LONDON — His coffin borne on a military green Land Rover that he had helped design, Prince Philip was laid to rest Saturday at Windsor Castle in an austere, meticulously choreographed funeral that captured his steely role in Britain’s royal family and offered a solemn glimpse of its uncertain future.
Queen Elizabeth II bade farewell to Philip, her husband, who died April 9, two months shy of his 100th birthday, from solitude inside St. George’s Chapel.
She was clad in a mask and kept at a distance from her children and grandchildren by pandemic social distancing requirements, which limited attendance to 30 people.
Her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry were separated as well, by one of their cousins, as they walked behind Philip’s coffin.
This quirk of royal protocol dramatized the rift between the brothers that opened after Harry’s marriage to an American former actress, Meghan Markle.
That wedding was held nearly three years ago in the same Gothic chapel on a similarly crystalline Saturday.
It was both a joyful contrast and a poignant reminder of the turbulence that has enveloped the House of Windsor since its patriarch faded into retirement and a new generation of royals seized the limelight.
There were glimmerings of a thaw between Harry and William as the brothers walked together after the funeral and spoke quietly to each other.
But this was a somber occasion, a family convening in sadness to mark the death of a man whom many credited with providing stability and meting out discipline to younger royals as they struggled to navigate the pressures of duty and celebrity.
c.2021 The New York Times Company
By: Mark Landler
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