Prince Philip Answers

In honor of HRH The Prince Philip's 90th birthday, we asked our experts to tell us all about him.

1. Who were Prince Philip's parents?
He was the youngest child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece, fourth son King George I of Greece, and Princess Alice of Battenberg, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

2. Why was he a Prince of Denmark?
Philip's grandfather was elected King of Greece by the Greek National Assembly, before that he was Prince William of Denmark. William was the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. He and his descendants retained their royal Danish titles. Even today, the exiled Greek royals are still have Danish royal titles.

3. How many siblings did he have?
Philip had four older sisters Margarita, Theodora, Cecilia and Sophie. They were all married to German princes by the time Philip was 10. World War II was difficult for him and his family because his sisters were in Germany--and he had brothers-in-law serving Hitler--while he was fighting in the Navy of his mother's homeland, England. None of his surviving sisters (Cecilia, her husband, two sons and unborn child were killed in a plane crash in 1937) were invited to his wedding in 1947 and he maintained discreet relationships with them, their children and grandchildren.

4. What was his name when he became engaged to Princess Elizabeth?
At the time of his engagement, he was known as Lt. Philip Mountbatten, R.N. He had voluntarily surrendered all of his royal titles and adopted the surname of his mother's English brothers at the time of his naturalization as a British subject earlier in 1947.

5. How many British Prince Consorts have been consorts longer than he has?
Technically, Prince Philip does not hold the title Prince Consort, although some hoped he would receive it as a 90th birthday honor. However, he is the longest serving male consort in British history: Philip of Spain was consort of Mary I for three years, George of Denmark was consort of Queen Anne for seven years, and Albert of Saxe-Coburg was Victoria's consort for nearly 22 years. Philip has been Elizabeth II's princely consort for 59 years as of February 2011. The longest-serving female consort was his and Elizabeth's shared great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III.

6. What titles did his father-in-law give him?
King George VI gave his soon-to-be son-in-law the British royal titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich on his wedding day. The day before the wedding, he made him a Knight of the Order of the Garter. (The last Duke of Edinburgh before him was Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred.)

7. Who made him a Prince of the United Kingdom?
Even though he was a royal duke, he was not officially a prince again until his wife gave the title in 1957, nearly 10 years after their marriage and five years after her accession.

8. Which of his children will inherit his title when he dies?
The answer to this question is a very solid "it depends," and it depends on who's living and who's dead at the time. If The Queen is still alive, then Prince Charles, as the eldest son of a peer, will inherit Philip's title. When Charles eventually becomes king, the title will merge with the Crown and it can be recreated for someone else. If The Queen is alive and Charles is dead or he dies before becoming king, Prince William becomes Duke of Edinburgh. Then Harry, then Andrew, then Edward, then Edward's son James. If all of his male-line heirs are dead (a highly unlikely scenario), the title becomes extinct.

If Prince Philip outlives his wife, his title would merge with the crown immediately upon his death. In 1999, it was announced that The Queen intends for Prince Edward, their third son, to receive the title Duke of Edinburgh in the future. Whether he actually gets it or not depends on whether the new king, presumably his brother Charles, recreates it and gives it to him. Many people believe that this intended future inheritance is why Prince Edward was made an earl rather than a royal duke, as was traditional, upon his marriage.

9. What is his last name and what is its origin of his last name?
Philip's last name is Mountbatten. He chose this name for himself at the time of his naturalization. It was the name of his maternal uncles, the Marquess of Milford Haven and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who helped raise him, helped him get into the British navy and championed him as a candidate for the hand of Princess Elizabeth. However, his uncles were not born with this name; they adopted it in 1917 when they renounced all of their German titles. They were descendants of a morganatic branch of the German ducal house of Hesse. Their branch of the family was known as Battenberg. When World War I caused massive anti-German feeling in Britain, their father First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenberg anglicized the name to Mountbatten and accepted the lower British title of Marquess of Milford Haven, which was later inherited by eldest son. His youngest son later was made an earl. Incidentally, despite having lived in England and served honorably and well in the British navy in 50 years, Prince Louis was forced to retire as First Sea Lord before the end of the war. The name change and demotion in rank did not affect his daughters, one of whom was Philip's mother, because they were already married.

The choice of his mother's "family" name likely reflects Philip's feeling of closeness to her family as well as his own desire to appear more British at the time of his marriage to the British heiress presumptive. It was also a simpler name to use as his father's royal house was Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Anglicizing that would have been far more complicated!

10. Where in the world is he worshipped as a god?
Among the islands of the South Pacific, there is a family of religions referred to as "cargo cults." Inspired by the arrival of ships full of white men and life-altering supplies, as well as luxury items, especially during and immediately after World War II, the local peoples came to believe that these items were being sent to them by their deities. One cultural group on the island of Tanna in Vanautu had a legend that one of their ancient spirits had traveled over the sea to marry a powerful lady. Stories about the husband of the Queen of England apparently convinced them that Prince Philip was that divine spirit. When he and The Queen visited Vanautu in 1974, they thought their god was returning. A reality show in 2007 brought several members of the group to Britain to experience British culture and to (hopefully) see their god again. Although the audience was not filmed for the program, the men did get to meet Prince Philip in person to give him gifts. He gave them a photograph of himself.

