BRITAIN’S PRINCE Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, was taken to hospital for tests last night after experiencing chest pains, Buckingham Palace said.
The husband of Queen Elizabeth II was admitted to one of Britain’s main cardiothoracic centres for precautionary tests.
The 90-year-old was taken to the Papworth Hospital in Cambridge from Sandringham country estate in Norfolk, where the royal family is spending Christmas.
No more details of the condition of the Greek-born prince were immediately available. No one at the hospital was immediately available for comment.
He is the longest-serving royal consort and a pivotal figure in the House of Windsor, and is known as a blunt-talking character.
Despite his age, Philip has generally been in good health and has continued a busy round of charity work and social engagements.
Born on Corfu in 1921, he served in Britain’s Royal Navy and in 1946 he renounced his Greek title and became a British citizen, taking on his mother’s name, Mountbattan. He married Elizabeth in 1947.
They have four children, including the heir to the throne, Charles.
The prince has no clear-cut constitutional role. In private he is regarded as the unquestioned head of his family, but protocol obliges the man dubbed “the second handshake” to spend his public life one step behind his wife.
Prince Philip visited Ireland with Queen Elizabeth on her historic first State visit in May.
Among his stand-out moments were the tour of the Guinness Storehouse, when he asked whether the stout was made with Liffey water, and the presentation of a hurley and a sliotar at Croke Park, when he was advised that the “only place to use it is on the field”.
He is a nephew of Lord Louis Mountbattan, who was murdered by the IRA in August 1979 when his boat was blown up off the coast of Sligo. – (Reuters)