The Prince Philip Years

Following the death of Britain’s longest-serving royal consort, Alwyn Turner charts how the country transformed beyond recognition during the Duke of Edinburgh’s lifetime

- Alwyn Turner

Supporting role

The Queen celebrating the National Eisteddfod in Rhyl, 1953, soon after her coronation. Philip’s role as consort – here, as often, walking behind his wife – augured changes in gender dynamics and relationships across the nation

Strength in diversity The Queen and Prince Philip join a pageant during her golden jubilee in 2002. Philip played a key role in the reinvention of the nation’s self-image, combining tradition and modernity

At their wedding in 1947, Princess Elizabeth vowed to love, cherish and obey Philip Mountbatten – the Duke of Edinburgh, as he’d become the previous day. The use of the word “obey” by the future monarch raised some eyebrows at the time, though the respective ranks of the couple were spelled out six years later at the Queen’s coronation, when Philip knelt before his wife and swore, “to become your liege man of life and limb”. It was, said the Daily Mirror, “one of the ceremony’s most moving moments”.