Queen announces with 'deep sorrow' that husband the Duke of Edinburgh 'passed away peacefully at Windsor Castle' this morning - three weeks after he finished 28-night hospital stay for infection and heart surgery. Her Majesty announced her husband's death at midday. Buckingham Palace said in a statement: '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. 'His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course.
The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss'. His death plunges the nation and the Royal Family into mourning, and brings to an end Philip's lifetime of service to Britain and to Elizabeth, the Queen who adored him since her teens. 'He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,' Her Majesty said at their Golden Wedding banquet in 1997. 'I and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.' The quizzical, witty, faithful - and often controversial - the Duke was the Queen's greatest source of support, her confidant and the man she relied on above all others. Until his death, Philip was the longest-serving consort in British history and the oldest partner of a reigning monarch, who despite his ill health took part her first royal engagement of 2021 last week.
He was a great-grandfather of ten, with the most recent addition to his wider family being Zara and Mike Tindall's baby son Lucas Philip Tindall on March 21 - soon after Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's son August, who was born on February 9. Philip's lifelong role was to ensure that he never let The Queen down and their long-lasting marriage was one of the world's best-known relationships. Reflecting their love in her Diamond Jubilee speech to Parliament in 2012, Elizabeth said: 'During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure. Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.'
