PRINCE PHILIP, THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH DIES AGED 99

Fri 09 April 2021:

Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband and the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, has died at age 99.

“It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” a royal communications statement read Friday.

“His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.

“Further announcements will be made in due course.

“The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.”

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. pic.twitter.com/XOIDQqlFPn

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 9, 2021

Philip’s relationship with the young Princess Elizabeth began as a story of young love.

“We behave as though we had belonged to each other for years,” Elizabeth wrote in a letter to her parents shortly after they married.

Despite being born into a royal family, Philip’s early childhood was not typically royal.

Born on June 10, 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu, he was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and Princess Alice of Battenberg. Greece’s king, Philip’s uncle, was forced to abdicate when Philip was a baby, and the family fled to Paris, with Philip famously carried to safety in a crib made from an orange box.

Over the years, the queen acknowledged Philip’s deep influence on her, calling him her “strength and stay” in a speech on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.

The Duke of Edinburgh was hospitalized on Feb. 16 after being taken to King Edward VII hospital in London on the advice of his doctor after “feeling unwell,” Buckingham Palace said in a previous statement. He was released a month later following treatment for an infection and a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition. He returned to Windsor Castle, where he the Queen have been staying amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philip, who would have turned 100 in June, has been plagued by health issues in recent years. He was hospitalized in December 2019 in relation to a “pre-existing condition,” according to the palace at the time.