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