The death of the Duke of Edinburgh will leave a void in the heart of the monarchy
The death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has been announced by Buckingham Palace. No trivialisation is intended by saying that this news has not come as a bolt from the blue. The duke was, after all, 99 years old and less than three months short of his centenary, a formidable age for any man, even in these days of unprecedented longevity. He had rarely been seen in public since he finally retired from public life in 2017. His health had been a cause for concern on several occasions in recent years, and a car crash in 2019 seemed to mark a more decisive retreat from the world.
Now the bell finally tolls for the man who spent more than 73 years married to the Queen. And, although his death was not unexpected, it sends an abrupt, sombre and resonant message to millions of people in all corners of Britain. The duke’s passing is not merely a reminder, amid the continuing human loss of the Covid pandemic, of the reality of death itself. It is also a reminder that the current monarchical order is in the end a finite era too. Only a minority of British people can remember a time when the Queen and the duke were not together. But the death of the duke forces the nation to recognise that all things must pass.
