Queen Elizabeth Felt She Owed Prince Philip a ‘Debt Greater Than He Would Ever Claim’
According to royal author Ian Lloyd, Queen Elizabeth paid a rare tribute to her devoted husband during their golden wedding anniversary.
The late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip enjoyed one of the most enduring and successful marriages, spending over 73 years together. As the longest-married royal couple in British history, their enduring bond came to symbolize love, sacrifice, and unwavering mutual respect. Philip's devotion to his wife ran so deep that the Queen, despite rarely wearing her heart on her sleeve, once admitted she was forever indebted to him for being her constant strength through life's many trials and tribulations.
In his book, The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Queen Elizabeth II, royal author Ian Lloyd recalled an incident during the late monarch's golden wedding anniversary, where she paid a sweet tribute to her husband. She gushed in her tribute, "He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments, but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and 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 couple celebrated 50 years together in 1997, having married on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey.
In addition to that, Lloyd noted the Queen was so indebted to Philip that on his 90th birthday, she bestowed him with "the title of Lord High Admiral, a position only ever held by the sovereign." He continued, "For the man who had given up his own promising career to help support her [the Queen] for the rest of his life, it was a touching gesture and one that apparently moved him [Philip] close to tears." At the time, her kind gesture was widely interpreted as a thank-you and a public acknowledgment of the naval career Philip had to surrender to become her full-time consort, a role that left him walking 'two steps behind' her in public life.
Similarly, royal author Ingrid Seward has also shared heartwarming details about their unique partnership and sacrifice. She told Us Weekly, "He [Philip] was always there, always there two steps behind, deferential." She added, "They [Queen and Philip] were two unique people, and only they knew what it was like to be them... For instance, when they were younger, they were constantly traveling around the Commonwealth and around the world. And then Phillip used to go off on his own, but when they were together, they could share everything."
And that pretty much explained why the Queen was so heartbroken when her husband of 73 years passed away on April 9, 2021, at age 99. In his new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, serialized by The Daily Mail, royal author Hugo Vickers revealed that shortly after Philip complained about feeling unwell and passing away, the Queen, who was caught off guard by his untimely death, reportedly said, "She took the line, I was told, that she was 'absolutely furious that, as so often in life, he [Philip] left without saying goodbye.'"
