When did Prince Philip and Queen get married? Duke of Edinburgh asked 'am I brave or foolish' on wedding day
The Duke of Edinburgh and the longtime consort of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, died on Friday, April 9, at Windsor Castle in England at the age of 99. Buckingham Palace, in its official statement, mentioned that the Queen was experiencing “deep sorrow” in the wake of Philip’s passing.
Philip had an interesting life, even before he was married to Elizabeth. Philip’s father had been part of the Greek royal family but fled to France after the king was deposed in 1921. In 1929, when Philip was eight, he was packed off to boarding school in England.
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When did Prince Philip and Queen get married?
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II got married on November 20, 1947. At the time, he was 26, and the then-young crown princess was 21. But many were reportedly not at all convinced that he was marrying for the right reasons. In fact, he may himself have been “apprehensive” about the whole situation.
English writer, broadcaster, actor, and former politician Gyles Brandreth, the author of ‘Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage’, noted in his new column that Philip’s cousin Patricia Mountbatten told him, “He may have had his doubts about what he was getting himself into — the whole business of marrying the King of England's daughter. I think that did concern him. But he had no doubts at all about Lilibet as a future wife. He adored her. He loved her deeply — you could tell. It was definitely a love match.”
Brandreth also quoted Mike Parker, Philip's closest male friend at the time, saying “He loved her — absolutely. And he fancied her, too. No question about that.”
But there the biographer also wrote, “Philip asked Patricia Mountbatten: 'Am I being very brave or very foolish?' I asked Lady Mountbatten once what she thought he meant by that. 'He was apprehensive,' she said. 'He was uncertain -- not about marrying Princess Elizabeth, but about what the marriage would mean for him. He was giving up a great deal'.”
The giving up, Brandreth wrote, included cigarettes. In fact, as per him, that very morning Philip had stopped smoking cigarettes. “The King was a heavy smoker — it was a family habit: Queen Mary was a smoker, too. And having seen the effect cigarettes had on her father, Princess Elizabeth had asked Philip to give up. He was happy enough to oblige his bride-to-be — and disciplined enough to be able to do so overnight. Then, at 11 am, fortified by a gin and tonic, and dressed in naval uniform, he set off for Westminster Abbey, never to look back,” he wrote in the column.
As per reports, the Queen had already braced herself for Philip’s passing, following years of health troubles. Former press secretary to the Queen, Charles Anson said that the 94-year-old monarch was prepared for Philip’s death simply because she thought about it so much where it became second nature to accept the inevitable.
"She would have thought about this moment several times and her way would be to remain as steady and as calm as possible," Anson said. "That comes naturally to her through her temperament and her experience. In my years of working for her, she was always calm, no matter what was going on. But for any human being, this is a very cathartic moment."