Maria Laura Avignolo
04/11/2021 18:01
Clarín.com
World
Updated 04/11/2021 18:15
When the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral gets underway on Saturday, April 17, at 3pm, Prince Philip will have accomplished his ultimate goal: designing it himself.
Step by step, he
planned every detail of his own burial
.
He even designed a huge green Land Rover to simply carry his coffin, in a military but not a state ceremony, in the same Windsor Palace.
He did not want his body to rest in Westminster Abbey but in the garden of the park where he lived.
Only
the Covid changed the plans
and reduced it to 30 guests at the funeral service.
Gracefully, Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned to be present, to make room for another member of the royal family or friend of the Duke of Edinburgh to accompany him.
Scottish bagpipes, pomp, funeral procession but in a military and familiar tone.
Only present will be Queen Elizabeth, the heir, Prince Charles, Prince William, who will succeed him on the throne, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and future Queen, their children, Prince Andrew and Edward, plus Prince Harry, who will arrive especially from California in the next few hours.
The final list will be known on Thursday.
"We are all in the same boat, because of the Covid," said the prince before dying, when he planned this highly rehearsed royal funeral with his son, Prince Andrew.
Flowers and messages of condolences in tribute to Prince Philip, who died on Friday at the age of 99, in front of Windsor Castle.
Photo: AFP
Intimate ceremony for the Covid
Government regulations
only authorize 30 people to be present
at the ceremony.
It will be a funeral similar to that of the Queen Mother, in 2002, which will be televised.
But only the royal family and some soldiers will participate in them, who will accompany the procession, in the park of Windsor Palace.
It will begin with a minute of silence, at 3 in the afternoon, local time.
They ask the public not to go near Windsor Palace in the face of the pandemic.
The ceremony "will celebrate the life and recognition of the Duke for more than 70 years for his service to the Queen, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth," said a spokesman for the palace.
Prince Charles will speak at his father's farewell.
But the service will celebrate his remarkable life: from a WWII veteran to his love and passion for airplanes, helicopters, engineering, technology, his paintings and designs, his interest in ecology and wildlife, and his award. Duke of Edinburgh Award, which gave opportunities 9 million young students.
There will be soldiers from the units with which the prince was linked: from the queen's royal Hussars, the Corps of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, the Intelligence Corps and Highlinders.
They will be the ones to deposit the coffin in the Land Rover that the prince designed.
A day of reconciliation and forgiveness?
It will be
the first occasion for the royal family to meet, after the
Megxit
crisis
, caused when Prince Harry and Meghan accused them of "racism" and abandoning Meghan, in an interview from California.
Meghan will not be able to attend because her pregnancy is advanced and the doctor does not allow her to fly to London from California.
A month before he died there was a summit, in the hospital where the Duke of Edinburgh was interned, with Prince Charles, his son and heir to the throne.
It was a Saturday afternoon and it was the only visit he had received in his month there.
At that meeting, Felipe asked Carlos to care for Queen Elizabeth, protect the monarchy, and reconcile the royal family.
They were
his last wishes
.
Prince Charles came out of the sanitarium sobbing.
A poster in memory of Prince Felipe, this Sunday, at the Tottenham stadium, before a football match between that team and Manchester United, this Sunday, in London.
Photo: AFP
Prince Harry can attend the funeral, despite Covid restrictions, due to the death of a family member.
It is not known whether or not he will be exempted from the health requirements, although the quarantine can be broken before a funeral of a relative or be released from it, if the test is negative on the fifth day.
He will live in Frogmore Cotagge, the house that Queen Elizabeth gave him for their marriage, and that he loaned to Princess Eugenie and her husband, who lived in Kensington Palace in
Harry's bachelor
cottagge
and needed more space, before the arrival of your first baby.
Prince Philip will be buried in the fantastic gardens of Frogmore, in the park of Windsor Palace.
Harry will walk behind his coffin, as he did alongside his grandfather Philip, his father, and his brother when his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, died.
This time the journey is shorter: only 8 minutes.
The Queen will wait for you in St George's Chapel.
The shared grief over the Duke of Edinburgh's death is an "ideal opportunity" to mend divisions within the Royal Family, former Prime Minister Sir John Major said.