Prince Philip Quiz

In honor of HRH The Prince Philip's 90th birthday, here's a special quiz all about him. You may send your answers via the comments section, e-mail them to princessesreign@gmail.com or direct message (DM) them on Twitter to @palaceprincess. You'll receive half a point for each correct answer.

1. Who were Prince Philip's parents?
2. Why was he a Prince of Denmark?
3. How many siblings did he have?
4. What was his name when he became engaged to Princess Elizabeth?
5. How many British Prince Consorts have been consorts longer than he has?
6. What titles did his father-in-law give him?
7. Who made him a Prince of the United Kingdom?
8. Which of his children will inherit his title when he dies?
9. What is his last name and what is its origin of his last name?
10. Where in the world is he worshipped as a god?

Golden Oldies Answers

Throughout the ages, royals have tended to live about the same life expectancy as others of their day, but on occasions, a really long-lived royal has demonstrated an excellent combination of good genes, good living and good luck. For this quiz, our experts were asked to name these golden royal oldies.

1. This Greek-born royal will join the nonagenarian club in June 2011.

Born June 10, 1921 as the youngest child and only son of Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece, Prince Philippos fled into exile with his family when he was still an infant. He spent a good part of his childhood in Paris, then in school in Germany, then joined the British navy. Until he married the heir to the British throne. He led a very peripatetic life bouncing between relatives and navy posts. He gave up his Greek titles and became simply Philip Mountbatten before being created HRH The Duke of Edinburgh by his father-in-law and Prince of the United Kingdom by his wife.

2. Both born as daughters of Scottish peers, these two ladies married royal brothers

The most famous of these ladies, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. In 1923, she married the second son of King George V and became HRH The Duchess of York. In 1936, her husband ascended the throne and she became HM Queen Elizabeth, but she is most beloved as the Queen Mother, a title she held from the death of her husband in 1952 until her own death 50 years later at the age of 101.

The second Scottish lass was Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, the middle child of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch. Having traveled around the world, she finally married at the age of 33 to the third son of George V and became HRH The Duchess of Gloucester. Both of her sons were born when she was in her forties; the eldest Prince William died in a flying accident in 1972. After the Duke's death in 1974, the Queen allowed her aunt to use the style HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester although she had never been a princess in her own right. Princess Alice holds the record as the longest lived British royal: she died in 2004 just eight weeks before her 103 birthday.


3. This imperial heir became a pretender at age nine and a European parliamentarian at 67

Now simply known as Otto von Habsburg, Archduke Otto of Austria was the oldest son of the last Austrian emperor Karl. Born in 1912, Otto became the Crown Prince with his father's succession in 1916. Following his father's abdication in 1918 and early death in 1922, Otto assumed the role of pretender to the nonexistent throne, a claim he renounced in 1961 in order to launch a political career in Austria. He served as president of International Paneuropean Union for 31 years and was a member of the European Parliament for 20. He is 98 years old. (Update: Archduke Otto passed away on 4 July 2011 at his home in Germany.)

4. At age 30, this empress was a widow with eight children

If you know the story of #3 above, you probably know that this woman is Otto's mother, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, who was Empress of Austria for less than two years. Born in 1892, as one of 24 children of Robert Duke of Parma, she apparently inherited the family's fecundity giving her husband eight children in their 11-year marriage. In 1918, the imperial family was sent into exile after World War I. When her husband died of pneumonia in 1922, his reported last words to her were, "I love you so much," and she wore black in his memory until her own death in 1989 at the age of 96. Two of her sons are still living: Otto (above) and Felix who is 95. A third son, Carl Ludwig, died last year at age 90.

5. Born a Spanish aristocrat, she married a president and became an empress

Renowned for her beauty, Eugenie de Montijo caught the wandering eye of Napolean's nephew, Louis-Napolean who was elected president of the Second Republic of France. Before the end of his term, he staged a coup d'etat and seized dictatorial powers. One year later, he declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. One month later, he married Eugenie "for love", so he was technically no longer president. Ironically, just two generations removed from his family's lower class origins in Corsica, Napoleon believed he married beneath him despite Eugenie's centuries of noble descent. The Empire fell after less than two decades and family made their new home in England, where they were very close to Queen Victoria and her family. In fact, it is believed that Eugenie hoped to marry her only son to Victoria's youngest daughter, Beatrice, who later named her daughter Victoria Eugenie. The ex-Emperor died two years after arriving in England and their son died brutally while fighting the Zulus at age 21 a few years after that in 1879. Empress Eugenie remained in England but died in Spain during a visit to family in Spain in 1920. She was 94. Her name lives on today in a namesake, Princess Eugenie of York, whose mother, the former Sarah Ferguson has a strong interest in the Victorian royals.