The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark, 10
June 1921)[2] is the
husband and consort of Queen
Elizabeth II.
Originally a Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip abandoned these titles shortly before his marriage. At the time of his engagement he was
known as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. In 1947, he married Princess Elizabeth, the heiress to King George VI. Prince Philip was a member of the German House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, which includes the
royal houses of Denmark, Norway and Greece.
The day before his marriage, George VI granted him the style of
His Royal Highness and, on the morning of the marriage, created him
Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and
Baron Greenwich. In 1957, Philip was created a Prince
of the United Kingdom. When he became a British subject Prince Philip took the
surname Mountbatten, which is an anglicised version
of his mother's German family name, Battenberg.
In addition to his royal duties, the Duke of Edinburgh is also the patron of many organisations, including The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the World
Wide Fund for Nature, and he is Chancellor of both the University of Cambridge and the University of
Edinburgh. In particular, he has devoted himself to raising public awareness of the relationship of humanity with the
environment since visiting the Southern Antarctic Islands in 1956, and has published and
spoken widely for half a century on this subject. See Wikiquote excerpts from these speeches.
The prince continues to fulfil his public duties as a member of the British Royal
Family, and is an established public figure in the United Kingdom and in the
Commonwealth Realms. He has gained something of a reputation for making controversial
remarks, particularly when meeting the British public or on state visits to other countries (see below).
Early life
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born on 10 June 1921 at
Villa Mon Repos on Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea.
His father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the fourth son
of Greece's King George I, for whom a partially Byzantine greek descent is claimed by some, and Queen Olga of Greece. His mother was the former
Princess Alice of Battenberg, the elder daughter of the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (formerly Prince Louis of Battenberg) and his wife, the former
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Lady Milford Haven,
through her mother, the Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (formerly Princess
Alice of the United Kingdom), was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Philip's mother Princess Alice was also a
sister of Queen Louise of Sweden; George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven; and
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. He is
currently the oldest living great-great grandchild of Queen Victoria, as well as her second-oldest living descendant after
Prince Carl Johan of Sweden.
The Prince was baptised a few days after his birth at St. George's Church in the Palaio Frourio ("Old Fortress") in Haddokkos,
Corfu. His godparents were Queen Olga and the Corfu community (represented by Alexander S. Kokotos, Mayor of Corfu, and Stylianos
I. Maniarizis, Chairman of Corfu City Council). In later life he has had a rediscovered interest in his original Greek Orthodox faith.
Prince Andrew and Princess Alice remained in residence on the Island of Corfu for 18 months. Greece was politically unstable,
and it was expected that the monarchy would soon be overthrown. On 22 September
1922, Constantine I was forced to abdicate the throne. A revolutionary court sentenced Prince Andrew, his
younger brother, to banishment for life.[3] Fortunately for
the family, George V ordered that the Royal
Navy vessel, HMS Calypso, evacuate the family, and Philip was carried to
safety in a cot made from an orange box.
Philip has survived his four elder sisters, all of whom married German princes:
Philip's first real family tragedy occurred in 1937, when his sister Cecilie, her husband, mother-in-law and two young sons
were killed in the Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash. Philip, who was only sixteen
at the time, attended the funeral in Darmstadt.
Education
Prince Andrew and Princess Alice, along with their children, fled to Paris where
they took up residence at Saint-Cloud, in a villa belonging to Prince Andrew's sister-in-law
Princess Marie Bonaparte. After being exiled, the marriage of Prince Philip's
parents began to crumble. His father retired to the South of France. His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia after claiming that she was receiving divine messages.[4] She recovered and turned to religion.
Afterwards, Prince Philip was to see little of them.
Prince Philip's education began at The American School of Paris in Saint-Cloud. However, his
grandmother, Lady Milford Haven, advised her daughter to have him educated in England. He
subsequently departed for the Surrey preparatory
school Cheam.
Aged 12, Prince Philip departed England for Germany, studying at Schule Schloss Salem, a school in Southern Germany that belonged to Prince Maximilian of Baden, the father of his brother-in-law. Prince Philip left Germany in
1936, and went to Gordonstoun where he flourished academically and socially. He was the head
of the hockey and cricket teams, and eventually became
Head Boy. Prince Philip was so fond of the school that he later sent his sons, Charles, Andrew and Edward, there, though they experienced the school with mixed results. The school's royal
association continued with Princess Anne, who sent both her children to Gordonstoun
- though neither she nor her husband attended it.