He was "the official caretaker" of William and Harry, at the request of the queen, when Princess Diana died, in 1997, and always maintained a good relationship with them.
Prince Harry, at odds with the royal family, will walk behind his grandfather's coffin, as he did when his mother, Lady Di, died in 1997. Photo: AP
His comments came after Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, suggested that "a meeting for Prince Philip's funeral could help
heal tensions."
When asked during an appearance on the BBC's Andrew Marr if he agreed with Cardinal Nichols, Sir John Major said: "I'm sure he's right. I hope he's right. I think he's right and I certainly hope so. ”.
“The friction that they tell us has arisen is a friction that is best ended as soon as possible.
A shared emotion, a shared pain, in the present moment for the death of his father, his grandfather, I think it is an ideal opportunity, ”said the former prime minister.
"I am very hopeful that it will be possible to repair any cracks that may exist," he added.
Cardinal Nichols had said during an interview with
Times Radio
on Saturday: "Many families come together and overcome stress and broken relationships at the time of a funeral. Something very deep brings them all together again. And that would be true for this one. family, I'm sure. "
The Duchess of Sussex accused a member of the Royal Family of "racism" while speaking with presenter Oprah Winfrey during the explosive interview in March. That person had asked about the color of the baby she was expecting and warned that he would not be a prince or be in succession to the throne She also said the institution did not help her when she had suicidal thoughts.
This Sunday part of the royal family gathered in the small royal chapel of All Saints, in Windsor Park, the place where the queen and the prince attended mass.
The queen participated in
a private religious service
, in the chapel inside Windsor Palace.
Until now, her subjects have not seen her since the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.
The tribute of the children
It was Prince Andrew, who has been removed from the royal family as an official member by the Epstein pedophilia scandal, who spoke on his mother's behalf.
"The queen is feeling it, probably more than anyone," he said, describing her "as incredibly stoic."
"She said she felt a huge void in her life," he said.
Prince Andrew remembered his father in a message this Sunday at a religious ceremony in Windsor.
Photo: REUTERS
“But we as a family, those of us who are closest, are around her to support her.
I know that there is enormous support not only for her but for all of us when we go through this enormous change, ”added Prince Andrés, a former military officer like his father.
Andrew, the Duke of York, said his death means "that we have almost lost the grandfather of the nation."
"The messages we are receiving are absolutely incredible and it just means how grateful I am, we are, for these tributes," Prince Andrew declared in his first public appearance.
“I adored him as a father.
It was so calm if one had a problem.
He was always someone you could turn to and always listened, ”he recalled.
Princess Anne, Prince Philip's favorite, preferred a written statement.
“My father has been my teacher, my support and my critic.
But it is his example of a life well lived and his freely given service that I want to emulate.
We are going to miss him.
But he leaves a legacy that can inspire us all, ”wrote Princess Royal.
Prince Edward, along with his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, recalled that the prince "always thought of others before him" and described the tributes they are hearing as "fantastic."
"It is very sad.
It will be seen: he has been our father, grandfather, son-in-law but he means so much to other people, ”said Prince Edward.
The Countess of Wessex, whom the queen loves like a daughter, said the sovereign "is thinking of others before her."
Loneliness after retirement
Felipe lived since his retirement from public activity alone, in a
four-bedroom
lodge
, accompanied by his valet, in the vicinity of Sandringham Palace.
He would read, he would go out with Lady Ramsey to ride a horse-drawn cart, he would go through the fields.
"He often stopped to greet people at the royal estates," recounted the Countess of Wessex.
"I was always exchanging words with everyone because it didn't matter what anyone was doing in and around the park here (in Windsor) and elsewhere," Sophie said.
"They all meant a lot to him. He always took a very personal interest in everything they were doing. So everyone has stories to tell and most of them are pretty funny too," he continued.
Prince Charles had said on Saturday that his "dear papa" was a "much loved and appreciated figure, who had" rendered the most remarkable and devoted service to the queen, my family and the country. "
Probably the most spectacular of the tributes was that of the BBC, prepared during the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, with princes Carlos, Anne, Eduardo and Andrés, the sons of Felipe, speaking in a documentary, in "past tense" about their father .
A professional monarchy, without sentimentality, as his father would have liked, to evoke his work, his life and his legacy.
Paris, correspondent
CB
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