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ROYALS: THE QUEEN'S SECRET ENGAGEMENT TO PHILLIP EXPLAINED The Queen and Prince Philip have been together for over 70 years. Philip, who turns 98 today, met the then Princess Elizabeth
at the Royal Naval College when he was 18 and she was 13. On seeing Philip for the first time, the young Elizabeth was “struck like a thunderbolt” and they “secretly engaged” in the summer
of 1946, according to Netflix documentary “The Royals”. RELATED ARTICLES Speaking in 2013, royal biographer Philip Dampier recalled the moment Her Majesty first met the Duke of Edinburgh.
He said: “From then on, he was the only one for her.” She was “absolutely determined” that “he was the man she was going to marry” despite “opposition from some courtiers” who thought
Philip was unsuitable. Even King George VI reportedly expressed doubt over his daughter’s choice of groom amid concerns about how the British public would take to their future monarch
marrying a Greek prince. Queen Elizabeth II married Prince Philip in November 1947 (Image: GETTY) Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on their wedding day (Image: GETTY) Philip’s “loud,
boisterous laugh and his blunt, seagoing manners” also helped shape an unsympathetic approach from George. However, when Philip asked the King for his daughter’s hand in marriage, his
request was granted but with one condition. Although the couple were engaged, it was initially kept secret from the public until Elizabeth’s 21st birthday. She turned 21 in April 1947 –
marking the occasion with the famous speech where she dedicated her life to the service of the nation. MEGHAN MARKLE: PRINCE PHILIP IS 'A HUGE FAN' SAYS INSIDER The formal
engagement announcement was issued in July 1947 – over a year after Philip actually proposed to the young princess at Balmoral Castle. The Queen married Prince Philip on November 20, 1947.
Historian Robert Lacey notes that the public sent clothing coupons from their ration books to Buckingham Palace as Britain was still gripped by post-war austerity. Philip also had to
sacrifice a lot to marry into the Royal Family. RELATED ARTICLES He gave up his royal titles before the engagement and took on the surname Mountbatten, sacrificing his previous title –
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. The name comes from his maternal grandfather, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who naturalised as a British citizen and anglicised the family name. A
similar change was made in the Royal Family, too. King George V dropped the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha name in favour of Windsor in July 1917. Queen Elizabeth II has been married to Prince
Philip for over 70 years (Image: GETTY) The Queen and Prince Philip with Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward (Image: GETTY) It came at the height of World War 1 and was considered essential to
keep the public on side while British troops fought Imperial Germany in France. The move has since been called the Royal Family’s “best marketing exercise” by historian Dr David Starkey.
Issues surrounding the family name have not gone away, though. Philip reportedly rowed with the Queen as he insisted his children take the Mountbatten name until a compromise was reached.
RELATED ARTICLES Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, and the Queen Mother, all strongly believed that the Royal Family name should remain Windsor.
The Queen sided with the older Windsor generation and rejected her husband’s wish. On April 9, 1952, the monarch issued a public declaration and confirmed that “her children will be styled
and known as the house and family of Windsor”. Philip was said to be heartbroken and told his friends that he felt “like a bloody amoeba" as he was the “only man in the country not
allowed to give his name to his own children”. The Queen and Prince Philip (Image: GETTY) The Queen and Prince Philip (Image: GETTY) Eight years later, when the Queen was heavily pregnant
with Andrew in 1960, she decided to visit former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. According to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, Her Majesty felt she needed to “revisit” the issue of the
family name, as it “had been irritating her husband since 1952". Ms Bedell Smith cites in the book an entry of Mr Macmillan’s diary, in which he wrote that Philip had actually been
“almost brutal” to his wife. The former Prime Minister’s journal’s entry reads: “The Queen only wishes (properly enough) to do something to please her husband – with whom she is desperately
in love. “What upsets me is the prince's almost brutal attitude to the Queen over all this." "I shall never forget what she said to me at Sandringham."