Prince Philip was 'gaffe-prone': The offensive things he said during royal life

The late Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II for more than 74 years, was an outspoken man, ever ready at public events with remarks considered funny and sharp. But at times he also made insensitive and racist comments.

"Gaffe-prone" was the common epithet applied to the Duke of Edinburgh, Britain's oldest and longest-serving royal spouse, who died Friday at age 99. But were his most infamous quotes really unintentional blunders?

Probably not; Philip was the kind of blunt-speaking alpha male who said what he meant and meant what he said. But he gave fair warning to all in a speech he made in 1956.

"It is my invariable custom to say something flattering to begin with so that I shall be excused if by any chance I put my foot in it later on," he said.

He called it "dontopedalogy." It's "the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years," he joked in a speech to the General Dental Council in 1960 as quoted by Time.

What did the queen have to say about what he said? She never spilled the tea. But in 1997, their Golden Wedding anniversary year, he offered advice on a successful marriage: "Tolerance is the one essential ingredient. … You can take it from me that the queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance."

But Philip was not a beloved royal for many, and it was not just the left-leaning journalists and anti-monarchist republicans constantly tearing their hair over the latest utterances from the royal duke.

Here's a sampling of some of Philip's most famous remarks, based on compilations by BBC and The Independent:

1965: "Cats kill far more birds than men. Why don't you have a slogan: 'Kill a cat and save a bird?' " On being told of a project to protect turtle doves in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the eastern Caribbean.

1966: "You have mosquitoes. I have the press." To the matron of a hospital in the Caribbean. (His media aversion was enduring: At a Diamond Jubilee reception for the press in 2012, he encountered a top editor, asked what he was doing there and when the editor told him he'd been invited, the duke barked, "Well, you didn't have to come!")

1976: "We don't come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves." Said during a royal visit to Canada.

1986: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed." To a young British student during a royal visit to China. "Ghastly," he said of Beijing during the same tour.

1991: "Your country is one of the most notorious centers of trading in endangered species." Accepting a conservation award (he was a lifelong conservationist) in Thailand.

1994: "Aren't most of you descended from pirates?" To a wealthy islander in the Cayman Islands.

1995: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?" Asked of a Scottish driving instructor.

1998: "You managed not to get eaten then?" To a British student who had trekked in Papua New Guinea.

1999: "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf." Speaking to a group of young deaf people in Cardiff who were standing near a steel band.

2000: "It's a vast waste of space." Said to guests at the reception after the queen opened a new British Embassy in Berlin.

2001: "Oh, it's you that owns that ghastly car, is it? We often see it when driving to Windsor Castle." To neighbor Elton John after hearing he had sold his Watford Football Club-themed Aston Martin.

2002: "Do you still throw spears at each other?" To an Aboriginal leader at the Aboriginal Cultural Park in Queensland, Australia.

2002: "Do people trip over you?" To a wheelchair-bound nursing-home resident.

2003: "During the Blitz a lot of shops had their windows blown in and sometimes they put up notices saying, 'More open than usual.' I now declare this place more open than usual." Unveiling a plaque at the University of Hertfordshire's new campus.

2013: "The Philippines must be half empty as you're all here running the National Health Service." On meeting a Filipino nurse at a hospital in Britain.

2017: "You look starved." To a pensioner on a visit to a London almshouse for elderly men.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth husband, said a lot. His worst comments