Arms: Quarterly: First Or, semée of hearts Gules, three lions passant in pale Azure (For Denmark), Second Azure, a cross Argent (For Greece), Third Argent, two pallets Sable (For Battenberg or Mountbatten), Fourth Argent, upon a rock Proper a castle triple towered Sable, masoned Argent, windows, port, turret-caps and vanes Gules (For Edinburgh).
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and celebrates his 99th birthday today.
He was born on 10 June 1921
In the villa of Mon Repos, Corfu, Greece to the Greek and Danish royal families. He was educated in France, Germany and the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Navy in 1939 at age 18. He then started corresponding with Princess Elizabeth whom he had first met in 1934.
He served with distinction in WW2 in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific. After the war, George VI granted him permission to marry Elizabeth. Philip abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles and became a naturalized British subject and assumed the name Mountbatten. He married Princess Elizabeth on 20 Nov 1947 and just before the wedding was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. He left active naval service as a Commander when Elizabeth became Queen in 1952. The Queen made him formally a British Prince in 1957.
They have four children, Prince Charles, Princess Ann, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
He has been a keen sportsman and has served as patron of hundreds of organizations and is the longest serving consort to a British monarch, at 68 years currently and the oldest member ever of the British royal family. Philip retired from his royal duties at age 96 in 2017.
We wish to give credit to the various internet articles especially Wikipedia for much of the information contained herein.
The artwork is a rendering of John Hamilton Gaylor.
2020 0610
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