Royal Wedding Countdown: Royal History—Elizabeth’s Royal Wedding

Most of us will remember the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011, and many of us will also remember watching Charles and Diana’s fairytale wedding and lavish extramarital affairs as children on TV. Elizabeth and Philip's wedding was quite restrained in comparison, after all, just a few years after the war ended, Britain was still feeling the effects of the war. Britain was hit hard and still suffers from empty farmland, empty factories, high unemployment and taxes, rationing and a weak economy. King George VI's Chancellor of the Exchequer called 1947, the year Elizabeth married, "the terrible year" as a terrible year (you know it must have been terrible if you had to express it in Latin). However, life looked good for Philip and Elizabeth.

Philip and Elizabeth, like most royals in Europe, are related. They have great-great-great-grandfathers, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as royal cousins. They grew up when they were young. They met several times at family weddings and at the coronation of Elizabeth's father. But it wasn't until 1939, when Elizabeth was 13 and Philip was 18, that their relationship really took off. Philip was a handsome young man and an energetic cadet when Elizabeth went to visit her parents and Margaret at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Elizabeth is smitten from the start, Philip perhaps not so much (she is 13 after all, and this is not Romeo and Juliet). Whether social climber, Philip's uncle or Elizabeth's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Philip, affectionately known as Uncle Dickie, was soon invited to the palace for tea. Crawphy, the princesses' nanny, noticed that Elizabeth "never took her eyes off him," although Philip didn't seem to notice. Soon the war years came, and Philip made several trips to Windsor to visit his family, and Elizabeth wrote to him while he was serving in the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and Pacific. We remember from the previous article that Elizabeth grew up a lot during the war years and when Philip came back he paid a lot of attention to her. As their cousin Patricia Mountbatten recalled, "She would not have been a hard person to fall in love with," and Crawphy described him, "He came to the palace like a fresh sea breeze."

But what is Philip's story, and is he likely to be worthy enough to marry the future Queen of England, given how much her parents love her? Elizabeth's mother and many others didn't think so, at least not at first. Born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, his family was exiled from Greece just before a coup. He grew up in Paris in an unhappy and unloving home. His father spent a lot of time with his girlfriends, his mother soon suffered a nervous breakdown and left to go to a convent, he was fond of his sisters, but most of them were married to Nazis or suspected of being Nazi sympathizers, one of whom was called Cecilia, and her family died in a plane crash while Philip was at school in Scotland. Philip is fiercely independent. At the age of 8, Philip was sent to boarding school, and from that point on he was essentially homeless and neglected by his family. He first went to school in Germany, but after just a year the war forced him to move to Gordonstoun School in Scotland (the school in that terrible Crown affair, you may remember), and although school could be difficult, But Philip was quite happy there, learning to lead, serve and work hard. He even became headmaster (there were no older brothers there, and we can assume he wasn't teased, like Percy Weasley was when he was named Big-Headed Boy in Harry Potter. Uncle Dick's influence on the young Intrigued by his education and leadership skills, Philip was handsome, strong, smart, and clever. However, Philip, who had neither money nor land, was not English enough to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth's family, the Windsors, became "during the First World War, when their Germanic background and surname became problematic, George V changed the family's name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Album) in 1917. Prince Bert was a German (whose name Victoria took at their wedding) to Windsor; George III was the first Hanoverian born in England, his father and grandfather, King George I and II." Philip's mother was a British citizen and was born at Windsor Castle; Philip was educated in England and could not even remember living in Greece, by which time he was an honorary sailor in the Royal Navy; he had also given up Germanic The only real obstacle was that Elizabeth was too young for Philip to propose to her. Just 20 years old at Balmoral in 1946. Philip had been to Balmoral before in 1944, when he had a very pleasant and enjoyable holiday with the royal family. Their family life contrasted sharply with their travels. The Windsors enjoyed playing games together, hunting, and marking things that had nothing to do with their own families. The Windsors enjoyed each other.

King George was impressed by Philip's naval exploits, his intelligence, and his influence on Lilibet, and Elizabeth's mother also came. After that trip to Balmoral, Philip was often seen driving his black MG sports car to the private entrance of Buckingham Palace, wandering around the palace in his shirt sleeves, and treating Elizabeth like any other girl. It's a refreshing and surprising twist. Although he was hot-tempered and impulsive, he was also attentive and witty, and seemed content with the royal family, and when Philip returned to Balmoral two years later, Elizabeth immediately accepted his proposal without consulting her parents (although we As you can imagine (this topic has come up before), Philip said he was pleasantly surprised to "fell completely and unreservedly in love."

The family chose not to stay together for the time being. The engagement was publicly announced, and the king and queen spent three months in Africa with their daughter, and another month traveling round trip by boat. While they were apart, Elizabeth and Philip wrote faithfully to each other, and in her absence Philip was busy preparing them. With the help of Uncle Dick, Lord Mountbatten, Philip gave up his titles as Prince of Greece and Denmark and became a British citizen, but this was not necessary given that his mother was born in Windsor. As a wedding gift, he quit smoking. The family returned, and after a royal engagement party at Buckingham Palace, just before the wedding, the King named Philip Duke of Edinburgh, a title by which he is known today, along with Earl Merionette and Baron Greenwich , although without a princely consort like Prince Albert, it was also decreed that Philip would be called His Royal Highness. He was awarded the Order of the Garter, the highest honor a king can bestow. Giving up the title of Prince of Greece and Denmark did not seem to hurt Philip in any way.

The wedding was held on November 20, 1947. Elizabeth used her wartime rations, and was still there, to buy fabric for her wedding dress. The royal family recognized that it was too extravagant at a difficult time for the country, but the country and the Commonwealth were still eager to celebrate with the royal family, and they received thousands of well-wishes. Letters and telegrams, Gandhi sent a loincloth (the family found it amusing and had to assume it was unused). Tens of thousands of people came out in freezing weather to watch the King and Princess Elizabeth's procession on the Irish State Coach on their way to Westminster Abbey.

Winston Churchill called