Prince Philip, a former Navy man, reluctantly deferred to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, in matters of state. "We were sitting," Susan Crosland (the widow of former British foreign minister Tony Crosland) recalled of one meeting, "with Prince Philip beside the queen and me beside Tony, and she wanted a briefing from Tony. But Prince Philip took it upon himself to enter the conversation between the queen and Tony. And she simply turned to him and said, 'Oh Philip, do shut up' -- and he did."