For the people of Britain, who mythologise their role in World War II, the death of Prince Philip on Friday is more than the loss of a figure who has been at the center of British public life for three-quarters of a century.
It marks the change of guard within the monarchy and the nation in a broader sense of the generation that lived through the conflict and whose lifeblood embraced the British imperial climax, as well as the loss of wealth and a shrinking world role.
Queen Elizabeth, the prince’s wife, remains on the throne and is approaching her 95th birthday and apparently in good health. But the death of Philip breaks one prominent link with what many Britons consider a heroic past and has given the monarchy and the country a chance to reflect on the future.
Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, is a different character from his direct and powerful father. He takes over the management of family affairs and increasingly takes on roles that have hitherto fallen to his mother. The country, just outside the European Union, finds where it fits on the world stage.
In some ways, Prince Philip, who was 99 years old, was a remnant of an earlier era that preceded World War II, one in which the royal families of Europe were intermarried. Born a prince of Greece and Denmark, he was, like his wife, descended from Queen Victoria.