Elizabeth and Philip
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip must be very fond of tennis, for 13 years old Princess Elizabeth and 18 years old Prince Philip first met during a tennis match in 1939. For the Princess, it was love at first sight. According to her nanny, Philip impressed Elizabeth a lot while playing tennis and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Philip was fond of his cousin, but she was too little to really notice her as a woman. Soon however, they were to be separated for several long years, because of the break of World War II.
Philip served in the British Navy, where he was renowned for his personal courage. Elizabeth wrote long and affectionate letters to him, describing everyday life, difficulties the British people had to go through, and just sharing news and dreams. For Philip, those letters were vey important, for they gave him opportunity to know what was going in the country he was fighting for.
Elizabeth was keen to do her part in the country's resistance. By 1945 no. 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor was a trained driver and drove a military truck.
The end of the war in 1945 was not only long-waited victory for Elizabeth: she had double cause for celebrations because her Prince was returning to England.
Now it was Prince Philip’s turn to fall in love with his cousin, for upon return he found not the little girl he remembered, but a young and beautiful Lady. In 1946 Philip and Elizabeth got secretly engaged. Philip’s relatives, especially Lord Mountbatten, were enthusiastic about the union, but Elizabeth’s parents thought she was too young. Despite her gentle nature, Elizabeth always had strong will, and she managed to convince her parents that the marriage will work out. On 20 November 1947, Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth were declared Man and Wife. Before the marriage Philip was required to convert from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism and renounce his Greek and Danish Royal titles. He took the name Mountbatten, and the day before the wedding, King George titled Philip The Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.
Philip wanted to pursue his naval career for as long as it was possible, so he returned to the Navy and was stationed in Malta, where Elizabeth joined him. The 1948–1951 period can easily be called the happiest for the young couple: they were surrounded by the beauties of the island of Malta, enjoyed relatively normal life and became proud parents: their first-born son, Prince Charles, was born in 1948, their only daughter, Princess Anne was born 2 years later (Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, born respectively in 1960 and 1964 would complete the family set). But this paradise ended soon.
During a Commonwealth tour the Queen learnt of her Father’s death: she was now Queen.
The Queen accepted her new postion with a grace and dignity, and with that dignity she reigns up to this day. Sh has rarely given interviews; her views on political issues are unknown. Her courage, however, is quite well-known: during a trip to Ghana in 1961, there were fears for the Queen’s security and she was asked to keep her distance from the then President Kwame Nkrumah, who was a target for assassins. She pointedly refused. Harold Macmillan wrote on the occasion that "the Queen has been absolutely determined all through. She is impatient of the attitude towards her to treat her as a … film star. She has indeed the heart and stomach of a man." A similar thing happened in 1964, when Her Majesty was invited to visit Quebec. Amidst the separatist threats, there were fears for the Queen’s safety, and she was strongly advised to cancel the tour. However, the Queen’s Private Secretary replied that "the Queen would have been absolutely horrified to have been prevented from going because of the activities of extremists." But perhaps most notably, during the Trooping the Colour in 1981 there was an apparent attempt on the Queen’s life: six rounds of blanks were fired at her from close range as she rode sidesaddle on her horse Burmese. Her only reaction was to duck slightly and then continue on her way. The House of Commons of Canada was so impressed by this display of courage and dignity that it passed a motion praising her composure.
The Duke of Edinburgh has supported the Queen for almost 60 years. He has his own agenda and carries out his own separate engagements on behalf of the Queen, both at home and abroad. Prince Philip is the hardest-working consort of the Monarch in the world, even at this age.
However, he is perhaps better known not for his work, but for his so called gaffes: a typical example of his sense of humour, which is often deemed insensitive, can be displayed by his comment to a driving instructor in Scotland. The Duke asked: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?"
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are busy and proud grandparents. They have eight grandchildren of different ages and the newest arrival to the family, James Viscount Severn, is exactly 30 years younger their eldest grandson, Peter Phillips (who is incidentally the first of their grandchildren to get engaged).
The Queen and Prince Philip have celebrated a number of important anniversaries. Queen Elizabeth celebrated her Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th anniversary of her accession to the Throne. On December 20, 2007 the Queen became the oldest Monarch in the English History, surpassing the previous record belonging to Queen Victoria. Another significant anniversary was celebrated on November 19, 2007, when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip became the first Monarch and Consort to celebrate their Diamond Wedding Anniversary.
The Queen has stressed for more then one occasion what an important place her husband occupies in her life, in particularly she said:
“He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments, but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and 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.”
Beatrix and Claus
On May 6, 1965 the ‘Daily Mail’ published paparazzi pictures of Crown Princess Beatrix walking hand in hand with an unknown man. He was quickly identified as Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat. Claus and Beatrix met at the wedding-eve party of Princess Tatjana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse.
After the revelation, the couple was forced to take a decision and they announced their engagement. This caused a lot of upheaval in The Netherlands as Klaus was a German, had been a member of the Hitlerjugend and served in the Wehrmacht. The government requested a historian to look into the past of Claus and only after it was discovered that Klaus served in Italy, never took part in any fighting and not even a trace of anti-Semitism was found, did the Parliament decide to give permission for a wedding.
The couple married on March 10, 1966, under the protests of WWII victims and anarchists. Protests included the memorable slogan "Geef mijn fiets terug" (Give me back my bicycle), a reference to the memory of occupying German soldiers confiscating Dutch bicycles. A smoke bomb was thrown at the wedding carriage causing a violent street battle with the police.
Despite these difficulties, the marriage would be a happy one and three sons were born within three years. The family lived in Drakensteyn Castle where they tried to protect their private life from the prying eyes of the public. That worked for some time, but in 1980 Beatrix succeeded her mother Queen Juliana and the family moved to The Hague. With these changes the pressure on his family became much bigger: Prince had more ceremonial duties and seemed to suffer from the lack of ‘real’ work. In 1982 the Prince was committed to the hospital for 'complaints of depressive nature’. It would take him several years to overcome his depression.
Claus had a rocky beginning, but as time went on he became one of the most popular members of the Dutch Monarchy.
In 1984 the government decided to use the competences of the Prince and he was installed as inspector-general of development aid. He also got a function in the Board of the Dutch Bank and became chairman of the export platform of the Ministry of Traffic. However in 1991 the depressions returned and the Prince also started to suffer from Parkinson’s disease.
During the last years of his life he suffered from several illnesses. In 1998 an operation for prostate cancer was successful but he got an infection when he was radiated in 2000. In 2001 a kidney was removed and he started to have troubles with the other kidney. On October 6, 2002 the Prince died from ammonia and the consequences of Parkinson disease. He was buried 9 days later in Delft.
For Beatrix, the death of her husband was a terrifying experience. She lost not only the man she loved, but also her most trusted friend and adviser. Beatrix would often say that Claus
was the best advisor she ever had and she consulted almost everything with her husband. Despite this, Beatrix managed to control herself during the funeral. Hundreds of camera lenses zoomed to maximum to see the watery eyes of the Queen.
This is only in public though. Avi Primer, a close friend of Claus and Beatrix, said on the German television that Beatrix still can not talk about Claus without tears in her eyes.