One day after his death, Prince Philip is traditionally remembered with a total of 41 gun salutes.
News about the royals in the GALA ticker
10th of April
41 gun salutes for Prince Philip
A nation in mourning: one day after the death of Prince Philip, † 99, life in Great Britain seems to have come to a standstill. A gun salute will pay tribute to the late husband of Queen Elizabeth, 94, on Saturday, April 10, 2021. But the Duke is not only remembered in London. 41 shots will be fired from 1 p.m. over a period of 40 minutes in Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and Gibraltar as well as from warships of the Royal Navy. But why is the Duke of Edinburgh honored with 41 gun salutes, after all 21 shots are considered the highest honor in Great Britain. In the case of special occasions, however, another 20 are added.
The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery fires the gun salute in London the day after Prince Philip’s death.
© Getty Images
The death of Prince Philip was announced on Friday, April 9, 2021. He died at Windsor Castle just two months before his 100th birthday. Since then, the flags have been hanging at half-mast on all government buildings. The bells of Westminster Abbey rang 99 times on the day of death. It was here that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip tied the knot in 1947.
9th April
Compassion for Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry
Prince Harry, 36, and Duchess Meghan, 39, left England and the royal family in the spring of 2020 in order to be able to lead a more self-determined life – and above all one without the constant monitoring of the British press. At least the plan with the media did not work: The couple is a long-term hit in the headlines. One that caused quite a stir recently was the one about the real wedding date of Harry and Meghan: Is it May 19, 2018, as previously assumed, or May 16, 2018, as the Duchess of Sussex claimed in an Oprah interview ?
After days of excitement and confusion, it turned out: The wedding day is and will be May 19, 2018. Justin Welby, 65, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was also able to help clarify the situation: He married Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan at Windsor Castle.
In a new interview with the “Financial Times” the clergyman is asked again about Prince Harry – and draws a comparison between his life and the life of a prison inmate. “It’s a life without parole, isn’t it? If you go back to the 1930s, Edward VIII – he was still a celebrity and was followed all over the place once he was abdicated. We expect her [die Royals] are superhuman “, the Archbishop shows empathy with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan.
April 8, 2021
Prince Harry’s “Invictus Games” take off in The Hague
Because of the corona pandemic, the new edition of Prince Harry’s, 36, “Invictus Games” sports competition had to be postponed twice. Actually, the event should have taken place in May 2020. Now there is a new date: April 16-22, 2022. This is announced by the “We are Invictus” foundation in a press release. Harry has personally attended each of the games over the past seven years. In 2017, in Toronto, he even brought Duchess Meghan, 39, with him. It was the couple’s first public appearance.
Will Prince Harry make a detour to his old home England beforehand? Possible. On July 1, 2021 – on this day Princess Diana would have turned 60 – a statue of the princess is to be unveiled in the garden of Kensington Palace. This plan has been around for a long time and Prince Harry and Prince William, 38, had set up a working committee especially for it. Actually, the brothers should have appeared side by side at the ceremony. It remains to be seen whether the plan will be implemented because of Corona and the internal tensions in the royal family.
April 7, 2021
Princess Alexandra is missing
The British newspaper “The Mirror” is surprised: Princess Alexandra, 84, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth, 94, has not kept an appointment for eight months. This means that the number of working members of the royal family has shrunk from 15 to eleven since November 2019. Prince Andrew, 61, was the first to be lost to the Queen: Because of his controversial statements about Jeffrey Epstein, † 66, and his alleged involvement in his machinations, he resigned from his duties for the time being. In January 2020, Prince Harry, 36, and Duchess Meghan, 39, declared the Megxit.
Why Princess Alexandra has withdrawn since her last appointment on July 30, 2020 is not known. Is it because of her age? The 84-year-old has had some health problems in the past, according to “The Mirror”. The palace does not want to comment on this. However, an insider explains that the Queen’s cousin is doing well and that she has not “secretly” retired.
The solution to the riddle could be the following: According to friends, Princess Alexandra recorded video messages for a small number of charities during the corona lockdown. In contrast to video phone calls and face-to-face appearances, recorded messages are not counted as royal appointments. Surely fans would have been happy to see a sign of life from the princess on the Royal Family Twitter account in the past eight months.
April 6, 2021
Queen Elizabeth: The Cambridge children gave her this Easter present
Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2, surprised Queen Elizabeth, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, with personalized Easter eggs they made and decorated, according to a source, Us Weekly. And not only that: with the help of their mother, Duchess Catherine, 39, they baked a chocolate cake covered with mini Cadbury eggs. A “Cadbury Creme Egg” is a chocolate-like confectionery made by the British chocolatier “Cadbury”.
The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, 38, organized an Easter egg hunt for the little ones on Easter Sunday. “They don’t allow George, Charlotte and Louis to eat chocolate and candy every day, so it was a real treat,” explains the insider.
April 5, 2021
Prince William suffers from Prince Harry’s absence
Duncan Larcombe, journalist and author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, says tensions between the brothers are getting more and more painful for Prince William, 38. “There is no doubt that this is one of the hardest things William has been through, the hardest since his mother’s death,” he told OK! Magazine. “He feels like he’s lost his brother and best friend.”
Something similar reported an insider of the always well-informed British newspaper “The Times”. Of Prince William, he says: “After he had overcome the anger over the events, he was left behind. Without his brother.” A hard blow, as the two would have shared everything beforehand: their life, an office, a foundation and lots of fun along the way. “He will miss that forever,” says the informant about Prince William with certainty.
Another friend told The Times that while William was still very upset, he was “absolutely anxious that his and Harry’s relationship will heal over time.” But that will take time, as it looks. Most recently, Gayle King, 66, a confidante of Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, 39, reported that conversations between Harry and his family – here Prince William and Prince Charles are explicitly mentioned – were “unproductive”.
Sources used: ok.co.uk, thetime.co.uk