April 11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tortured Youth of Prince Philip

Prince Philip died Friday at Windsor Castle, just two months shy of his hundredth birthday. Details of his life after his marriage to the future Queen Elizabeth are widely known, but the complications of his early years are often downplayed, especially the promiscuous, bisexual atmosphere in which Philip was reared by his uncles. For that reason your blogger offers this recap:

 

Philip was born in 1921 on the dining room table of the modest family villa in Corfu, Greece, into the Greek and Danish royal families. At the time of his birth he was in line to both thrones. As well, he was closely related to the ruling houses of Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. Philip was the nephew of a Greek king and the son of a Greek prince, but from his earliest years there were complications. For one thing, his name didn’t sound very Greek: Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glückburg (decidedly Danish-German). 

His mother, a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was born congenitally deaf, and his father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, was arrested in a coup and exiled from Greece when Philip was just 18 months old. His family fled Corfu under protection of the British Royal Navy, with Philip nestled in a converted orange crate. 

 Philip's birthplace on Corfu: Villa Mon Repos

(now a museum)

They  settled in a suburb of Paris, where Philip was schooled. Thus Philip spoke English, German and French but had not learned Greek, the language of his birthplace. He later attended schools in Germany and Scotland, where his classmates called him “Greek”, a bit odd, when you consider his striking blond hair and blue eyes, features aligned with his Danish/German ancestry. While enrolled at Cheam, an English boarding school, classmates noted that he spoke and wrote French better than English. Philip later enrolled his own son, Prince Charles, at Cheam, but Charles hated it.

 

Age 14: acting in a school play

When he was nine years old his family fell apart. His mother had suffered a mental breakdown and was committed to an asylum in Switzerland, and his father decamped to Monte Carlo with a mistress, leaving Philip homeless and penniless. He was shuttled off to England to be raised by British relatives, chief among them the notoriously bisexual Lord Louis Mountbatten (known as “Dickie”, he was the brother of Philip’s mother). Another uncle was George, 2^nd Marquess of Milford Haven, whose bisexual promiscuity made that of Lord Mountbatten pale by comparison. George, known as Lord Milford Haven, was addicted to pornography and had his large collection custom bound and donated to the British Museum (his tastes tended toward incestuous orgies with generous dollops of S&M). You can’t make this stuff up. 

FYI: both uncles were married to bisexual women, and this is the atmosphere in which Philip was raised. As well, his sexually voracious aunt Edwina (Lord Mountbatten’s wife) had a notorious affair with “Hutch” Hutchison, a black cabaret singer.

 With his mother, who later became an Orthodox nun

Recently disclosed FBI records (Freedom of Information Act) reveal that Mountbatten was a practicing homosexual with a proclivity for young boys. So there’s that. Lord Mountbatten later formed a particularly close bond with Philip’s son, Prince Charles, but that’s another story. Significantly, it was Lord Mountbatten who introduced Philip to a young Princess Elizabeth at a family wedding in 1934.

Philip’s sisters went on to marry German princes/nobles, resulting in a most awkward situation ­during WWII -- Philip was a British Naval officer while his brothers-in-law were enemy Nazi officers. Philip’s sister Sophie even named one of her sons Karl Adolf, in honor of Hitler. All four of Philip’s sisters had moved to Germany, leaving Philip further adrift. On the bright side, he was tall and devastatingly handsome.

Luckily, Philip was able to embark on a British military career, and at age 21 found himself one of the youngest first lieutenants in the British Royal Navy, where he served with distinction. 

 

Back when Philip was an 18-year-old naval cadet, his uncle Lord Mountbatten arranged for him to escort King George VI’s two daughters on a tour of the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. One of the girls was Princess Elizabeth, heir presumptive to the British crown (and Philip’s distant cousin). During this “tour” Elizabeth was smitten by this strikingly handsome cadet, with whom she played croquet that day. Philip later dined with her aboard the royal yacht. The two commenced an exchange of letters that ultimately led to a romantic relationship. 

 

Eventually Philip asked for Elizabeth’s hand in 1946, and the monarchy, which initially discouraged the match, took steps to make that possible by making him a naturalized British subject, granting him the title Duke of Edinburgh and the rank of Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Navy. On his part, Philip surrendered his titles as Prince of Greece and Denmark and adopted the surname of his maternal grandparents – Mountbatten, itself an Anglicized form of the German name Battenberg (Philip’s mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, of Hessian ancestry, although she had been born at Windsor castle). At last the path was cleared for Philip and Elizabeth to marry in 1947, and Philip was granted the style “Your Royal Highness”. 

Fortunately, Philip's mother had a spare tiara that had been given to her by a Romanov tsar, and she allowed her son to reset those fabulous jewels into a stunning ring for Elizabeth. But after the wedding, let's just say he no longer had to worry about making a naval officer's paycheck stretch to make ends meet. Hardly.

Honeymooners 1947

It is noteworthy that Philip’s German-married sisters were not invited to the wedding, given that WWII had ended just two years prior. When Philip was later in command of a Royal Navy frigate, he and the future queen occupied a villa in Malta (1949-1951) overlooking the harbor where the frigates were moored. The villa was made available for their use by Philip’s favorite uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten. 

Malta was then a bustling British colony and a key Mediterranean naval base. Not only was the weather an improvement over London, but the locals left the couple alone. Elizabeth was able to drive her own car (a Daimler!), go to the hairdresser, and enjoy nights out at restaurants and clubs with her husband. When they went to and from their villa, no gawkers were lurking outside the gates. Bliss for the young couple.

Painting: Philip while stationed at Malta

When his wife unexpectedly became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 upon the sudden death of her father (he was only 56), Philip reluctantly left military service to become royal consort to his wife upon her coronation in 1953.

 Portrait by Cecil Beaton

When Elizabeth arranged for Philip to be made a true British prince in 1957, he began serving as Prince Consort -- gone was the informal moniker "Dukey". He was once more a prince.

In addition to attending the myriad ceremonial duties of his position, Philip was an enthusiastic yachtsman and pilot as well as an avid polo player and carriage driver, the latter a sport he championed and expanded. It is not widely known that he was a talented oil painter or that he rebuffed the formal conventions of palace life – he liked to pour his own drinks, grill his own meats at family cookouts and chat up the servants. He was also brusque, opinionated and tone deaf to royal protocol. He was frequently critical of his own family. It is recorded that he once said to Princess Diana, “I don’t know how it’s possible that my son could leave you for Camilla.” 

 Somehow his wife could never match Philip's relaxed vibe.

Although he retired from public service in 2017, at age 96, he attended the recent weddings of his grandchildren Prince Harry (2018), Princess Eugenie (2018) and Princess Beatrice (2020). Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle, which had been the birthplace of his mother in 1885, and upon his death, Queen Elizabeth II affectionately stated that Philip had always been her “most steadfast supporter”.

Sources:

“The Mountbattens – Their Lives and Loves” by British historian Andrew Lownie.

“Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II” by Philip Eade