Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip (1992)

HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (* 28 May ^July / 10 June  1921 ^greg. As Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in Mon Repos Castle in Corfu , Kingdom of Greece ; †  April 9, 2021 at Windsor Castle , Windsor , United Kingdom ) was the prince consort of the British Queen Elizabeth II.

Life

British royal family
HM The Queen HRH The Prince of Wales HRH The Duchess of Cornwall HRH The Duke of Cambridge HRH The Duchess of Cambridge HRH Prince George of Cambridge HRH Princess Charlotte of Cambridge HRH Prince Louis of Cambridge HRH The Duke of Sussex HRH The Duchess of Sussex HRH The Duke of York HRH Princess Beatrice, Mrs. Mapelli Mozzi HRH Princess Eugenie, Mrs. Brooksbank HRH The Earl of Wessex HRH The Countess of Wessex HRH The Princess Royal HRH The Duke of Gloucester HRH The Duchess of Gloucester HRH The Duke of Kent HRH The Duchess of Kent HRH Prince Michael of Kent HRH Princess Michael of Kent HRH Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvy

Family background

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born on June 10, 1921 (according to the Gregorian calendar , which was only introduced in Greece two years later) as the youngest child of Prince Andreas of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice von Battenberg at Mon Repos Castle in Greece Corfu island born. His four older sisters were Margarita (1905–1981), Theodora (1906–1969), Cecilia (1911–1937) and Sophie (1914–2001). On his father's side, he comes from the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , a branch line of the House of Oldenburg , which has been the kings of Greece since 1863 . He was the grandson of George I of Greece and cousin of Kings George II and Paul . On his mother's side, he came from the House of Battenberg , a morganatic branch line of the House of Hesse , which was closely related to the British royal family through both the Battenbergs and the main line . He was the nephew of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma , formerly Prince Louis von Battenberg, whose name Mountbatten, which was translated into English in 1917, he later adopted.

Adolescence

Prince Philip in Canada (1951)

His childhood and youth were marked by conflicts within the family. At the time of his birth, his parents' marriage had already failed. Although the parents went into exile together after a military coup , the mother went to Paris , while the father took an apartment in Monte Carlo and lived there with his lover. The mother and her five children relied on the benevolence of relatives and friends because she had little money and was not supported by her husband. During the first years of Philips' life, the mother developed a mental illness . She showed signs of schizophrenia . Finally, it was under pressure from her brother Louis Mountbatten in the psychiatric hospital sanatorium Bellevue in Kreuzlingen trained in Switzerland. Since his father did not want to take him in, Philip lived with various relatives over the following years. In the course of his youth he saw his mother only a few times and was allowed to visit her in sanatoriums; he had only written contact with his father.

Initially Philip attended the American school The Elms in Paris, until he switched to the Cheam School in the British county of Hampshire in 1928 . On the advice of his sister Theodora , from 1933 he attended the Schloss Salem school founded by Theodora's father-in-law Max von Baden , Karl Reinhardt and the reform pedagogue Kurt Hahn for two years . After the seizure of power of Hitler and the Nazi party who came from a Jewish family Kurt Hahn was dismissed from the teaching service in July 1933 and emigrated to Scotland, where he 1934 the British Salem School (now Gordonstoun founded), switched to the Philip in the same year. In 1939 he attended the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth as a cadet . During the Second World War he was mentioned for his service in the battle of Cape Matapan on the battleship HMS  Valiant for special bravery in the war report .

He renounced his title of prince in February 1947 for his marriage to the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth, with whom he had met again in 1939 after a first meeting in 1934 on the occasion of a visit to the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth with her father of Greece and Denmark, received British citizenship and changed his family name from Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg to Mountbatten. Two days before his wedding , he was accepted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion on November 18, 1947 , and on November 20, 1947 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom to Duke of Edinburgh , Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich .

Philip was largely related to Elizabeth II as a third cousin due to the common descent of Queen Victoria .

