In a handful of days, on April 9 exactly, the flags of the United Kingdom will be at half mast for the first anniversary of the disappearance of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The tributes, however, have already begun this Tuesday, March 29: a mass in his honor was celebrated at Westminster Abbey. The Windsor clan were not the only ones to appear on the forecourt of the religious building to pay homage to Prince Philip. Other crowned heads had made a point of being present. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was accompanied by his wife Queen Maxima and Beatrix, his mother, the country’s previous queen. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium also left their country to honor the memory of the late husband of Elizabeth II. The British queen was also able to see the Queen of Denmark Margrethe II of Denmark and King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and his wife Silvia. Coming from cold countries, members of the royal families still warmed the heart of Queen Elizabeth.
The grandmother of princes William and Harry, absent from this ceremony, marked his little reunion with the British people. Her health in decline for several months, Elizabeth II had been forced to rest and forced to cancel many trips to spare herself. Out of the question, however, to ignore the mass given in homage to its pillar, the man with whom she shared almost all her life. His emotion was palpable. Within the abbey, the queen’s tears were visible. But unlike the funeral last year, Elizabeth II was well surrounded this time.
At his side stood Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, Princess Anne and her husband Timothy Laurence, followed a little further by the maligned Prince Andrew, Edward, his wife Sophie of Wessex and their two children Louise and James. Their cousins were not far away. A row behind the Queen, Prince William, Kate Middleton and Charlotte and George had taken their places. If nothing will ever be able to fill the absence of Prince Philip in the eyes of the Queen, the latter can finally benefit from the public support which she so badly needed on the day of the funeral, including the heartbreaking images of the Queen, alone facing the coffin of her husband. , traveled around the world.