**Prince Philip on the box seat: more of a gentleman than an athlete. Photo taken at the opening of the Driving World Championship for Four-in-Hand in the Netherlands in August 1982.** Dutch National Archives

The prince who took a short cut

Prince Philip, the Queen’s consort and father of the current British monarch, visited Switzerland many times ‒ far more often than his wife. On one such occasion, he took part in the 1981 European Four-in-Hand Carriage Driving Championship held in Zug, where his actions placed the jury in a delicate situation.

Michael van Orsouw

Michael van Orsouw has a PhD in history and is a performance poet and author. He regularly publishes historical books.

Website: geschichte-texte.ch

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was world famous as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and the father of the current king, Charles III. In his role as consort, he gave 5,496 speeches, carried out 22,219 solo engagements and went on 637 trips abroad, according to the meticulous records kept by the British royal family. What they didn’t tot up were his numerous faux pas, a genuine source of embarrassment to the royal household. Not realising he could be overheard, he once commented about journalists: “Here come the bloody reptiles!” He remarked to a fellow countryman he met in Hungary: “You can't have been here that long ‒ you haven't got a pot belly.” And during a visit to China, he told British students: “If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed.”

**Prince Philip became a cult figure during his lifetime: this portrait in oils was painted by Bryan Organ in 1983.** © National Portrait Gallery, London

Mother confined to a Swiss clinic

These anecdotes became widely known, earning Philip the nickname ‘Prince of Gaffes’. But few people are aware of Philip’s associations with Switzerland. Most know that he accompanied his spouse on her official state visit in 1980. But few realise that his links with Switzerland go back further, to his early childhood, although for reasons that can only be described as sad. His mother Alice of Battenberg suffered from schizophrenia, diagnosed by none other than psychoanalyst Sigmund Freund himself. She was therefore admitted against her will to the Bellevue Sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, an institution for patients suffering from ‘nervous disorders and mental illness’, to use the parlance of the time, run by Ludwig Binswanger. Its many celebrity patients included artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and actor Gustaf Gründgens. For the young Philip, his mother’s confinement meant being passed from one relation to another for the next two-and-a-half years. He was only allowed to visit her at the Swiss clinic on a handful of occasions. Thankfully, this did not appear to colour his view of the country, and he would later travel to Switzerland many times. For example, he came to Frauenfeld in 1974 for an equestrian competition. He also paid regular visits after taking on two important offices, serving from 1964 to 1986 as president of the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the international governing body of equestrian sports, at that time headquartered in Bolligen and Ostermundigen, and as president of WWF, based in Gland on Lake Geneva, from 1981 to 1996.

**Committed to wildlife and nature conservation: Philip (right) was the president of Swiss-based WWF International. He is pictured here at the WWF headquarters in Gland, canton Vaud, on 26 June 1980.** Keystone

The prince on the box seat

Quite a lot is known about Prince Philip’s participation in the European Championship for Four-in-Hand Driving held in Zug in August 1981. For those who are not fans of equestrian sports: ‘four-in-hand’ refers to a team of four horses pulling a carriage. The horses are harnessed together in two pairs, one behind the other. Prince Philip was involved in the event in a dual capacity, both as FEI president and as an elite athlete taking part in the competition as a member of the reigning team of four-in-hand world champions. The horse-mad aristocrat had barely arrived in Zug when he leaped into his carriage and set off along a main thoroughfare towards the Lorze river. Used to trotting along the other side of the road at home in the United Kingdom, his team of four horses veered dangerously to the left. Luckily, the Prince was able to steer them back to the right side. The Zuger Tagblatt newspaper quoted the reaction of onlookers: “We’ll probably never get to see Philip that close up again”. The prince appeared very relaxed and spent an hour-and-a-quarter driving around the green area by the river. Reporters asked him how he liked the canton of Zug. With his typical, undiplomatic bluntness, his royal highness replied: “Not quite enough room for my taste.” The horses were returned to the stables, where the prince rewarded each of them with a lump of sugar before helping out with the unharnessing and grooming. When at the stables or the competition grounds on the site of Zug’s traditional cattle market, the prince looked for all the world like a stable boy. On one occasion, when requesting admission in broken German, he was brusquely turned away by the security man, who failed to recognise him. You see, Philip had left his official rosette, which would have granted him access, in the Range Rover.

