Did Queen Elizabeth cry at Prince Philip’s funeral? What the cameras don’t show
- Pandemic concerns meant masks hid royal faces, while television services kept a respectful distance during the ceremony
- The perception that the queen never weeps in public is not true, royal historians say, but there are reasons behind her stoic demeanour
Queen Elizabeth never weeps in public – that’s the common perception forged over seven decades of soaring triumphs and terrible tragedies for Britain’s head of state.
Even if many people believe it, it’s not strictly true, royal historians say.
“There have been more times she’s been in tears than people recognise or choose to remember,” said Sally Bedell Smith, the acclaimed American biographer of the queen and other senior royals.
Bedell Smith ticks off a half-dozen occasions when the queen was in tears, and not just in 1997 when the beloved royal yacht, the Britannia, was retired.
She cried when she went to Aberfan, Wales, in 1966 to meet with survivors of a horrifying avalanche of coal waste that killed 144 people, most of them children, Bedell Smith said.
At her sister Princess Margaret’s funeral in 2002, people who were there and seated near her told Bedell Smith she was “very tearful” and “the saddest I’ve ever seen her”.
Queen Elizabeth stands alone as Prince Philip is laid to rest
“She has shed tears but it’s been at appropriate times, such as the Remembrance Sunday commemorations” for Britain’s war dead every November, adds long-time royal commentator Victoria Arbiter, who spent part of her childhood in Kensington Palace as the daughter of a former press secretary to the queen.
But the widespread impression that the queen rarely shows emotion gets to the underlying role of the longest serving reigning monarch in British history: after 69 years on her throne, she’s had a lot of practice at hiding her feelings when necessary – and often it is necessary.
Queen Elizabeth held back her undoubted sorrow on Saturday at the funeral of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9 at age 99.
The 94-year-old monarch kept her composure as she exited her Bentley and entered St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, a tiny, stooped figure dressed in black and wearing a matching face mask.
She sat alone at the service, her head bowed, and left with the Dean of Windsor, who officiated.
“I don’t think we can underestimate how significant a loss this is to the queen – it’s undeniable this will be the hardest day of her life,” Arbiter said.
Her family will see her grief up close, but those watching the televised service did not. All 30 guests in the congregation, in keeping with pandemic rules, were masked. Television cameras stayed a respectful distance from royal faces during the service, as is customary.
The queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, said to be her favourite, gave a hint of his mother’s demeanour when he spoke to reporters two days after his father’s death.
“The queen, as you would expect, is an incredibly stoic person,” Andrew, 61, said. “She described (his death) as having left a huge void in her life but we, the family, the ones that are close, are rallying round to make sure that we’re there to support her.”
The definition of a stoic is a person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining. This is the queen to a T, Bedell Smith said.
Queen Elizabeth says Prince Philip’s death leaves ‘huge void’ in her life
“She is a woman of deep feeling but she works very hard to present an impassive face,” Bedell Smith said. “It’s partly due to her role, and partly her temperament and the way she was brought up.”
The then Princess Elizabeth, as she was known until her ascension in 1952, was trained very deliberately not to show her feelings in public, Bedell Smith said.
“If you see her at any number of (performances) or events, for practical reasons she watches but she doesn’t applaud,” she added.
“The theory is, if she starts to express reaction of any kind, it will be seen as favouring one group over another. So she’s perfected this neutral look.”
At times, she’s been criticised for having a “stony” face, for appearing to be unfeeling or uncaring, Arbiter said. She is damned if she shows emotion, damned if she doesn’t, so her safest option is to not react.
“The best way to avoid criticism is to give away nothing, but it takes a will of steel and many years of practice,” Arbiter said.
Compared to her husband, who was more likely to express himself if he was vexed or moved in some way, she has to show neutrality. “The discipline! She is so disciplined in every way,” Bedell Smith said.
As a member of Britain’s World War II generation, when so many endured hardship, loss, grief and devastation, stoicism was a coping mechanism for everybody, not just the queen, Arbiter said.
Prince Charles pays tribute to ‘my dear papa’ Prince Philip for his devoted service
“There’s a famous phrase the royals say: ‘Don’t wear private grief on a public sleeve’,” Arbiter said.
“The family recognise that so many Britons have gone through hell in the past year and they will want to maintain that perspective” during the funeral.
The family wants the ceremony to be focused on the duke, the longest serving royal consort in British history, and to his years of service to the nation.
The queen, who is head of the Church of England, may choose to make her final goodbye in an even more private and spiritual setting, in her private chapel where his coffin has been at rest since his death. There are no television cameras there.
“I think before the funeral she will have gone to the private chapel for a moment with coffin alone,” Arbiter said. “That will be her intimate moment of goodbye, a quiet moment of reflection and faith.”
Then she will put on her neutral face, and a mask, and lead her family through another royal ceremony to be remembered down the ages.
