Even the last farewell to the world was imagined by him, Filippo. And not only the official one with the code name Forth Bridge, from the Firth of Forth in Scotland, the inlet created by the estuary of the river Forth and crossed precisely by the homonymous bridge near the city of Edinburgh of which Duke Philip. For his son Carlo, everything will instead be entrusted to the Menai Bridge operation, from the name of the bridge that connects the mainland to the island of Anglesey, in Wales as when it is time for Her Majesty, everything will instead follow the scheme encoded by the operation. London Bridge. But the private farewell, intimate, without crowds, about thirty close family members wanted by the prince to avoid dangerous gatherings of crowds in the United Kingdom trying to get out of the pandemic.
Soft power
In short, even in the last hours of his life, Filippo made good use of that soft power of royalty who, thanks to charismatic figures such as that of the duke and queen, proved to be worth perhaps more than the political power that the unwritten rules of British institutional life impose. And the confirmation was the choral tribute to the figure of Philip who arrived at Buckingham Palace from all over: from Chinese President Xi Jinping as from Pope Francis, from Vladimir Putin as from Obama, Trump and Biden. Until the former king Constantine II of Greece, his relative.
The first, second and last work
And to the last Philip was faithful to his work of supporting the queen, and through her the country. In the 1970s, Michael Parker, an old friend of Marina who became his private secretary over the years, recalled how when, offering him the job at the palace, Filippo confided to him: My work, my first, second and last, instead of that of never let her down, never leave her alone (in her commitment as queen). And so it was, until the end. So Philip clearly assessed – weighing the risks of the moment, the conditions of the country – that the best thing was a private funeral, the burial at Frogmore Gardens on the Windsor estate.
He designed jewelry, clothes and solar panels
He loved to do it alone, decide without delegating. So he designed the engagement ring for Elizabeth himself: the prince had taken the gems from a mother Alice’s tiara and entrusted them to jeweler Philip Antrobus along with a sketch of the ring design. Over the years I designed other bijoux for Elisabetta, including a bracelet given to her for the fifth wedding anniversary, with their initials engraved in a sparkle of diamonds, sapphires and rubies. And already in the eighties he was driving around the Sandringham estate in an electric van, and to save money he had studied the first solar panels.
He designed the Windsor stained glass windows
And it will again be Filippo, with Carlo, who will take care of the restoration of Windsor Castle partially destroyed by the great fire of 1992. And for the reconstruction of Windsor Castle he will take care of restoring the five staterooms to their original splendor and sketched by his hand. the drawings for the reconstruction of the destroyed Gothic windows. Again, he reinvented the Windsor coat launched in the eighteenth century by King George III. Filippo wanted to redesign it as a dinner jacket to be worn with a bow tie, with a result, this time, with a somewhat questionable taste. As well as over the years he has designed various functional clothing items for carriage driving and other sports disciplines he has practiced.
The monarchy must change
To survive the monarchy has to change, he said. And perhaps it is no coincidence that his sincerity, his direct speaking, very often with the help of puns and jokes, has often created some ferment. But as MP Norman St John-Stevas says, a spouse should have more freedom of speech than the sovereign and, with his claims, Prince Philip has facilitated the adaptation of the monarchy.
Imaginative magician
Thus Filippo throughout his life continued to play with words as an imaginative magician, amused but anything but naive. One day, trying to summarize the work of a prince consort, he said: It’s almost like being self-employed, almost like being self-employed, in the sense that you are free to decide what to do. A role to be invented that Filippo has never been afraid to play. But always remaining the first loyal, faithful subject of His Majesty.
April 10, 2021 (change April 10, 2021 | 16:29)
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