Dealing with a work-life balance a new issue for longer living royals
Prince Philip may be the oldest royal to retire from official duties, but he is by no means the first.
In the past, elderly royals have abdicated, stood down, eased back, gone mad, handed power to a regent, chosen exile or soldiered on regardless of age, sometimes with embarrassing results.
Many have simply faded out of the royal picture to spend more time with their dogs, mistresses, or golf clubs.
Members of the modern royal family are not only more scrutinised than their forebears and expected to work harder and longer, they also face a problem that was less of an issue for their predecessors: namely, old age.
In earlier times, royals tended to die younger and often violently.
Some 58 British monarchs have died of natural causes while 15 have perished in battle, 17 were murdered, executed or euthanised and at least 10 died in unexplained ways.
Today we are all living longer but the royals are living longer than most of us. This can be put down to good longevity genes, the best healthcare in the country or the restorative waters of Balmoral.
The Queen is the oldest ruler in British history, by a margin of 10 years and Prince Philip is the oldest consort. The Queen Mother lived to 101. Prince Charles is the oldest heir to the throne and has led that position for longest.
How to deal with the work-life balance as a royal in old age is, therefore, a fairly new issue.
Queen Victoria ruled until her death in 1901, by which time she was 81, but in her final years she was a much diminished figure. In 1883 she fell down the stairs at Windsor and never fully recovered, suffering serious rheumatism thereafter and gradually reducing her public engagements.
George III also lived for 81 years, and ruled for 59 of those, living and ruling longer than any of his predecessors. But the last 10 years were sad ones – in 1810, already virtually blind and painfully rheumatic, he suffered a complete mental breakdown.
Despite moments of lucidity, the king spent the rest of his life in seclusion, while the Prince of Wales acted as regent. At Christmas 1819, George III spoke nonsense for 58 hours. He died a month later.
His father, George II, held the previous record for royal longevity, and ruled to the end. On October 25, 1760, he rose at 6am, drank a cup of hot chocolate and dropped dead at the age of 76, older than any of his predecessors.
As one of the shortest-serving monarchs but one of the longestliving kings, Edward VIII’s retirement after abdication was long, public and rather undignified. The Duke of Windsor gave, and attended, lots of parties while living in France, wrote articles for Women’s Home Companion, paid no tax, and bought cigarettes through the British embassy. Gore Vidal, who met him socially, observed that the duke ‘‘always had something of riveting stupidity to say on any subject’’. Despite a lifetime of heavy smoking and drinking, he died at the age of 77, our fourth longest-lived monarch.
In older age the Queen Mother cut down on her royal engagements, particularly after a hip replacement in 1998 but she never completely withdrew from public life. In November 2001, at the age of 101, in her final public engagements she planted a cross for Remembrance Day, attended a lunch in honour of the RAF and a ceremony for the recommissioning of HMS Ark Royal. She died three months later.
– The Times