While speaking at the opening of the Scottish Parliament on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth II recalled fond memories of her late husband, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburg who passes away in April 2021.
The speech marked the queen’s first public statement about her late husband since his death at the age of 99. The queen and the Duke of Edinburg were married for 73 years.
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The queen said, “I have spoken before of my deep and abiding affection for this wonderful country and of the many happy memories Prince Philip and I always held of our time here. It is often said that it is the people that make a place and there are few places where this is truer than in Scotland, as we have seen in recent times.”
In an address commemorating the couple’s golden wedding anniversary, which marked 50 years together, the queen referred to Philip as her “strength and stay.”
“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,” the queen said of her husband on November 20, 1997.
Though the queen did not publicly address Philip’s death at the time he passed, but her son, Prince Andrew, stated that his father’s death “left a huge void” in his mother’s life.
Meanwhile, on April 17, members of the royal family gathered for a low-key funeral to honour the departed Duke of Edinburg.
Mike Tindall, who is married to Princess Anne’s daughter Zara, said there were “eerie” moments during the procession and funeral, which were shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I look back on the day I think as eerie as it was with no crowds and the social distancing and the way everything was. I think it was the perfect day for how he would’ve liked it if that makes any sense whatsoever.” the former athlete said on his podcast, “The Good, The Bad & The Rugby.”
