How Philip the Exiled Prince Managed to Marry the Future Queen of England

The British monarchy was not so eager for Prince Philip to marry Queen Elizabeth II, although they would go on to have one of the most enduring marriages in royal history.

Tying the knot in front of a TV audience of 200 million in 1947, the couple would remain married for 74 years until Philip's death in 2021.

Elizabeth died Thursday at her castle in Scotland, 17 months after her husband. The news was announced by Buckingham Palace, which said in a statement, "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon." Close family members had rushed to be by her side, and the news of her death brought an outpouring of tributes from across the globe.

The couple first met when Philip, who was then known as the Prince of Greece and Denmark, was tasked with giving the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, a tour of the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth while they were visiting.

Over the course of the day, Philip impressed the teenager by jumping over tennis nets at the college. He spent the weekend with her and her family, and Elizabeth developed a crush on the 18-year-old royal—reportedly her first, and only, love—during the visit.

Philip had grown up an exiled prince in England, raised by his maternal grandmother after his family was forced to flee Greece when King Constantine I, his uncle, had to relinquish his title.

But with the advent of World War II, Philip was called away to serve in the Royal Navy. Elizabeth would write regular letters to the prince, but he did not seem to be romantically interested in her.

"On the rare occasions when he would deign to reply, she would race to the nearest lavatory in search of the only guaranteed privacy available, bolt the door, and read her letter in ecstatic solitude," Time wrote in a 1957 feature on the prince.

The handsome young naval officer was also very popular in whatever port the navy came into after the war.

A young Australian girl said that "he was adorable" and "we were all absolutely crazy about him" when he served on the destroyer Whelp in the South Pacific, according to Time.

Upon his return to London, the young prince enjoyed the West End's nightlife, but by then he had his sights set on one prize in town, the future queen of England.

In 1946, Philip wrote to Elizabeth, whom he nicknamed Lilibeth, apologizing for inviting himself to Buckingham Palace.

"Yet however contrite I feel," he wrote, "there is always a small voice that keeps saying 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'—well did I venture and I gained a wonderful time."

Philip proposed to her later that year, but that did not mean Elizabeth's father, King George VI, was prepared to give his approval.

Much of the royal court and Britain's aristocracy looked down on the penniless Philip, seeing him as a disrespectful foreigner with a brash disposition.

"George VI was deeply worried about how British opinion, particularly its left wing, would take to a Greek Prince as the husband of the heiress presumptive," Time reported.

Lady Pamela Hicks, who is the daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Philip's uncle, recounted the royals' reaction to their courtship. "The King and Queen were appalled," she told Vanity Fair's James Reginato in 2013.

"The thought that he might become a son-in-law was most unwelcome. Why wasn't she marrying some respectable English duke? Yes, he was a Prince of Greece and Denmark. But very suspect. Greece—they get rid of their royal families regularly. And he had no money."

But once the media caught wind of the burgeoning romance, there was no stopping the young couple's eagerness to marry.

At the wedding of Lady Patricia Mountbatten, Hicks' sister, to John Knatchbull in 1946, the press noticed a closeness between the pair.

"When Philip casually took the coat of Princess Elizabeth as they arrived, the press assembled outside caught this first hint of a royal romance, and a media frenzy ensued," Reginato wrote.

Hicks also described how Philip's bluntness could rub people the wrong way. "He's never been one to flatter. He was not the courtier they were used to," she said.

"He's apt to say what he thinks, but it's not with malice. He is a more sensitive person than most people imagine," she continued. "It's got him in so much trouble in the past with the press, but it's only in the last several years that they have realized he is not a buffoon."

King George eventually relented on the marriage, thanks to some hard lobbying from Lord Mountbatten and a Sunday Pictorial poll that showed a 64 percent approval rating for the marriage. But the king wanted to wait to announce the couple's engagement until after Elizabeth had turned 21.

Before they could marry, Philip had to become a naturalized British citizen and took on the last name Mountbatten. He moved into Kensington Palace before the wedding, a "relatively poverty-stricken sailor with only one suit of civvies to his name, according to Time.

One royal valet even commented, "That poor young navy officer, he don't even have no hairbrushes."

The couple had two children before Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25. They would go on to have two more children, and the couple would see the births of eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Known to be usually very private, the queen described her feelings toward Philip in 1997. "He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years," she said. "I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know."

Philip was equally as complimentary, reflecting that "the main lesson we have learnt is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage.... You can take it from me, the queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance."

He became the longest-serving consort of any British monarch, with almost 70 years of service.