Royal Navy career
After leaving Gordonstoun in 1939, Prince Philip joined the Royal Navy, graduating in 1940
from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth as the best cadet in his
course.[5]
Commissioned as a Midshipman, Prince Philip spent six months on the battleship
HMS Ramillies then serving in the Indian Ocean. In January 1941 he was posted to
the Mediterranean fleet aboard the battleship HMS Valiant where, amongst other
engagements, he was involved in the Battle of Crete. He was mentioned in despatches for his service during the Battle of Cape Matapan and was also awarded the Greek War Cross of
Valour.[6]
Promoted Sub-Lieutenant, and after a series of courses, Prince Philip was posted to
the destroyer HMS Wallace, where he was subsequently involved in convoy escort tasks.
Promotion to Lieutenant followed on 16 July 1942 and in October 1942, he became the ship's
First Lieutenant (at 21 years of age, he was one of the youngest to be appointed a
First Lieutenant). Whilst with HMS Wallace, he took part in the Allied
invasion of Sicily.[7]
Prince Philip was later posted as the First Lieutenant of the new destroyer HMS
Whelp where he saw service with the British Pacific Fleet in the
27th Destroyer Flotilla, including being present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese
surrender was signed. He eventually returned to Britain with the ship in January 1946. In the post-war years, Prince
Philip served as an instructor at the Petty Officers' School, attended Naval
Staff College, Greenwich.[8]
Prince Philip has for many years been Commander and Chief of the oldest Canadian Infantry Regiment, the Royal Canadian Regiment. This regiment continues to be the only Regiment in the Commonwealth
to be authorized to wear a dead Monarch's insignia, that being Queen Victoria's insignia.
Marriage
On 20 November 1947, Prince Philip married the
heiress presumptive to the British throne, The Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, his third
cousin through Queen Victoria and second cousin, once removed through Christian IX of Denmark. The couple married at Westminster
Abbey in London with the ceremony recorded and broadcast by the
BBC.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh on their wedding day.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, May 2007
Before they could marry, Prince Philip was required to convert from Greek
Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, to renounce his allegiance to the Hellenic Crown, and to become a naturalised British subject.[9] He renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles on 18
March 1947 and decided to take the name Mountbatten, an Anglicised version of
Battenberg, his mother's family name. The day before his wedding, King George VI titled his future son-in-law Duke of
Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London.
The King also issued Letters patent creating the Duke of Edinburgh His Royal
Highness. After their marriage, his wife became Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. On
the popular but erroneous assumption that if Philip had the style of 'Royal Highness' he was automatically a prince, media
reports often mentioned "Prince Philip", with or without reference to his ducal title. Although the princely prefix was omitted
in the Regency Act of 1953 and in Letters Patent of November 1953 appointing
Counsellors of State, it had been included in the Letters Patent of 22 October 1948 conferring princely rank on children of his marriage to
Princess Elizabeth. George VI, however, appears to have been clear and intentional in having withheld the princely title from his
future son-in-law.[10] From 1947 to 1957, Philip's correct
style was His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In post-war Britain it was not acceptable to invite any of the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations to his wedding. The sole
exception was his mother, who was born at Windsor of parents who had both renounced
their German titles. Excluded from the invitation list were his three surviving sisters, each of whom had married German
aristocrats, some with Nazi connections. (His sister Princess Sophie's first husband, Prince
Christophe of Hesse had been a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and an aide to
Heinrich Himmler.) Also, the bride's aunt Mary, Princess Royal allegedly refused to attend because her brother, the
Duke of Windsor (who abdicated in 1936), was not invited due to his
unusual marital situation. She gave ill health as the official reason for not attending.[11]
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh accompanies the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II back from Westminster Abbey on her coronation day
After their marriage, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh took up residence at Clarence
House in London. The Duke was keen to pursue his naval career. However the
knowledge that it would be eclipsed by his wife's future role as Queen was always in his mind. Nevertheless, he returned to the
Navy after his honeymoon, and from 1949 was stationed in Malta after being posted as First
Lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Chequers in the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1950, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and given command of the frigate
HMS Magpie. He was promoted to Commander at
the beginning of 1952.[12]
In January 1952, the Duke and Princess Elizabeth set off for a tour of the Commonwealth, with planned visits to Africa, Australia and New Zealand. On 6
February, when they were in Kenya, the Princess' father, King George VI, died, and she ascended the Throne as Queen Elizabeth II. The Duke broke
the news to the new Queen at their hotel (Tree Tops). As a result of the King's passing,
the visits to Australia and New Zealand were postponed until 1954. The Duke was resigned to the fact that his naval career was
now over, and he had a new role as the consort of the British monarch.
