April 10, 2021 - 7:00am
The death of a monarch always comes as a shock because the Crown is haloed with immortality. When the present Queen dies it will be a double shock, because her long reign is coterminous with the lives of so many. But it is a tribute to Prince Philip that his death today comes as nearly as great a shock. He is inseparable from the Queen in our minds and it is poignant to think of her left old and alone in her echoing palaces.
We ourselves are left with the sense of the beginning of the passing of an era. And Prince Philip would seem to represent in an acute form the best of the values of that era, which in many ways jar with today’s.
At the core of those values was an attempt to transform and yet maintain much older inherited traditions and attitudes.
For Philip was the lost scion of a European dynastic network. As such he retained a fundamentally international outlook, but one which fully recognised that humanity can only be nurtured in specifically national and religious identities.
For this reason he remained unbounded within a tightly bounded circumstance. Although he fully accepted the limitations of public service, he did not see this as any reason for passive self-abnegation, but actively, if ironically, identified with his potentially undignified role. It is this bold and humorous embrace of fated restriction which many now find irksome: one is no longer supposed to mix public performance with private self-expression in quite this manner.
Yet such a mix is authentically Socratic: the proof that the doing of one’s duty can also be the way of self-fulfilment. The Duke’s sacrifice of career to romance and ceremonial office is all the more impressive for his not hiding some annoyance. The combination of his restless temperament and his deeply felt devotion to duty found fruitful expression; for instance, in the creation of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the work of Saint George’s House Windsor, and in catalysing the engagement of the great religions with contemporary environmentalism.
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SubscribeWhat a profound and insightful article, thank you.
I’m with Claire D on this. Wonderful piece, and so refreshing to read. Ferrusian’s comment should be deleted.
Not deleted. Left to be hanged on its own merit.
I agree with Spetzari – let his comment stand there so everyone knows what an idiot he is (note the downvotes!)
I had previously thought that KBO stood for “Kindly Bugg** Off’.
Either way, it’s good advice for the “snowflakes”
He were a very parfait gentil knight.
If this jeremiad against developing personal gifts was from someone who had worked in a factory all their life, or was a monk who had made vows of poverty it might command more respect from me. But we’re talking of a man with numerous degrees and a cushy academic job so pull the other one.
Did you need to be snotty?
Please read the article on p17 of today’s DailyTelegraph recounting a few things he did in his early twenties, then pop back and tell us what you’ve done.
Are you referring to John Millbank or to HRH Prince Philip?