**Even royals had to submit to inspections: 1981 in Niederwil, canton Zug.** Josef Grob

A little tipple in a country inn

In the days leading up to the competition, the Duke of Edinburgh was the first to appear at the competition ground each morning, but he regularly disappeared after heading off in his carriage in a northerly direction. This led to speculation that the prince had found a secret training spot, with many in Zug puzzling over where that might be. But word soon got out that he had discovered the Löwen inn in nearby Steinhausen, where he liked to treat himself to a café creme with cherry liqueur. The competition brought together 40 teams from 13 nations. The prince drove a metal-wheeled carriage that had been built to his specifications in 1975. He had only taken up four-in-hand driving when pain in his wrist forced him to stop playing polo. It then occurred to him that carriage-driving might just be the thing to replace polo. Although quite a challenge, he is known to have relished the sheer pleasure and satisfaction it brought and once remarked that he was especially pleased at still being able to work with horses.

**The senior royal dined in Sihlbrugg, where he signed the guestbook.** Krone Sihlbrugg

And he did it very well, including in Zug. At the opening ceremony, the 5,000-strong audience in the stands and many of the horses were startled when the Beresina Grenadiers literally got proceedings underway with a bang on firing their muzzleloaders. Only Philip’s horses reacted to the deafening shots with equanimity. After all, they had paraded before hundreds of thousands of people shortly before at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. But now, standing beside his horses in the Herti stadium, Philip was “barely able to hide how touched he was by the wave of sympathy directed towards him.” Or so the reporter for the Luzerner Tagblatt newspaper believed.

**Prince Philip in action in Zug: he and his team won the bronze medal.** Luzerner Tagblatt

A gentleman at the reins

The competition Saturday arrived, and with it the cross-country marathon from Zug to Maschwanden and back, with 7 obstacles to be negotiated over the 32-kilometre course. No fewer than 50,000 people lined the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of one man in particular: the British prince! He was dressed suitably for the occasion in white shirt with rolled up sleeves, leather gloves, flat cap, dark sunglasses and a tie. Unlike the daring Hungarians with their spirited horses, the 60-year-old prince drove his team of four with great concentration and skill, prompting one journalist to note that: “It felt more like watching a gentleman rather than an athlete at work.” At the end of the cross-country jaunt, a delicate situation arose: it was rumoured that Prince Philip, by far the most popular competitor, had cheated by taking a shortcut in Niederwil.

**The prince even inspired an illustrator from Zug: this caricature appeared in the local newspaper.** Zuger Nachrichten

This put the jury in a quandary: could they risk censuring the royal personage who was pulling in the crowds? After some deliberation, they came to a Solomonic decision, concluding that although the prince may have taken a shortcut he was not to blame as the course markings had not been set out as clearly as they should have been. Swiss driver Christian Iseli was outraged: “The British always manage to find a loophole in the rules that gives them an advantage. We got used to it a long time ago.” And so the gentleman finished 10th out of 40 participants, and the British picked up the bronze medal in the team competition. In an impromptu celebration to toast their success, Prince Philip and his colleagues sat cross-legged on the ground and passed bottles of whisky around the circle. As the evening drew on, the prince and other members of the British team were to be seen dancing enthusiastically to live music played by three accordionists. The Zuger Nachrichten newspaper commented that he was “in high spirits and danced almost non-stop”. An indication that the prince had left his less than happy childhood recollections of Switzerland far behind?

Visiting Royals – From Sisi to Queen Elizabeth

13.06.2025 09.11.2025 / National Museum Zurich

Although Switzerland has no royal tradition, royal families have long held a certain fascination for the Swiss. All royal visits, whether by an emperor, empress, king, queen, prince or princess, and for whatever reason, whether politics, business or personal, had one thing in common: they triggered – both then and now – immense excitement and fascination among the Swiss public. The exhibition demonstrates this through many pictures and exclusive possessions of these bluebloods.

More of: Exhibitions Royals 20th / 21st century Sports

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