Supposedly, during his younger years, Prince Philip – always a man with a quick tongue and a stubborn sense of pride – told a royal footman who wanted to carry his suitcase for him, “I have arms, I’m not bloody helpless…”
True or apocryphal, the anecdote sums up the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of the somewhat more famous Queen Elizabeth II.
Many will be those who queue to sing his praises after he died yesterday at the age of 99 – but as many will line up to put their barbs in.
For Philip was an often contradictory figure.
Was he a racist? Undoubtedly.
But so were many white men of his era, the men who built, or were the heirs of those who built, the British Empire.
Was he sexist? Probably, notwithstanding the fact that he himself might sometimes be considered as the half-great man behind a great woman.
What he was, also undoubtedly, was brave.
As an officer in the Royal Navy, his time on the front line in World War II wasn’t manufactured by PR spinners.
He was also loyal.
Only death managed to part him from his queen, who herself described him as her “sweetheart”.