Their different approaches had stood them in good stead throughout their long marriage, and would help them again as they moved into the latter stages of their lives at the start of a new millennium.

Chapter 15

THREESCORE YEARS AND TEN

The days of our years are threescore years and ten;

And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,

Yet is their strength labour and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

PSALM 90

The Queen and Prince Philip have long outlived the biblical expectation of life. Now in their nineties and in the seventieth year of married life, they are in uncharted waters for any royal couple in history. They retain the mental alertness and physical fitness of couples many years younger. In recent years, the Queen and Prince Philip have re-written the record books. The Queen is the longest-reigning British monarch in history as well as the oldest reigning monarch; Prince Philip is the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch and the oldest-ever male member of the British royal family.

On 20 November 2017, the Queen and Prince Philip will celebrate their seventieth (platinum) wedding anniversary. For any couple to reach this landmark is a remarkable achievement. That the Queen and Prince Philip should do so while still working at their public duties is quite extraordinary. It was only in Prince Philip’s ninety-sixth year that Buckingham Palace announced he would retire from royal duties in the autumn of 2017. At a royal lunch shortly after the announcement was made, 88-year-old mathematician Michael Atiyah said to Prince Philip: ‘I’m sorry to hear you’re standing down.’

‘Well, I can’t stand up much longer,’ joked the duke. Having attended 22,219 engagements in his own right since 1952, not including those attended with the Queen, one could understand his sentiment.

He is patron or president of more than 780 organisations and, although he will no longer play an active role in attending engagements, he will continue to be associated with various societies, regiments and charities. He calls himself the world’s most experienced unveiler of plaques. Unlike the Queen, whose only speeches written by her are her Christmas addresses, Prince Philip has written all his own speeches which, over the years, run into thousands, particularly on the subject of conservation and his own philosophy of life. Several books of his collected writings have been published on subjects as diverse as ornithology, carriage driving, the environmental revolution, science and religion.