PEOPLE Prince Philip

With Prince Philip’s passing at age 99, People pays tribute to history’s longest-serving royal consort in a photo-filled commemorative edition. The day of Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation, her husband, Philip Mountbatten, also took a vow: To stand by the monarch, who happened also to be the love of his life. With intimate family pictures and glorious historical moments, this special issue looks at Philip’s life, from his turbulent childhood through his decades of public duty to the Crown. The son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg served his adopted country first as a naval officer and then as the “strength and stay” of the queen, to whom he was wed for 73 years. Father to Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward and to Princess Anne, he was a grandfather to eight (including Princes William and Harry), and a great-grandfather of nine. Flinty and frank, he was known for the occasional verbal gaffe but also for being someone the queen “can have a laugh with,” according to an insider. People’s unparalleled royal coverage tells the story of a royal romance that weathered good years and bad. As a bridesmaid at their 1947 wedding told People when Elizabeth and Philip approached their platinum anniversary, “I can think of very few couples as united.”