Philip Turns 70 in His Princely Sidelines Job

It’s a princely job with lots of foreign travel, a string of impressive titles and an expense account of about $600,000 a year.

But you won’t find it listed in the classifieds, even though the incumbent turns 70 today.

Prince Philip, husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, “will hit the big Seven-O with all the irritable fury of a man who can’t believe that age could wither him,” columnist Jean Rook, a veteran royal-watcher, wrote in the Daily Express.

This despite the fact, according to Rook, that his is “a well-paid but rotten job with little self-satisfaction.”

Britain’s oldest prince has no official power.

“Constitutionally,” he once said, “I don’t exist.”

His titles--His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Marioneth, Baron of Greenwich--were not his by birth but bestowed just before his 1947 marriage to the future queen by prospective father-in-law King George VI.

The king was reported to have said at the time that the young naval officer, Lt. Philip Mountbatten, would find that “being a consort is more difficult than being a sovereign.”

Despite the ambiguities of his position and always having to play second fiddle to the queen--at least in public--the outspoken ex-sailor is credited with helping to modernize the British monarchy and bring it closer to the people.

The prince shows little sign of easing his workload at 70, despite pain from arthritis.

He was the second-busiest member of the Royal Family last year with more than 300 official engagements.

As president of the World Wide Fund for Nature, he travels the world to campaign for protection of the environment.

Once the most controversial of Britain’s royals, always in the headlines, Philip has lost some of his appeal to the paparazzi, who tend now to pursue the fun-loving younger set.

He has angered left-wingers by saying that Britain is too dependent on the welfare state. He was denounced by a Labor Party politician as “the best-kept Social Security claimant in the country,” a reference to the large income he draws from the civil list--the state contribution to the royal upkeep.

But by giving the Royal Family a voice in public debates, Philip helped to “nurse the monarchy into the 20th Century,” according to a new biography published this month.

“Forty years ago, he was practically the only member of ‘The Firm’ who said or did anything interesting,” says biographer Tim Heald. “Now they’re all at it.”