The only royal to outshine Diana and Philip ‘revealed’ – do you agree?,
The late Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Diana may not have had a lot in common.
Prince Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families while Diana only became a princess through marriage.
But the two shared a crowd appeal and common touch with members of the public – traits which one royal expert says another member of the Royal Family also has.
Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth is one of the best-positioned people to discuss the late Duke of Edinburgh, having known him for more than 40 years.
Brandreth met Philip when he became involved in the work of the National Playing Fields Association, of which Philip had been president since 1948.
‘Philip was a funny man who liked to laugh and make others laugh.
‘I very much enjoyed his company. Having observed him many times at close quarters, I also noticed that the more unassuming people were, the friendlier he’d be.’
In his 2021 book, Philip The Final Portrait, the royal biographer wrote: ‘The only royal I have seen outclass both Diana and Philip is Prince William.
Hosted by Royal Historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things looks at the Royal Family – the secrets, the palace intrigues, and the Crown’s bloodiest moments.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts now.
‘I have watched him at close range – at Highgrove, on the polo field, on the streets and in the crowd.
‘I have seen him with the aristocracy and everyday folk: he is comfortable with both and they are comfortable with him.
‘He shows concern and empathy, in the way Diana did but without those touches of self-consciousness and self-absorption that her manner sometimes suggested.
‘William is natural, friendly and completely easy with the people he meets – as Philip was.
‘But William’s sense of humour is gentler and his banter never borders on hectoring, as the Duke of Edinburgh’s sometimes would.’
Brandreth recalled a time when he was with Prince Philip they passed the kitchen of a luncheon club. The duke stopped, turned back and marched in, unannounced, to meet the chefs and dish-washers.
‘There was laughter, back-slapping, joshing: an enviable display of people skills and unselfconscious charm. The only time I’ve seen it quite as well done was recently by William.
‘Indeed, with the general public, on the whole, and with those he met undertaking his array of public duties, the duke was surprisingly equable: easy-going, unaffected and good-humoured.’
He wrote that one of the things that worried the Queen and Philip about Diana was ‘not that she was popular, but that she allowed her popularity to go to her head’.
‘Once upon a time, Philip and Elizabeth themselves had been viewed as characters from a fairy tale.
‘The difference between them and Diana was that they didn’t take it personally.
‘For the Queen and Philip, royalty was never about hysterical crowds, newspaper column inches, celebrity or star quality. It was simply about duty and service.’
For William and Prince Harry in particular, the duke was said to be a guiding presence, offering them counsel and support in the dark days after their mother, Diana’s death.
On his death, William paid tribute to his grandfather, saying Philip’s ‘enduring presence’ guided him ‘both through good times and the hardest days’.
This ‘enduring presence’ as well as his caring, grandfatherly nature was shown clearly during Diana’s funeral cortege on September 6, 1997.
Initially there had been no plans for Philip to walk behind Diana’s coffin, as this role was intended for immediate family only.
But after conversations with his grandson, who asked to walk beside him in support as they followed the hearse, Philip could not refuse.
The Duke of Edinburgh joined his son Prince Charles, William and Harry as well as Diana’s brother Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the coffin during her funeral on September 6, 1997, when the young royals were only 15 and 12.
Brandreth revealed in the ITV documentary Philip: Prince, Husband, Father: ‘It wasn’t his idea, but there was a tradition at royal funerals of members of the royal family walking behind the hearse.
‘There was no plan originally for Prince Philip to be part of that. Philip said to Prince William, if it would help, I could walk alongside you.
‘So, he volunteered to do that, William accepted the invitation, so far from being what was being reported, it was an act of grandfatherly kindness to try and offer support to William.’
Many observers believe William and Kate modelled themselves directly on the Queen and the late Duke of Edinburgh, who were married for 73 years.
Brandreth wrote that William and Kate lived ‘a relatively normal young officer’s life’ while he was training with the Search and Rescue force in north Wales – ‘not dissimilar to the experience enjoyed by Philip and Elizabeth when the Duke of Edinburgh was a young officer serving in the Royal Navy in Malta sixty years before’.
The royal author recalled when Philip was ill in the summer of 2012, as vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association, he spent a day watching Kate and William.
He wrote: ‘I watched them “doing their thing” on a playing field in Nottingham – meeting and greeting, walking and talking, making a speech, playing with some children – and they did not put a foot wrong.
‘At all times their focus was entirely on the people immediately in front of them. Not once did either of them play to the cameras – or even acknowledge them.
‘And I noticed too, that just as the Duke of Edinburgh, in more than 70 years of royal duty, never once put himself above, before, or ahead of his wife and sovereign.
‘Philip would take no credit for the successful way in which Catherine has merged into the Royal Family – becoming a star, but somehow managing not to behave like a celebrity.
‘She appeared to have learnt all the lessons that Philip could have taught her.’
Philip guided William through his youth to adulthood. Even in his absence, as William prepares to one day take on the crown, he and his wife appear to have retained the wisdom of his late grandfather.
