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London / Windsor (dpa) - It should have been a special anniversary year for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
But just under two weeks before the Queen's 95th birthday on April 21 and around two months before Philips 100th birthday, the Prince Consort died.
Elizabeth specifically ordered 14 days of mourning.
Your birthday - probably the saddest of your life - is canceled.
From the coronation ceremony in 1953 to his retirement in 2017, Philip was always by her side and always ready to stand behind her.
But behind the scenes he may have played a far more important role.
How great his influence was will probably never fully emerge.
No one kept minutes of the couple's personal conversations.
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But it is not difficult to believe that, as a former private secretary of the Queen once said, he was the only person in the world who treated Elizabeth "simply as a different person."
«He has simply been my strength and my mainstay over the years.
And I and his whole family, as well as this country and many other countries, owe him more than he will ever admit and we will ever suspect, ”said the Queen of Philip at the couple's golden wedding in 1997. Now she will have to do without the reflection surface that he offered her.
It is not to be expected that the Queen will now give up the scepter.
Her sense of duty, as she made it clear as a very young woman, is paramount.
On her 21st birthday in 1947, the heir to the throne at the time, promised to dedicate my entire life to her subjects on her 21st birthday in 1947.
So it will probably continue to maintain a “stiff upper lip”, as they say in Great Britain, a “stiff upper lip” - that means something like “keep your composure”.
There is much to suggest that Prince Charles will, at least ceremonially, fill the void that Philip has left.
He has already represented his father in recent years on important occasions such as the opening of parliament or trips abroad.
The Queen's last state visit was six years ago.
He took them to Germany together with Philip.
Since then, Charles and his wife Camilla (73) have been traveling around the world for the Crown, occasionally Prince William (38) and his wife Duchess Kate (39).
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And in family matters too, Charles will have more responsibility in the future.
It was he who appeared in front of the press the day after his father died to deliver a statement on behalf of the family.
He found soulful, even tender words: "My dear papa was a very special person who would be amazed at the reaction and the moving things that were said about him," said Charles.
The family is "deeply grateful" for this and will "carry them through this special loss and this particularly sad time."
But will Charles also manage to master the great challenges with a similar amount of sensitivity?
The dispute with Prince Harry (36) and his wife Duchess Meghan (39) had shaken the royal house in its foundations in recent weeks.
The focus is on allegations of a lack of consideration for the couple and even racist remarks within the family.
Meghan has partly African American roots.
The main reason for explosives was that the two spread all of this in public during a sensational interview with US talk show legend Oprah Winfrey.
Harry complained about his father Charles in particular - there was talk of injuries and unanswered phone calls.
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The racism allegation was close to the Royals - Harry's brother William let himself be carried away to an emotional comment.
"Not at all" was his family racist, he called out to a journalist, who asked him about the attitude of the royals.
Another minefield is the involvement of the Queen's second eldest son, Prince Andrew (61), in the scandal surrounding the deceased US multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein. He is said to have operated an abuse ring with underage victims for years.
An Epstein victim claims she was urged to have sex with the Duke of York several times when she was 17.
Andrew denies this. But in a BBC interview intended as a liberation, he did not cut a good figure.
He has since withdrawn from his official duties.
A criminal case in the US against the former partner and alleged helper of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, with whom Andrew was close friends, could bring him back into trouble.
One last service Prince Philip could do to his family is to make his funeral next Saturday (April 17th) an opportunity for reconciliation between Harry and the rest of the family.
Then it remains to be seen whether the Queen succeeds in keeping the family together without her sometimes capricious but always loyal companion Philip - and to what extent Charles can also follow in Philips' footsteps as a unifying father figure.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210411-99-160856 / 2