Overview of the common descent of Queen Elizabeth II and Duke Philip from Queen Victoria, both of their great-great-grandmothers (red: lineage of the monarchs of the United Kingdom ; green: lineage of Philips)

Time as a prince consort

Elizabeth II with Prince Philip after Elizabeth's coronation, 1953

On November 20, 1947, he married the then princess and heir to the throne Elisabeth. Due to his military career and his position in the royal family, he held several military ranks:

• Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom ,
• Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal Navy,
• Field Marshal of the British Army as well
• Marshal of the Royal Air Force of the Royal Air Force .

From 1952, the proclamation of his wife the queen, until his death in 2021, he was a spouse of Queen and State Council ( English Counselors of State ). As such, he could carry out certain official duties and sovereign rights of the queen when she was abroad or otherwise prevented (such as a short-term illness). Any two State Councilors can attend Privy Council meetings , sign state documents, or receive letters of recommendation from new ambassadors .

In addition, like his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900–1979), he was a member of the renowned Savage Club . In 2013 he celebrated his 60th anniversary as a member of the Freemasons Association . He was the longest serving prince consort in the history of the kingdom. On April 17, 2009, he stood by the Queen's side for 57 years and 71 days, breaking the record of Queen Charlotte , wife of George III.

Prince Philip is related to Queen Elisabeth as a third cousin on both his father's and mother's side. Because of this, he was also in the line of succession in the United Kingdom , but far behind his children. Queen Victoria was both the great-great-grandmother of Prince Philip and that of his wife Queen Elisabeth. As the husband of the Queen of Australia , he was the patron of the Melbourne Summer Olympics in 1956 . From 1964 to 1986 he was president of the international equestrian federation FEI and in 1980 he was team world champion in four-in-hand ; he was also from 1955 to 1957 chairman of the English Football Association . He was fluent in English, German and French. His Greek was rudimentary because the family had to leave Greece when he was a toddler. Together with Friederike von Hannover he took Greek lessons.

Prince Philip (2015)

In 2016, he still performed official obligations for 110 days. He made his last public appearance in August 2017 and was patron, president or member of 780 organizations. He completed a total of 22,219 appointments, gave 5,496 speeches and made 637 trips abroad. These figures do not include appearances alongside the Queen. In April 2019, he replaced Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883–1981) as the oldest descendant of a British monarch. During a month-long hospital stay in February and March 2021, he had to undergo heart surgery, among other things.

Death and burial

Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2021, two months before his 100th birthday . His death sparked Operation Forth Bridge ; This is the code name for a plan that regulates the organization of his funeral and that was used in a modified form due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Only a small private ceremony with 30 guests was planned for the funeral on April 17, 2021. During a short procession from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel , during which he was remembered with a nationwide minute's silence, Philips coffin was transferred to a Land Rover Defender designed by himself .

Attendees at the memorial service included his widow Queen Elizabeth II, his four children Prince Charles , Princess Anne , Prince Andrew and Prince Edward and some of his grandchildren, including Prince William and Prince Harry , who had returned to the UK for the first time since leaving . At the express request of Prince Philip, three of his German relatives, who belonged to his immediate family through his mother, also took part in the funeral service, the great nephews Philipp zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Bernhard Prince of Baden as well as Heinrich Donatus of Hesse .

Mountbatten with the Queen and family at the opening of the Welsh Parliament ; 2016

The funeral service was chaired by David John Conner , Dean of Windsor , and was characterized by readings from the Bible ( Sir 43.11–26  EU and Joh 11.21–27 EU ), hymns  (including Eternal Father, Strong to Save ) and pieces of music (including a setting of the Jubilate by Benjamin Britten , the Russian Kontakion for the deceased in the version by Walter Parratt and elements of military music such as The Last Post and Reveille ). There was no sermon and no obituary. The Archbishop of Canterbury , Justin Welby , took one of the readings and part of the prayers and gave the final blessing . The Garter Principal King of Arms read full titles to Philips. The ceremony was televised direct in many countries.

criticism

The prince's statements in public appearances, especially abroad, were occasionally criticized by the media as tactless or racist . For example, he said to British students in China, "If you stay here longer, you will all get slender eyes", or in Papua New Guinea : "So you managed not to be eaten?" He asked Aborigines in Australia if they were throw at each other with spears.

