Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip celebrate 70 years since their engagement. The athletic tall 18-year-old Philip caught Lilibet’s eye as he entertained her by jumping over tennis nets. Now, that is the history but such a long love story still inspires enormously.
The distant cousins Elizabeth and Philip had been at the same gatherings on a number of occasions, the young Princess then has fallen for Philip as a teenager. Their first publicised and a pivotal meeting was at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon, in July that year when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited with two princesses.
Queen always said that the most important decision of her life was a marriage to Prince Philip, her family wasn’t too benevolent to this alliance from its very beginning. Elizabeth was just 21 and Philip, who had renounced his Greek royal title and become a naturalised British subject, was 26 when they became engaged. Their romantic relations were getting stronger month by month, and the Princess made a decision to engage in 1947.
The 70th anniversary of engagement: Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as the perfect royal family
On July 10 1947, Buckingham Palace marked the official announcement of the engagement of the elder King’s daughter. The 21-year-old Elizabeth and 26-year-old Philip were just happy. he photo of that day shows that the beaming princess was wearing her elegant, square cut diamond and platinum engagement ring which the groom had had made using stones from one of his mother’s tiaras.
A delighted looking Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, was dressed in his smart naval suit for the engagement photos. Today, these photos are part of history, and both Elizabeth and Philip are really happy to celebrate the 70th anniversary of their engagement.
In 1997, while celebrating the golden wedding anniversary, the monarch paid a touching tribute to her husband, saying:
‘He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.’
Queen and Prince Philip’s marriage always was strong, the royal couple married in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. All the newspapers of the world wrote about this wonderful news, describing the dress of bride. Elizabeth wore an ivory silk Norman Hartnell gown, decorated with 10,000 seed pearls, glittering crystals and an intricate 13ft star-patterned train.
