Prince Philip had to pull out of a public engagement this week because he was ‘feeling under the weather’.
The Queen’s husband had been planning to attend a ceremony at Windsor Castle to formally hand over his role as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards to his son, Prince Andrew.
Buckingham Palace announced last December that Andrew would take over the appointment from his father, who has been Colonel of the Grenadier Guards since 1975, as part of his renouncement of official duties.
But it was understood that Philip, 96, who retired from public duties last summer, was feeling unwell and doctors didn’t want to take any chances after he has suffered several bouts of ill health- from emergency heart surgery to a severe bladder infection.
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So what is Prince Philip’s role and why is he such an intrinsic part of the British Royal Family?
Prince Philip’s real name is something of a mouthful.
He was born Philippos Andreou of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderberg-Glücksburg Prince of Greece and Denmark, in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on 10 June 1921.
He was the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg.
His godparents were Queen Olga of Greece (his paternal grandmother) and the Mayor of Corfu and his maternal grandfather Louis Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven.
In 1922 his family were disposed during the Greek-Turkish war and Prince Philip was smuggled out the country in a cot made from a fruit box to safety in France.
After leaving Greece as a baby Philip does not speak much Greek and has stated that he has thought of himself as Danish, and his family spoke English, French, and German.
Philip was schooled at the prestigious boarding school Gordonstoun in Scotland and sent his three sons there.
Aged 18 the strapping 6ft naval man met 13 year old Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth, his third cousin from their descent from Queen Victoria, his second cousin once removed from their descent from King Christian IX of Denmark and fourth cousin once removed from their descent from King George III.
They fell in love, but her father King George VI did not want them to get married right away. In the summer of 1946, Philip asked the King for his daughter’s hand in marriage and the King said yes, although asked for their engagement to be delayed until Elizabeth’s 21st birthday the following April.
The engagement was announced to the public on July 10 1947 and they married on November 20 of that year at Westminster Abbey. It was broadcast on the radio to 200 million people around the world.
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Their marriage is the longest of any British King or Queen and the Queen has said he is her ‘constant strength and guide.’
Before they married he was created His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, but was not given the title of Prince until 1957.
Almost a year after their wedding they had their first child, a boy, Charles Phillip Arthur George. In 1950 they had a daughter, Anne. They were followed by Andrew and Edward.
In 1956, the Duke, with Kurt Hahn, founded the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in order to give young people ‘a sense of responsibility to themselves and their communities’ and has gone on to be patron of 800 organisations and completed 22,219 solo engagements.
To celebrate his 90th birthday, the Queen appointed him Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy (the highest title in the organisation and Canada appointed him to the highest ranks available in all three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces.
He receives an annual Parliamentary annuity of £359,000 to ‘meet the expenses of carrying out his public duties in support of the Queen’ and is s estimated to be worth £21million.
The Duke of Edinburgh is famed for his blunt way of speaking and can be gaffe-prone.
When he and the Queen met Stephen Menary, an army cadet blinded by an IRA bomb, and the Queen enquired how much sight he retained, Philip retorted: ‘Not a lot, judging by the tie he’s wearing.’
During a state visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1986, in a private conversation with British students from Xi’an’s North West University, Philip joked, ‘If you stay here much longer, you’ll go slit-eyed.’
Despite outcries in the British press of racism, the Chinese authorities were unconcerned. Chinese students studying in the UK, an official explained, were often jokingly told not to stay away too long, lest they go ’round-eyed’.
And Philip is revered as a god in some parts of the world.
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The inhabitants of the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, worship Prince Philip, holding feasts on his birthday and possessing portraits of the Duke.
MORE: Prince Philip, 96, ‘pulls out of rare public engagement due to ill health’
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