Queen Elizabeth II And The Duke Of Edinburgh Celebrate Their 72nd Anniversary Today

Nov 20, 2019 by apost team

On November 20, 1947, Queen Elizabeth married Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark in a lavish wedding at the Westminster Abbey broadcasted to over 200 million listeners by the BBC. 

As the Royal couple celebrate their 72nd wedding anniversary today, we take a look back at their fairytale romance.

Queen Elizabeth was just 13 years old when she met Prince Phillip for the very first time in 1939 - way before anyone even thought she would ever take the British Throne. Although the fact might make a few people feel iffy today, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip are distant cousins, sharing Queen Victoria as their great-great-grandmother. 

Right before their wedding in 1947, Queen Elizabeth wrote letters to a woman named Betty Shaw in which she described her first meeting with her future husband. 

“The first time I remember meeting Philip was at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in July 1939, just before the war. (We may have met before at the coronation or the Duchess of Kent’s wedding, but I don’t remember),” she wrote, as cited by Express.

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“I was 13 years of age and he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave,” the future Queen added. “He joined the Navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave - I suppose about twice in three years.”

The two young lovebirds would continue to write letters to one another for many years to come until Prince Phillip finally asked King George for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage in 1946.  

"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," reads a letter Philip wrote to Elizabeth that year, according to O Magazine.

Although the two got engaged in 1946, they did not announce it to the public until the following year. In an article from the Guardian’s archive reporting on their engagement, the publication described their courtship as “clearly a marriage of choice, not of arrangement.” The two finally wed on November 20, 1947, just four months following their engagement announcement. The wedding was held in Westminster Abbey and was broadcast to 200 million listeners by BBC radio.

One year later, Elizabeth and Phillip welcomed their first child Prince Charles, with Princess Anne following in 1950. 

Their first few years as newlyweds saw what Royal biographer Ben Pimplott would describe as Elizabeth’s “most ‘normal’ [period] of her entire life.” The couple would spend much of their first years as husband and wife in a Royal residence in Malta. The two Royals are said to be so fond of the island nation, they even went back to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007.

Their honeymoon period came to an end, however, with King George VI’s death in 1952 and Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 at the mere age of 25. With Elizabeth now taking on the role of a monarch, the dynamics of their relationship would change quite drastically. According to Vanity Fair, Prince Phillip, now the Duke of Edinburgh, would take time to adjust to his new role as consort. In fact, the Duke reportedly once referred to himself as a “refugee husband,” frustrated by the fact that he could not pass on his surname “Mountbatten” to his children.

"I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children,” Prince Phillip allegedly said, according to O Magazine. “I’m nothing but a bloody amoeba.”

Although seemingly unhappy with the circumstances of his Royal duties, it’s safe to say the Duke of Edinburgh is still happy to have stuck by Elizabeth’s side for all these years. The Prince would manage the Royal Estate for his wife and travel by her side during her royal tours. 

"Don’t look so sad, Sausage," the Duke once told his wife when on tour in Australia, according to O Magazine. 

"If I am asked what I think about family life after 25 years of marriage, I can answer with equal simplicity and conviction, I am for it," the Queen said at the silver wedding anniversary speech. And with over 7 decades of marriage in their bag, we can assume her feelings haven’t changed. 

We hope Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh enjoy their day today. What are your secrets to a long, happy marriage? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!