His statements to heads of state or government were also occasionally viewed as disrespectful; He remarked to the President of Nigeria , referring to his folkloric and customary clothing: "You look as if you are about to go to bed." During the Hanover Fair in 1997, he greeted Chancellor Helmut Kohl with the words: "Hello, Mr. Chancellor ! "

family

ancestors

Pedigree of Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh
Great-great-grandparents	Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1785–1831) ⚭ 1810 Princess Luise Karoline of Hessen-Kassel (1789–1867)	Landgrave Wilhelm von Hessen -Kassel (1787–1867) ⚭ 1810 Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark (1789–1864)	Tsar Nicholas I (Russia) (1796–1855) ⚭ 1817 Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860)	Duke Joseph von Sachsen-Altenburg (1789–1868) ⚭ 1817 Duchess Amalie von Württemberg (1799–1848)	Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and the Rhine (1777–1848) ⚭ 1804 Princess Wilhelmine of Baden (1788–1836)	Count Hans Moritz Hauke (1775-1830) ⚭ 1807 Sophie Lafontaine (1790–1831)	Prince Karl of Hessen-Darmstadt (1809–1877) ⚭ 1836 Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1815–1885)	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) ⚭ 1840 Queen Victoria (United Kingdom) (1819–1901)
Great grandparents	King Christian IX of Denmark (1818–1906) ⚭ 1842 Princess Louise of Hesse (1817–1898)		Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolajewitsch Romanow (1827-1892) ⚭ 1848 Princess Alexandra of Saxony-Altenburg (1830-1911)		Prince Alexander of Hessen-Darmstadt (1823–1888) ⚭ 1851 Countess Julia Hauke (1825–1895)		Grand Duke Ludwig IV (Hessen-Darmstadt) (1837–1892) ⚭ 1862 Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland (1843–1878)
Grandparents	King George I (Greece) (1845–1913) ⚭ 1867 Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanova (1851–1926)				Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (1854–1921) ⚭ 1884 Princess Viktoria of Hessen-Darmstadt (1863–1950)
parents	Prince Andreas of Greece (1882–1944) ⚭ 1903 Princess Alice von Battenberg (1885–1969)
Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh

children

Surname	title	Date of birth	Marriages
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George	Prince of Wales	November 14, 1948	1. Lady Diana Spencer , later Princess of Wales, married on July 29, 1981, divorced on August 28, 1996, died on August 31, 1997. 2. Camilla Parker Bowles , later Princess of Wales, uses the title of Duchess of Cornwall, Married on April 9, 2005.
Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise	Princess Royal	August 15, 1950	1. Mark Phillips , Captain , married November 14, 1973, divorced April 28, 1992. 2. Timothy Laurence , Vice Admiral , married December 12, 1992.
Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward	Duke of York	February 19, 1960	Sarah Margaret Ferguson , married July 23, 1986, divorced May 30, 1996.
Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis	Earl of Wessex	March 10, 1964	Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones , married June 19, 1999.

