The Royal Family, through its official website, announced the details of the Duke of Edinburgh's Order of Funeral. He will be laid to rest on April 17, 2021, Saturday at 3PM, eight days after he passed away on April 9, 2021. And Four days before Her Majesty, The Queen, will turn 95 years old.
His Royal Highness, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died peacefully at Windsor Castle, after suffering from lingering illness. Less than three weeks after he was discharged from King Edward VII hospital, where he was confined for almost a month.
He was just of just two months for his centenary birthday on June 10, 2021.
Ceremonial Royal Funeral
The Royal Family's website further announced that Prince Philip's funeral will be called Ceremonial Royal Funeral, the same as that of the Queen's mother, Queen Elizabeth's funeral in 2002. State Funeral is reserved for the British monarch.
The Royal Family will abide with the strict rules of COVID-19 restrictions for large gatherings, in observance of health protocol, which includes few numbers of attendees.Â
The funeral service will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor and the Archbishop of Canterbury and will be held at St. George's Chapel.Â
Due to the pandemic, members of the public are discouraged from traveling to Windsor to witness the funeral, but the event will be broadcast live on TV and radio to allow the people around the world to allow people to witness the event.
Order of the Funeral
At 2:40 in the afternoon, the Duke's coffin will emerge from the State Entrance of Windsor Castle and into the castle's quadrangle.Â
It will be followed by members of the Royal Family in procession. And will be placed into the waiting Land Rover, according to the Duke's wishes. It was specified also that the Queen will depart from the Sovereign's Entrance in the State Bentley.
The mourners will walk on foot to St. George's Chapel. The procession route will be lined by the representatives from different branches of the military:
The Royal Navy, where Prince Philip was in active service from 1940 to 1951, the Royal Marines where he served as its Captain General from the 1970s until his retirement in 2017, the Highlanders, and 4th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Royal Airforce.
Minute Guns will be fired by The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from the East Lawn of Windsor Castle for the duration of the procession. The Curfew Tower Bell will also toll.
Usually, procession of the royal funeral has chief mourners to follow the hearse. During Princess Diana's funeral, Prince Philip was one of the chief mourners who followed the coffin, with Princes William and Harry, Prince Charles, and the 10th Earl Spencer of Althorp.
For the Duke of Edinburgh, it was announced that the following will follow on foot behind the coffin: His four children: The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex. His grandsons: The Duke of Cambridge, Peter Phillips and the Duke of Sussex. His youngest grandson, James, Viscount Severn is considered too young to join. Next will be his son-in-law: Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and nephew, The 2nd Earl of Snowdon.
As the coffin arrives at Horseshoe Cloister, the National Anthem will play. Representatives from the Commonwealth and a Dismounted Detachment of the House Cavalry will join.
There will be a minute of silence at 3PM.
The Dean of Windsor and the Archbishop of Canterbury will receive the Duke's coffin at the West steps of the chapel. As doors of St. George's chapel closes, the Royal Navy Piping Party will pipe the "Carry On".
The Official Attendees of the funeral
Due to the pandemic restrictions on large gatherings, the attendees will be cut. Despite being the Head of State, the Queen will abide with just 30 maximum attendees as what specified in the COVID-19 restriction rules of the United Kingdom.
Some extended members of the Royal Family could not make it, including Prince Michael of Kent, a nephew of Prince Philip and the Queen's cousin, and foreign royals who are the Duke's cousins, nephews and nieces.Â
However, the Royal Family gave a room for his nephews at the funeral service, Prince Maximilian of Baden, Prince Donatus of Hesse, Prince Philipp, the Prince of Hohenloe-Langeburg, and maternal first cousin, the Countess Mountbatten, daughter of Lord Mountbatten.
