Queen Elizabeth and the last letter for Prince Philip

It was 1939 when the Queen Elizabeth, at the time a 13-year-old princess, began one regular correspondence with the charming Filippo, five years older, met during a family trip to the Royal Naval College. Today, 82 years after those first ones exchanges of letters, the sovereign left on the coffin of her late husband one last message, a tender farewell handwritten, as per tradition.

A detail that, during the final greeting to the Duke of Edinburgh, did not escape the cameras positioned in the chapel of St. George: immersed in the garland of flowers, in fact, it stands out the Buckingham Palace card bordered in black, used for funerals. The court staff did not disclose the content of the letter, three words can be seen from the shots: «In loving memory“, That is”to loving memory».

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If it was the same queen a put down the note it is not known, and it is impossible even to know what went through her mind during it the suggestive minute of silence in which she bowed her head, alone, near the altar. He may have rethought at the most intense moments passed with Philip, her husband for over 73 years, from the fateful Yup a Westminster until the recent lockdown a Windsor.

An iconic love story, punctuated precisely by the letters that the two were usually send themselves. Looking at her husband’s coffin, during the procession, the queen she wiped her eyes, but without losing its unmistakable aplomb: in church she sat isolated in front of the choir, showing tenderness and dignity. You, for a few moments only “Lilibet», His affectionate childhood nickname.

With which he used to call her Philip. And with which – the tabloids assure – His Majesty he signed that last message.

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