Grandchildren

Surname	Date of birth	parents	Marriages
Peter Mark Andrew Phillips	November 15, 1977	Anne, Princess Royal and Mark Phillips	Autumn Kelly, married on May 17, 2008.
Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips	May 15, 1981	Anne, Princess Royal and Mark Phillips	Mike Tindall , married July 30, 2011.
Prince William Arthur Philip Louis	June 21, 1982	Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales	Catherine Elizabeth Middleton , married April 29, 2011.
Prince Henry Charles Albert David	September 15, 1984	Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales	Meghan Markle , marriage on May 19, 2018.
Princess Beatrice Elizabeth Mary	August 8, 1988	Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York	Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi , married on July 17, 2020.
Princess Eugenie Victoria Helena	March 23, 1990	Andrew, Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York	Jack Brooksbank , married on October 12, 2018.
Lady Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor	November 8, 2003	Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex
James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn	December 17, 2007	Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex

Great-grandchildren

Surname	Date of birth	parents
Savannah Anne Kathleen Phillips	December 29, 2010	Peter and Autumn Phillips
Isla Elizabeth Phillips	March 29, 2012	Peter and Autumn Phillips
Prince George Alexander Louis	22. July 2013	William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Mia Grace Tindall	17th January 2014	Zara and Mike Tindall
Charlotte Elizabeth Diana	May 2, 2015	William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Louis Arthur Charles	April 23, 2018	William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Lena Elizabeth Tindall	June 18, 2018	Zara and Mike Tindall
Archie Harrison	May 6, 2019	Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
August Philip Hawke Brooksbank	February 9, 2021	Eugenie Brooksbank and Jack Brooksbank
Lucas Philip Tindall	March 21, 2021	Zara and Mike Tindall
Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor	June 4, 2021	Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Title (style)

Standard of Prince Philip

• HRH Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (June 10, 1921 - March 18, 1947)
• Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, Royal Navy (February 28, 1947 - November 18, 1947)
• Lieutenant Sir Philip Mountbatten, KG , RN (November 18, 1947 - November 19, 1947)
• HRH Sir Philip Mountbatten, KG (November 19, 1947 - November 20, 1947)
• HRH Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG (November 20, 1947 - December 4, 1951)
• HRH Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, PC (December 4, 1951 - April 21, 1952)
• HRH Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT , PC (April 21, 1952 - May 22, 1953)
• HRH Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, GBE , PC (May 22, 1953 - February 22, 1957)
• HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, GBE, PC (February 22, 1957 - June 10, 1968)
• HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM , GBE, PC (June 10, 1968 - November 15, 1981)
• HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE, QSO , PC (November 15, 1981 - June 13, 1988)
• HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE, AC , QSO, PC (June 13, 1988 - January 26, 2015)
• HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, OM, GBE, AK , QSO, PC (from January 26, 2015)

coat of arms

Coat of arms of Prince Philipp between 1947 and 1949

In the coat of arms that Prince Philip carried between 1947 and 1949, the white cross on an azure blue background with a heart shield comes from the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Greece. The coat of arms of his great-grandmother Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and daughter of Queen Victoria, is shown in the first quarter. The coat of arms is surrounded by the garter of the Order of the Garter. The coat of arms is crowned by the crown of a sovereign ruler, this in turn by the royal helmet, this by a ducal crown and this by the five ostrich feathers of the House of Battenberg. Shield holders are the wild man - depicted as Herakles with lion skin - from the Danish or Greek coat of arms and the lion from the Hessian coat of arms. The motto is 'God Is My Help', 'God is my help'.

Prince Philip's coat of arms from 1949

In the coat of arms that Prince Philip carried from 1949, the three lions with the nine hearts of the Danish coat of arms are depicted in the first quarter. The cross of Greece is shown in the second field. The third field represents the house of Battenberg. The fourth field stands for Edinburgh. The coat of arms is surrounded by the Order of the Garter. The crest , the shield holder and the motto are the same as in the previous coat of arms.

Full title

"His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich,
Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter ,
Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle ,
Member of the Order of Merit ,
Grand Master and First and Principal Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ,
Knight of the Order of Australia ,
Companion of the Queen's Service Order ,
Lord of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council ,
Member of Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada . "

various

• Prince Philip was Honorary President of the WWF .
• The Prince Philip Glacier in Antarctica is named in his honor.
• The Prince Philip Movement is a cargo cult operated by the people of the village of Yaohnanen on the Vanuatu island of Tanna . The cult worships Prince Philip as a deity .

