How the Duke of Edinburgh became the Queen’s ‘strength and stay’

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary - Getty Images Europe
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary - Getty Images Europe

As the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh mark their 70th wedding anniversary today they can look back on a marriage that is the longest royal union in British history.

The Queen has described the Duke as her “strength and stay” throughout her many years of service.

At the age of 96, the Duke has only just retired from public duties, in which has shown a remarkable energy as well as devotion to the Queen. Yet by his own admission, the Duke did not find the initial transition from the head of his family to royal consort an easy one.

He was a talented and forthright young naval officer when they met, who served with bravery in the Second World War, and not someone naturally disposed to a playing supporting role.

But over the decades, the Duke said that he and the Queen “achieved a sensible divide of labour” that has led to a Royal partnership of unprecedented longevity.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit: PA/Tim Graham
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are celebrating their Platinum wedding anniversary Credit: PA/Tim Graham

The young Prince

The Duke was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on the island of Corfu on 10 June 1921. He was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. The year after his birth, his uncle King Constantine I abdicated the Greek throne following the Greco-Turkish War and Philip’s family had to flee the country for Paris.

In 1928 Prince Philip was sent to attend school in the UK after his parents separated and he divided his time living with his grandmother, Victoria Milford Haven, at Kensington Palace, and his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in Berkshire. Soon after, his mother Princess Alice was committed to an asylum after suffering a breakdown and his father moved to Monte Carlo, meaning the young Prince Philip had little contact with his parents thereafter.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit: Getty
The Duke as a young man in 1935 Credit: Getty

After he finished school at Gordonstoun in Scotland in 1939, the Duke joined the military and graduated top of his class from the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. He served with distinction during the Second World War and by 21, he was one of the youngest 1st lieutenants in the Royal Navy. The Duke seemed destined for a meteoric career in the force, if it wasn’t for another life of service that took precedence.

The first meeting

In 1939 the Queen’s father and mother, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, toured the Royal Naval College, in Dartmouth, and the young trainee officer Prince Philip was asked to escort the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. This was the first real meeting between the Duke and the future Queen.

During the war, the Duke would spend some of his leave at Windsor Castle where he became more familiar with the royal family. He was known to regale King George VI with stories of his service in the Mediterranean and the King described Philip as a “charming boy” in a letter to his grandmother, Victoria Milford Haven.

Queen and Prince Philip

It was a stay at the castle over Christmas 1943 for a weekend of dinner parties that appears to have been the turning point in his relationship with the now 17-year-old Princess Elizabeth.

As their relationship developed, the young couple were at pains to keep it from public view. They tried not to be seen together in public and took care not to dance together if they attended the same party. In 1946 the press described the Duke as “a figure largely unknown to the British public” after he was photographed standing next to the Queen at a wedding. In the summer of 1946 the Queen invited Prince Philip to Balmoral for three weeks of hunting and this is thought to have been when he proposed.

Resistance at Court

The union was not initially universally embraced and Prince Philip faced skepticism from the conservative Royal court, partly because he had not been to the right school, Eton, and partly due to his forthright and independent manner. Yet it was his direct personality that had helped endear him to the Queen, who had grown up in an environment of deference.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit: PA
The Duke as a young naval officer in 1946 Credit: PA

The Duke also faced opposition due to his German heritage, even though the Royal family shared close links to the country - it had changed its name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in 1917 at the height of the First World War. An ex-courtier explained: “The kind of people who didn’t like Prince Philip were the kind of people who didn’t like Mountbatten [the Duke’s uncle]. It was all bound up in a single word: German.” None of the Duke’s German relations were invited to their wedding, including his three sisters who had married German princes.

The Queen’s parents also initially had misgivings about the match. A courtier to the Royal Household, Sir Edward Ford said Queen Elizabeth had concerns about Philip’s brisk manner. He said that when thinking of potential husbands for her eldest daughter the Queen’s mother had “produced a cricket eleven of possibles and it’s hard to know whom she would have sent in first, but it certainly wouldn’t have been Philip.”

But the more the Queen and King got to know their prospective son-in-law, the more he won them over. Particularly in the case of King George VI, who appreciated the Duke’s sense of humour and love of the outdoors.

The engagement and wedding

In the years leading up to the engagement, Philip became a naturalised British citizen and relinquished his Greek and Danish royal titles. He also took the surname of his uncle Lord Mountbatten, who had been instrumental in his upbringing.

Their engagement was announced in July 1947 and the Duke was known simply as Lieut Philip Mountbatten, RN, in the press. The young couple married on 20 November 1947 in a ceremony which was described by Winston Churchill as “a flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel”, as the country rebuilt after the Second World War.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit: ITV Pictures
The Queen and Duke leaving Westminster Abbey after being wed on 20 November 1947 Credit: ITV Pictures

Following the wedding the young royal couple enjoyed what the Duke later described as “five happy years of fairly conventional married life”, but that came to an abrupt end when King George VI died at the age of 56, leaving his young daughter to succeed him and the Queen was crowned Elizabeth II on 3 June 1953.

The Queen accepted the advice of Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the royal family should retain her family name, Windsor, rather than take the Duke’s Mountbatten surname. The decision was much to the chagrin of the Duke, who complained to friends: “I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children. I’m nothing but a bloody amoeba.” A compromise was later adopted whereby descendants not entitled to the designation of “Royal Highness” would be called Mountbatten-Windsor.

Becoming consort

The Duke also had to adapt to his new role as consort, which was a considerable adjustment from his role as head of his family. Reflecting on the period, the Duke said: “I suppose I naturally filled the principal role. People used to come to me and ask me what to do. In 1952 the whole thing changed, very, very considerably.” As he felt his way into his new role, the Duke determined to be his wife’s “eyes and ears”, getting around the country, meeting her subjects and keeping her informed of public opinion.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit:  Times of Malta Pictures
The Duke and Queen in Malta, where they lived as part of his naval posting shortly after their wedding Credit: Times of Malta Pictures

When the Royal couple moved into Buckingham Palace, the Duke retained his down-to-earth manner and started to modernise the monarchy. He broke with tradition by carrying his own luggage and calling for help rather than ringing a bell. A few years later, he told to a footman who opened a door for the young Prince Charles: “He’s not helpless. He’s got hands hasn’t he?”

The Duke also applied this unvarnished approach to his new role and made a “conscious decision” not to get swept up by his elevated position. He said: “In the first years of the Queen’s reign, the level of adulation – you wouldn’t believe it. You really wouldn’t. It could have been corroding. It would have been very easy to play to the gallery, but I took a conscious decision not to do that. Safer not to be too popular. You can’t fall too far.”

It’s an approach that has proved successful over the last seven decades as the Duke has been a constant companion to the Queen throughout her years of service. His outspoken manner has sometimes be characterised as the Duke making gaffes, but his gregarious personality has complimented the Queen’s more reserved nature on their myriad public engagements.

Queen Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip wedding anniversary 70th - Credit: PA
The Duke of Edinburgh attending the Captain General's Parade as his final individual public engagement in August. Credit: PA

Duke retired only retired from public duties in August, having attended over 22,219 royal engagements.

The Queen expressed her deep gratitude to her husband for his extraordinary service to her and the country on their golden wedding anniversary in 1997 when she said: “He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”