When the Queen arrived at King’s Lynn station on Friday, she was animated, happily chatting to railway officials and clearly looking forward to her Christmas break at Sandringham House nearby.
This was, as always, a polished performance, seemingly delivered without a care in the world. We now know that behind the warm smile and pleasantries, the Queen was hiding the knowledge that Prince Philip, the man she calls her ‘strength and stay’, was being taken by helicopter to a London hospital – a distressing conclusion to one of the most fraught years of her long reign.
The family problems started early. It was only halfway through January when the Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a serious traffic collision close to Sandringham.
The Land Rover he was driving hit a Kia, and while he suffered only cuts and bruises, the public outcry that a 97-year-old should have been behind the wheel forced him to give up the driving licence he had held for 70 years.
When the Queen arrived at King’s Lynn station on Friday, she was animated, happily chatting to railway officials and clearly looking forward to her Christmas break, writes Ian Lloyd
Then the Queen had to watch as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – Prince Harry and Meghan – developed an increasingly volatile relationship with the media. The couple’s October tour of South Africa was a great success, but it was overshadowed by a highly emotional TV interview in which they lamented the way in which they have been portrayed.
But these concerns paled to insignificance after the controversy of Prince Andrew’s association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and the humiliation of his grilling by Emily Maitlis on a special edition of Newsnight.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Royals find themselves in the worst crisis since the death of Princess Diana in 1997 – yet these days, the Queen no longer has Philip as a constant by her side in public or in private.
He retired from public duties in 2017 and has spent much of his time since then living at Wood Farm, on the Sandringham Estate.
The two have spoken every day during the tumultuous events of the past few months and the Queen will have been glad that the Duke was on hand to offer his support around the time of Andrew’s ‘car crash’ interview.
This was, as always, a polished performance, seemingly delivered without a care in the world
Philip travelled to Windsor to join his wife for their 72nd wedding anniversary on November 20 – shortly after the broadcast – and the Queen visited the Duke at Wood Farm the same month.
To see Philip’s value in a crisis we only have to look back to the summer of the annus horribilis of 1992, when the breakdown of the marriage between Charles and Diana first became public knowledge. Philip reacted decisively and with tact, summoning Charles and Diana to Windsor for a summit.
Philip counselled against a formal separation and urged them to work for a compromise and to think of others – especially their sons – rather than themselves.
When Diana failed to attend a second meeting, he resorted to writing to her instead. As one courtier put it, ‘the tougher the going, the better he is’.
Pictured: Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh
The Queen and Philip were also by each other’s side when they visited the 18th Century Broadlands estate in Hampshire last month.
The ancestral Mountbatten home holds many happy memories. It is, after all, where they spent the first night of their honeymoon in November 1947 – joined by the Queen’s favourite corgi, Susan, who had been squirrelled away under a rug in their carriage – and where the family have since enjoyed numerous weddings and celebrations.
Broadlands is of sentimental value to Philip in particular. It was his ‘Uncle Dickie’, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who introduced him to the young Princess Elizabeth when she was just 13. And it was in 1946 at nearby Romsey Abbey and the wedding of his cousin Patricia Mountbatten that rumours of a romance between Elizabeth and Philip began to emerge.
The Royal couple have been regular visitors over the years. They had been married for a decade and a half when, during a weekend at Broadlands with their three young children – Charles, Anne and Andrew – the Queen was overheard squealing in the hallway as Philip goosed her.
Hurrying his wife up the stairs, the pair giggled while the Queen shrieked: ‘Stop it, Philip, stop it.’
It is said the cries could still be heard until the door of their bedroom closed.