Thoughts on Prince Phillip by Terry Field
The announcement of the death of HRH the Prince Philip is, for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a more significant event than even the total televisual coverage of the death suggests. Instability threatens the State once again. Britain is returning to its condition of searching for both relevance opportunity and place following the surprise of leaving the European Union. This tears the countries away from the settled condition they previously enjoyed with explosive political results. This is in contrast to the reinforcing effect of war against the Axis powers, when in such circumstances, security for society relied on the reinforcement of social structures that have endured and buried into the social memories of modern time.
Such may not be so important for societies formed in times of almost living memory, or perhaps in times when the structures that made them were formed by the light of Enlightenment rationality. In Britain's constituent ancient cultures, when unknowable futures generated fear and concern, the people instinctively gathered a little more tightly around the safety of immovable and revered hierarchy.
Since this is core to British self-awareness, and perhaps to social stability, the quality of the Head of State and Consort becomes of immense importance.
In the long years of my life, my country has altered from functioning largely as a monoculture in its home islands, but with a vision of life that stretched with familiarity across an Empire of such integrated scale and aspirational zeal not seen since the Rome of the Antonines. It is now a society in terms of both race and culture that fully replicates the magnificence of the variety found within the confines of the Empire, but a bit 'in miniature' and compressed onto a tiny land mass. In all this, and with all that such re-formation brought, the subjects still perceived his or her place as securely set within the gaze of the continuing Queen and Consort.
For me, and for many, remote by virtue of my insignificance from the Ikons of the State, this fixity defined an element of my being. Just as I am forced to be a Christian since I was shown Christ as a child, and however I may consider atheism, I am unable to abandon the religious persona I was offered to love when very young and unformed. So the citizen is forced to face the quality of the Queen and Philip with revered respect, knowing their value and cultural immensity, quite irrespective of whether one may or may not have chosen to prefer republican ideals. No citizen of any republic will be able to understand this.
The media reflects this today, with kind comments even in radical publications.
Thus, for Britain, in like manner for Japan, the people form themselves by reference to the undying rock of the continuing hereditary monarchy, now shorn of its status touched directly by God.
Philip is the first of the two great national parents to die. His death happens after such a long time that none can recall Britain without him. When the Queen passes, then a new and perhaps more fragile monarchy will need to act as the support and guide to a state so relatively tiny, vulnerable and dependent upon a single great ally in the west, itself an aggressively republican society.
In this new, stripped down condition, shorn of the romantic indulgence of association with an immense past, that searching-back for a circumstance that reflects the new 'now' will be unavoidable. As Elizabeth became the inheritor of Gloriana, our first Elizabeth, so Charles will become a King in circumstances more like that experienced by George the Third, after the loss of American colonies, or even Henry the Seventh, then with European powers far greater in wealth and resources than England could afford.
Philip and Elizabeth are the couple connected directly to Empire and to war. That reinforced concrete crumbles with his, and finally with her death, when that occurs, long may it be deferred.
Afterwards, respect will be more conditional. To survive such, and to more probably guarantee continuity, there will need to be, in my view, in Britain, a closer replication of the Japanese relationship with the nation. KIndly, unspeaking, remote, where the people see the Royal Family as the incarnation of the life of the nation, and where all political activity happens at a functional level. Political and social tensions need to be very far removed from, and not touching, the family Ikon, that continues irrespective of the conditions seen in the state. That means the informality introduced by Philip may not be able to continue.
His life allowed us to feel close to the monarchy, to pretend all was not lost. With their passing, the true extent of the reduced and transformed state will be clear and obvious. That spells danger.
If one is poor but part of a tightly formed national family, survival may be less uncomfortable.
Now a personal word. As an old retired Englishman, living abroad, with most family now dead, I am unusually saddened by the loss of another figure of agreeable and kindly familiarity.
The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Rest in Peace.
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