Prince Philip is today celebrating his 98th birthday, and will most likely be surrounded by family on this special day. The Duke of Edinburgh has been retired from royal duties for nearly two years, stepping down in August 2017. He has still attended some royal functions since his retirement, namely weddings, and most recently was a guest at Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding in May.

Philip has been married to Queen Elizabeth II for nearly 72 years, as the pair married on November 20, 1947.

To become the Queen’s husband, Philip had to renounce his Greek and Danish royal titles and become a naturalised British subject.

He adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname Mountbatten, and shortly before the wedding was given the titles Duke of Edinburgh,  Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.

Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families, his father Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and his mother Princess Alice of Battenberg.

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The Duke was born in Greece but fled from the country as an infant after his family were exiled.

Philip and the Queen are actually distantly related, stemming from their great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

They are also descended from King Christian IX, King of Denmark.

Through King Christian IX, Philip and Elizabeth are second-cousins once removed.

Whilst through Queen Victoria, they are third cousins as they are both her great-great-grandchildren.

Elizabeth first met Philip when they were children, at the wedding of Philip’s cousin Princess Marina and Elizabeth’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent in 1934.

Philip was aged 13 at the time and Elizabeth was just eight years old.

Their first official meeting though was in 1939 when King George VI brought his family to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon.

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King George VI’s biographer, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett remarked that during that weekend then Princess Elizabeth fell for Philip.

The pair met a few more times and wrote one another letters, as Philip described: “We used to correspond occasionally.

“You see it’s difficult to visualise.

“I suppose if I’d just been a casual acquaintance it would all have been frightfully significant.

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“But if you’re related — I mean I knew half the people here, they were all relations — it isn’t so extraordinary to be on kind of family — relationship terms with somebody.

“You don’t necessarily have to think about marriage. I suppose one thing led to another.

“I suppose I began to think about it seriously, oh, let me think now … when I got back in ’46 and went to Balmoral.”

Buckingham Palace announced Elizabeth and Philip’s engagement in July 1947, and the wedding took place four months later.

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