Consort
The accession of Elizabeth II to the throne brought up the question of the name of the Royal
House. The Duke's uncle, Earl Mountbatten of
Burma, had advocated the new name House of Mountbatten, as Elizabeth would typically have taken Philip's name on
marriage. When Queen Mary, Elizabeth's grandmother, heard about this, she informed
Sir Winston Churchill who later advised the Queen to issue a proclamation declaring
that the Royal House was to remain the House of Windsor. Philip bitterly remarked that
he had been "turned into an amoeba".
In 1952, the Duke was given the rank and titles Admiral of the
Fleet, Field Marshal, and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. He was also made the Captain-General of the
Royal Marines. As was the established tradition with all previous monarchs, the Queen as
Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces outranks, by virtue of being Sovereign, all military personnel.
The Duke of Edinburgh has supported the Queen in her role for close to 60 years. The Queen and Duke attend state visits
abroad, and receive foreign dignitaries together. The Duke often carries out his own separate engagements on behalf of the Queen
at home and abroad.
The Duke is also patron of many organisations. He established The Duke of
Edinburgh's Award in 1956 to give young people "a sense of responsibility to themselves and their communities". The scheme
now operates in 100 countries around the world. He has also been President of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
In 1956-1957, the Duke took a round-the-world voyage on board HMY Britannia,
visiting remote islands of the Commonwealth. This was when he first became aware
of the effects of human industrialisation on the natural environment.
On the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002, the Duke was commended
by the Speaker of the House of Commons for his role in
supporting the Queen during her reign.
One of the most controversial aspects of the Duke was his relationship with his daughters-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of
York. He was alleged to have been hostile to Diana after her divorce from the Prince of Wales. Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Diana's companion Dodi Al-Fayed
and owner of Harrods, even suggested in court that the Duke was responsible for ordering Diana's
death, remarks that led the Duke and the other members of the Royal Family to rescind their Royal
Warrants from Harrods. The Duke remains close to his grandchildren Princes William and Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and Lady Louise Windsor.
Royal status
In May 1954, the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, received a written suggestion from the Queen that her husband be
granted the title "Prince of the Commonwealth", or some other suitable augmentation of his style. Churchill preferred the title
"Prince Consort" and the Foreign Secretary Sir
Anthony Eden preferred "Prince of the Realm". While the Commonwealth prime ministers were assembled in London, against his better judgement but at the Queen's behest,
Churchill informally solicited their opinions. Canada's Prime Minister, Louis St. Laurent, was the only one to express "misgivings". Meanwhile, the Duke insisted to the Queen
that he objected to any enhancement of his title, and she instructed Churchill to drop the matter.[13] In February 1955, South
Africa belatedly made known that it, too, would object to the "Prince of the Commonwealth" title. When told, the Queen
continued to express the wish that her husband's position be raised, but rejected the Cabinet's recommendations to confer upon him either the title "Prince Consort" or "Prince
Royal". By March 1955 the Cabinet was recommending that Philip's new title be simply "His Royal Highness the Prince". But the
Queen was advised that, if she still preferred "Prince of the Commonwealth", her personal secretary could write to the
Commonwealth's Governors-General directly for their response, but warned her that, if
their consent was not unanimous, the proposal could not go forward. The matter appears to have been left there until the
publication on 8 February 1957 of an article by P.
