A 70-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR
The 21-year-old princess Elizabeth and Lt Philip Mountbatten pictured shortly after their engagement became official in July 1947. (Getty Images)
It is easily the longest royal marriage in recorded history. The partnership has also been one of the great achievements of the Queen's reign.
At the start, hoping and looking forward to a life of service, contentment and love, the then princess Elizabeth, at the wedding breakfast on 20 November, said, ''I ask for nothing more than that Philip and I should be as happy as my father and mother have been.'' This seemed to be exactly what has happened.
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| The family portrait to mark the couple’s engagement. George VI initially had doubts about Philip and distrusted his ambitious uncle, Lord Mountbatten. (Getty Images) The two first met at family occasions when Elizabeth was a child. Then, in 1939, the 13-year-old princess accompanied her parents to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, where 18-year-old Philip was cadet, helping to entertain the royal party. They exchanged letters and from that moment the idea of a match appeared to be on. However, it was after the war that things became really serious. By the time Philip was invited to Balmoral in the summer of 1946, it was clear that Elizabeth was in love. She accepted her proposal that August. In July 1947 it was posted from Buckingham Palace that, “with the greatest pleasure”, king and queen announced the betrothal of their dearly beloved daughter to “Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN”, who had renounced his nationality, his name and his Greek Orthodox religion to make this a possibility.  |
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