Paphos Life

What has he/she done to have the Queen's dignity possibly compromised?


London: The will of Prince Philip, the late husband of Queen Elizabeth, will be sealed and remain private for at least 90 years to preserve the monarch’s dignity, a judge at London’s High Court has ruled.

Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, who was married to the 95-year-old British monarch for more than seven decades, died at the age of 99 at their Windsor Castle home to the west of London on April 9.

In keeping with a convention dating back to 1910, Andrew McFarlane, the president of the court’s Family Division, said he had agreed Philip’s will should be sealed up “and that no copy of the will should be made for the record or kept on the court file”.

He also ruled in favour of the request “to exclude the value of the estate from the grant of probate”.

“The degree of publicity that publication would be likely to attract would be very extensive and wholly contrary to the aim of maintaining the dignity of the Sovereign,” McFarlane said in a ruling published on Thursday (Friday AEST).

He said the convention was that following the death of a senior royal, an application to seal the will was made to the Family Division president, with such hearings and judgments kept private.

However, he said, “as is plain from this judgment” he considered it was a “necessary and proportionate intrusion into the private affairs of Her Majesty and the Royal Family to make public the fact that an application to seal the will of HRH The Prince Philip [...] has been made and granted in private, and to explain the underlying reasons”.

The judge said 90 years should pass from the granting of probate before the will should be unsealed in private before possible publication, a period he said was “proportionate and sufficient”.

He said the first royal whose will was sealed was Prince Francis of Teck, who was the younger brother of George V’s wife Queen Mary.

McFarlane said he was the custodian of a safe containing more than 30 envelopes with the wills of dead royals.

The most recent additions were made in 2002 following the deaths of Queen’s sister Princess Margaret, and their mother – The Queen Mother.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/ ... 58sk6.html

Given that it is something they always do, why it is newsworthy?

They have only done it in the 20th century. Victoria's was never sealed.
Perhaps the newsworthyness is in that there is, yet again, one law for them and one law for everyone else. What are they hiding? There must be something or there would be no reason to keep it secret.

AI would imagine that it is now done this way to prevent the MSM pouring over every word trying to find some saucy secret or gossip. Preserving HM's dignity is simply to prevent that happening.

The whole story is not worth reporting and the fact that it has been reported only goes to show that the action is needed these days.

I wonder why people want to know what is in someone's will. I don't really care unless of course I'm mentioned in it!

Perhaps it’s to stop the ginger whinger and princess Pinocchio from seeing it.

I’m a soft republican, but this doesn’t bother me…. Andrew, however, the Pronce is a Nince, is using efforts ordinary citizens cannot to avoid being served papers…