Invited on Saturday on Europe 1 to react to the death of Prince Philip, the historian Jean des Cars wished to recall the royal and tormented origins of the husband of the Queen of England, torn from his country in childhood, and who hardly found a new homeland in the UK.
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With Prince Philip, who died on Friday at the age of 99, not only disappears one of the great figures of British royalty, but also one of the last heirs of pre-war Europe, that of the great monarchies.
"Prince Philip was a memory of Europe," summed up on Saturday at the microphone of Europe 1 the historian Jean des Cars, specialist in crowned heads.
Heir to the royal houses of Greece and Denmark, Philip was related to several princely families, but the upheavals of history made him an uprooted, long in search of identity.
Bringuebalé from the land of exile to the land of exile
"Prince Philip of Greece, born June 10, 1921 on a kitchen table in a villa in Corfu, represents by his Danish, Russian and German ancestry a European memory", continues Jean des Cars, who recalls that the very young prince has was forced to flee his country after the abdication of his uncle, Constantine I of Greece.
He is then rattled from the land of exile to the land of exile.
"He is a kind of homeless man of the European elite, who was never at home, always with others, on vacation, lodged. After Greece it will be Saint-Cloud, in France, (the prince spoke of elsewhere in near-perfect French,
editor's note
) then it will be sent to Germany and Scotland. "
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Prince Philip, a life in the shadow of Elizabeth II
"This somewhat squeaky humor, shocking at times, was a way of existing"
Beginning in 1934 his schooling at Gordonstoun boarding school, north of Inverness, Philip seemed to settle permanently in the United Kingdom.
Under the aegis of his maternal uncle, Louis Mountbatten, he eventually joined the Royal Navy.
Despite his marriage to Elisabeth II, Philip continues to feel like a stranger, both at heart and a little alienated from the "firm" - as the royal family likes to call themselves - always two steps behind their royal wife, as required by protocol.
A situation which would explain the sharp character of the prince, according to Jean des Cars.
"This somewhat creaky humor, shocking at times, was a way of existing," he says.
Dying in Windsor, quite a symbol
"What is extraordinary for him is to die in Windsor, the largest inhabited fortress in the world, with this name, used in 1917 by King George V, the queen's grandfather, to anglicize the name of the a fairly Germanic dynasty ", further notes our historian.
"This means that Prince Philip, who had to add Windsor to his name, died at the castle of the same name, finally won his last identity fight."