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As Queen Elizabeth is set to mark her platinum jubilee, this will be the first celebration since losing husband Prince Philip. He the man she fell ‘truly in love’ with upon first meeting him, according to reports.
In 2021 the Duke of Edinburgh passed away just weeks before his 100th birthday. Prince Philip died after 73 years of marriage to Queen Elizabeth II.
It’s an idealistic tale as old as time: the princess met the prince and it was love at first sight. However, for the Queen, now 96-years-old, this was what really happened.
While the world was on the brink of war, in 1939, a 13-year-old princess went with her family on a visit to the Royal Naval College, where there was an 18-year-old prince training as a cadet.
The princess was Elizabeth and the Prince? You guessed it; Philip. On that day Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten secured his nephew, Philip, an invite to have lunch and tea with the royal family, including Elizabeth.
According to Marion “Crawfie” Crawford, Princess Elizabeth’s governess, the young princess fell truly in love with the prince at first sight. She wrote later Elizabeth ‘never took her eyes off him’ although he ‘did not pay her any special attention’. But that’s not to say it wouldn’t be love for him as he would stay in correspondence with her over the next five years.
Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite love at first sight. The pair had met before – because they were not only in the same social circles, but they were actually distant cousins too.
This is why it makes sense that in 1934 then eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth attended the wedding of her uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Philip’s cousin Princess Marina of Greece. Philip also attended his cousin’s wedding at age 13. However, there’s no confirmation the two actually met that day.
After proposing in 1946 Prince Philip wrote a letter to Princess Elizabeth. He wrote: “To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty,’ according to biographer Ingrid Seward – they were married in 1947.
As the country was still reeling for WWII King George VI, the Queen’s father, said the wedding should be a quieter affair. Although it took place in the grand Westminster Abbey. The event was attended by no more than 150 people – which is quiet for a Royal wedding.
After they married they lived a rather domestic life for several years while the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in the navy. However, this came to a devastating end when the King died in 1952. The Queen was coronated the following year.
Over the course of their marriage together they had four children. Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. Eventually would have eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
On April 9 2021 it was confirmed Prince Philip had passed away at age 99. Via social media, the Royal Family shared a heartfelt post saying the Queen had lost her ‘beloved husband’.
Now the platinum jubilee – 70 years on the throne – will mark the first major event the Queen must celebrate without her husband by her side.
In other news, Queen Elizabeth’s net worth: What happens to Royal fortune?