See also

• Family tree of the rulers of Great Britain

literature

• Genealogical manual of the nobility (GHdA) - Fstl. Houses, Vol. XX - Starke Verlag , Limburg (Lahn) 2014, ISBN 978-3-7980-0855-7 , pp. 22–30 → Great Britain
• Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch (GGH 7) - Fürstliche Häuser, Volume 2 - Deutsches Adelsarchiv (Ed.), Marburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-9817243-6-3 , pp. 116-123 → House Greece
• Martin Trageser: The Mountbattens. A family at the center of European history, Würzburg 2021, pp. 207–248

Web links

Commons : Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Philip Mountbatten, 1st Duke of Edinburgh on thepeerage.com
• FAZ article with a collection of quotations from Prince Philip
• 89th Birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , About Royalty, June 9, 2010
• On the death of Prince Philip: "My strength and support" , obituary by Johannes Leithäuser in the FAZ

Individual evidence

1. ^ Official website of the British monarchy: The Duke of Edinburgh .
2. ↑ See Romy Holz, Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip. From getting to know each other until today: your love story. In: Bunte from April 21, 2016 .
3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 38128, HMSO, London, November 21, 1947, pp. 5495-5495 ( PDF ).
4. ↑ Lord High Admiral ( memento of June 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on Royal.gov.uk, June 10, 2011
5. ↑ Pro Grand Master's address - June 2013 . In: Quarterly Communication . Freemasonary Today. June 12, 2013. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
6. ↑ FOR 57 YEARS PRINCE COMMON - Prince Philip breaks record in the British royal family
7. ^ A strange life profile of Prince Philip
8. ↑ Last official appearance - Prince Philip takes his hat. Spiegel Online, August 2, 2017, accessed August 2, 2017 . 
9. ↑ In full: The Announcement of Buckingham Palace. Zeit Online, May 4, 2017, accessed August 2, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Martina Lippl, Queen Elizabeth II: What happens after the death of her husband Prince Philip? In: Mercury from April 9, 2021 .
11. ↑ Der Spiegel: Prince Philip released from hospital after a month. Retrieved April 9, 2021 . 
12. ↑ Death of Prince Philip: "Operation Forth Bridge" starts in the kingdom. In: welt.de . April 9, 2021, accessed April 9, 2021 . 
13. ↑ "Monarchy before a difficult phase". In: tagesschau.de. April 17, 2021, accessed April 17, 2021 . 
14. ↑ Three German relatives took part in the funeral service . In: Gala.de , accessed on April 18, 2021.
15. ^ Funeral of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip Duke od Edinburgh , Funeral Program, accessed April 17, 2021
16. ↑ Caught on tape: Infamous gaffes (English) , BBC . Retrieved April 3, 2012. 
17. ^ Wolfgang Koydl: King of Comedy (German) , Süddeutsche Zeitung . Retrieved April 3, 2012. 
18. ↑ See Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Six little-known facts about royal long-term marriage .
19. ↑ Tim Heald: The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip . Hodder and Stoughton, London 1991, ISBN 0-340-54607-7 , pp. 244 f .; Robert Lacey: Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II . Little, Brown, London 2002, ISBN 0-316-85940-0 , p. 303.
20. ^ Prince consort with idiosyncratic style (German) , NZZ Online . Retrieved April 3, 2012. 
21. ↑ Prince Philip gossips about wind energy (German) , Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 3, 2012. 
22. ↑ Happy Birthday, Prince Painful! (German) , Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 10, 2021. 
23. ↑ Claudia Bröll: You look like Dracula's daughters! (German) , FAZ . Retrieved April 3, 2012. 

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Duke of Edinburgh 1947-2021	Charles, Prince of Wales
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon	Royal Consort of the United Kingdom 1952–2021	vacant
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon	United Kingdom Council of State 1952–2021	vacant