PRINCE PHILIP was married to Queen Elizabeth II for more than 70 years before his passing in April 2021.
But the Duke of Edinburgh had always been considered a Prince and not a king despite his long marriage to the Queen.
Why was Prince Philip not King Philip?
The reason for Philip not becoming King when he married the Queen stems from a parliamentary law.
The law relating to succession doesn’t relate to bloodline – only gender.
The spouse of a ruling king or queen is known as a consort.
Strangely, in British royalty a man who marries the queen is known as the prince consort but a woman who marries the king will be the queen consort.
When Prince Philip married the queen in 1947 he was also given three other titles:
- Duke of Edinburgh
- Earl of Merioneth
- Baron Greenwich
In 1957, the Queen made him an official Prince of the United Kingdom – which she made official in a new letters patent, according to Town & Country.
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When did Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip get married?
The then Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, as he was then known, on November 20, 1947.
They reached their platinum wedding anniversary in 2017 which marked 70 years since their big day.
The couple had met 13 years earlier, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark and Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934.
After a third meeting in July 1939 our future Queen, who was just 13 years old at the time, is said to have fallen in love with Philip – and they began exchanging letters.
The couple became secretly engaged in 1946 and Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, ordered that any formal engagement was delayed until after his daughter’s 21st birthday – in April 1947.
Their engagement was officially announced in July of the same year.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had been married for 73 years before the Duke of Edinburgh died on April 9, 2021.
How many children do Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have?
The Queen and Prince Philip had four children together – Charles, Prince of Wales, born 1948; Anne, Princess Royal, born 1950; Andrew, Duke of York, born 1960; and Edward, Earl of Wessex, born 1964.
They have eight grandchildren:
- Prince William
- Prince Harry
- Peter Phillips
- Zara Phillips (now Tindall)
- Princess Beatrice
- Princess Eugenie
- Lady Louse Windsor
- James, Viscount Severn.
The couple also have eight great-grandchildren:
- Prince George
- Princess Charlotte
- Prince Louis
- Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
- Savannah Phillips
- Isla Phillips
- Mia Tindall
- Lena Tindall