The following are the official attendees of Prince Philip's funeral service at Windsor Castle. Limited only to 30 attendees to abide with the pandemic health protocol
- Her Majesty, The Queen (wife)
- The Prince of Wales (son)
- The Duchess of Cornwall (daughter-in-law)
- The Princess Royal (daughter)
- Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence (son-in-law)
- The Duke of York (son)
- The Earl of Wessex (son)
- The Countess of Wessex (daughter-in-law)
- The Duke of Cambridge (grandson)
- The Duchess of Cambridge (granddaughter-in-law)
- The Duke of Sussex (grandson)
- Mr. Peter Phillips (grandson)
- Zara Phillips-Tindall (granddaughter)
- Mike Tindall (grandson-in-law)
- Princess Beatrice (granddaughter)
- Mr. Edoardo Mapelli-Mozzi (grandson-in-law)
- Princess Eugenie (granddaughter)
- Mr. Jack Brooksbank (grandson-in-law)
- James, Viscount Severn (grandson)
- The Lady Louise Windsor (granddaughter)
- The 2nd Earl of Snowdon (Queen's nephew)
- The Lady Sarah Chatto (Queen's niece)
- Mr. Daniel Chatto (Queen's nephew-in-law)
- The Duke of Gloucester (Queen's cousin)
- The Duke of Kent (Queen's cousin and the Duke's nephew)
- Princess Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Ogilvy (Queen's cousin and the Duke's niece)
- The Hereditary Prince of Baden (Duke's nephew)
- Prince Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse (Duke's great nephew)
- Prince Philipp of Hohenloe-Langeburg (Duke's great nephew)
- The Countess Mountbatten of Burma (Duke's first cousin)
At the conclusion of the funeral service, estimated to last around 50 minutes, the Duke's coffin will be lowered to the Royal Vault, where many British sovereigns laid down, including the Queen's father, King George VI.
The last to die in his blood family
Prince Philip was the last to die among his family. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, died in 1944, his mother, Princess Alice, died in 1969. He was the youngest and only son in the family.Â
Below are profile of his older sisters.
Princess Margarita (18 April 1905 – 24 April 1981) - Eldest child in the family. She was also Queen Victoria's eldest great-great granddaughter. She married Prince Gottfried of Hohenloe-Langeburg, son of Princess Alexandra, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Princess Theodora (May 30, 1906 - October 16, 1969) - She married Prince Berthold, Margrave of Baden, whose mother was Princess Louise of Hanover, granddaughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and great granddaughter of King George III. Prince Philip spent three years at their household in Salem when he attended school before he moved to Gordonstoun, Scotland.
Princess Cecille (June 22, 1911 - November 16, 1937) - She married their mother's first cousin, Prince Georg Donatus, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, and also the great grandson of Queen Victoria. On November 16, 1937, they were killed in a plane crash with their children en-route to London to attend Georg's brother's wedding. Their only surviving daughter, Princess Joanna, died a few years later. Princess Cecille had no living descendants today.
Princess Sophie (June 26, 1914 - November 24, 2001) - The youngest daughter in the family but the first to be married. She was 16 in 1930 when she married his mother's cousin, Prince Christoph of Hesse. His mother was Princess Margaret of Prussia, granddaughter of Queen Victoria through her eldest child, Princess Vicky.
Prince Christoph was a German fighter pilot. He died in a plane crash during World War II. He was the father of Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse. Princess Sophie was only 28 years old when she became a widow.
She remarried after the war to another descendant of King George III, Prince Georg William of Hanover, in 1946, a year before her younger brother married the future Queen of the United Kingdom.
During World War II, Prince Philip was on active military service fighting on the side of Britain while two of his brothers-in-law, were also actively fighting on the side of Germany.Â
When he married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, all his sisters and brothers--in-law were not invited to the wedding due to their Nazi connection. However, he frequently visited his sisters in Germany on a private capacity years after his wedding.
Prince Philip was the longest-serving prince consort in British history from 1952 until his retirement in 2017. He had been married to the Queen for more than 73 years! The longest for any British monarchs.
He had been famously called by the Queen as her "strength and rock who stayed at her side through all these years). In his death, he left behind a throne marred by another crisis due to family rift.
May His Royal Highness truly rest in peace. Wish him joy in the afterlife. Please read our tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh in this special ARTICLE
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