He is months from his 90th birthday, but the Duke of Edinburgh still has still got it when it comes to a little light flirting.Yet for him no occasion is complete without a gaffe, and amid the pomp of the Papal visit today the royal managed a 'bloomer' of a particularly risqué nature.
While the Pope greeted other dignitaries at a midday reception, Prince Philip mingled with Scottish political heavyweights Annabel Goldie, the country's Tory leader, and her Labour counterpart Iain Gray, 53.
The Duke began by politely admiring the unusual blue-green tartan of Mr Gray's tie, which had been designed specially to commemorate the Pontiff's visit.
'That's a nice tie,' the Duke said, before leaning over to matronly Miss Goldie, 60, and asking: 'Do you have any knickers in that material?'
The prim and proper spinster replied: 'I couldn't possibly comment. And if I had, I couldn't possibly exhibit them.'
Fortunately she later saw the funny side. 'It's marvellous that humour is alive and well in the Royal Family,' she said.
The Duke's blunders span the decades.
In 1984, while accepting a figurine from a woman during a visit to Kenya he said: 'You are a woman aren't you?'
Eight years ago, he mocked the dress sense of a teenage Army cadet blinded in an IRA attack.
After the Queen asked 15-year-old Stephen Menary how much he could see, Philip said: 'Not a lot, judging by that tie.'
And earlier this year Philip shocked a young Navy sea cadet instructor by asking whether she worked at a strip club.
Elizabeth Rendle, a barmaid, said he asked her what she did for a living. 'I told him I worked in a club. He then asked if it was a strip club,' the 24-year-old said.
The Duke then appeared to think better of the suggestion in the poor weather, and joked that such an occupation would be 'too cold'.
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