Wykeham-Bourne in the Evening Standard titled "Well, is it correct to say Prince
Philip?" A few days later Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and his Cabinet reversed the
advice of the previous ministers, formally recommending that the Queen reject "The Prince" in favour of "Prince of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her other Realms and Territories", only to change this advice, after she
consented, to delete even the vague reference to the Commonwealth countries. Letters Patent were issued, and according to the
announcement in the London Gazette, the Queen's husband officially became His Royal
Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She inserted the capitalised definite article, a usage normally restricted to
the children of monarchs.[13]
An Order-in-Council was issued in 1960, which stated the surname of male-line
descendants of the Duke and the Queen who are not Royal Highness or Prince or Princess was to be Mountbatten-Windsor. This was to address the Duke's complaint that he was the only father in the
country unable to pass his name to his children. In practice, however, the Duke's children have all used Mountbatten-Windsor as
the surname they prefer for themselves and their male-line children.
After her accession to the throne, the Queen also announced that the Duke was to have place, pre-eminence and
precedence next to the Queen on all occasions and in all meetings, except where otherwise provided by Act of Parliament. This means the Duke is the first gentleman of the land, and takes precedence
over his son, the Prince of Wales except, officially, in Parliament. In fact, however, he only attends Parliament when escorting the Queen for the annual
Speech from the Throne, where he walks and is seated beside her.
The Queen has never granted the Duke the title of Prince Consort. This title was
granted to Albert, Prince Consort by his wife, Queen Victoria, and has not been used since by a British
consort. There was some media speculation in early 2007 that such a title might be conferred to mark the royal couple's 60th
wedding anniversary in November 2007, however this has not been confirmed by any official sources. Currently, he is the second
husband of the Sovereign to bear a British peerage title since
Prince George of Denmark, who was created Duke of Cumberland on his marriage to the future Queen
Anne in 1683.
As of July 2007, the Duke is the oldest surviving great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria and is c. 475th in the
line of succession to the British Throne in his own right
(through his great-grandmother Princess Alice). He is the oldest serving
consort in British history, though former consorts, such as the Queen Mother, have lived longer lives.
Status as a "god"
-
It has been reported by the BBC that inhabitants of some small villages in Vanuatu, an island
nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, worship Prince Philip as a god. Islanders have been interviewed and pictured with
portraits, sent with Prince Philip's permission.[14]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
-
Titles
Styles Since Birth
- 10 June 1921–18 March
1947: His Royal Highness Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark
- 18 March–19 November 1947: Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN
- 19 November–19 November 1947: Lieutenant Sir Philip Mountbatten, KG, RN
- 19 November–20 November 1947: Lieutenant His Royal Highness Philip Mountbatten, KG, RN
- 20 November 1947–: His Royal Highness The
Duke of Edinburgh
- 20 November 1947–03
November 1951: His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG
- 04 November 1951–20 April
1952: His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, PC
- 21 April 1952–21 May
1953: His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, PC
- 22 May 1953–21 February
1957: His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, GBE, PC
- 22 February 1957–09
June 1968: His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, GBE,
PC
- 10 June 1968–14
November 1981: His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT,
OM, GBE, PC
- 15 November 1981–12
June 1988: His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM,
GBE, QSO, PC
- 13 June 1988–: His Royal Highness The Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE, AC, QSO, PC
Arms
The Standard of Prince Philip as the Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke has his own personal coat of arms, created on 19
November 1947. Unlike the arms used by other members of the Royal Family, the Duke's arms do
not feature the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, as
men are not entitled to bear the arms of their wives. However they do feature elements representing Greece and Denmark, from
which he is descended in the male line; the Mountbatten family arms, from which he is descended in the female line; and the City
of Edinburgh, representing his dukedom.
The shield is quartered. The first quarter
depicting the arms of Denmark consists of three blue lions passant and nine red hearts on a yellow field. The second quadrant
depicts the arms of Greece, a white cross on a blue field. The third quarter
depicts the arms of the Mountbatten family, five black and white vertical stripes. The fourth quarter depicts the arms of the
City of Edinburgh, a black and red castle.
The dexter supporter is a savage from the Danish Royal Coat of Arms; the sinister a golden
lion (a traditional English symbol) wearing a ducal cornet and gorged (collared) with a naval crown, alluding to the Duke's naval
career.
The coat features both the motto God is my help and the motto of
the Order of the Garter, Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shamed be he who thinks
ill of it) on a representation of the Garter behind the shield.
Ancestors
