Prince Philip is commemorated 100 years after his birth 0:37
(Reuters) -
The will of Prince Philip, the late husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, will be sealed and kept private for at least 90 years to preserve the dignity of the monarch, a London High Court judge ruled.
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had been married to the 95-year-old British monarch for over seven decades, died at the age of 99 at his wife's home in Windsor Castle, west London, on 9 of April.
In accordance with a convention dating back to 1910, Andrew McFarlane, president of the court's Family Division, said that he had agreed that Philip's will should be sealed "and that no copy of the will should be made for the record or kept in the judicial file ".
It also ruled in favor of the request "to exclude the value of the estate from the granting of successions."
Queen Elizabeth II left Buckingham Palace to visit a pub
"The degree of publicity the publication is likely to attract would be very extensive and totally contrary to the objective of maintaining the dignity of the sovereign," McFarlane said in a ruling published Thursday.
He said the convention was that after the death of an older royal, a request to seal the will was made to the president of the Family Division, and that such hearings and trials were kept private.
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However, he said that "as is clear from this ruling," he considered it to be a "necessary and proportionate interference in the private affairs of His Majesty and the Royal Family to make public the fact that a request to seal the will of Prince Philip. .. has been done and granted in private, and to explain the underlying reasons. "
The judge said 90 years must pass from the granting of probate before the will was opened in private before possible publication, a period that he said was "proportionate and sufficient."
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He said the first royal whose will was sealed was Prince Francis of Teck, who was the younger brother of George V's wife, Queen Mary.
He said he was the custodian of a safe that contained more than 30 envelopes with the wills of deceased royals.
The most recent additions were made in 2002 after the deaths of Queen Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth, and her sister, Princess Margaret, he said.
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