Prince Philip
The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II
by Philip Eade
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Prince Philip
Although he has been married for more than sixty years to the most enduringly famous woman in the world, Prince Philip’s own origins have remained strangely shrouded in obscurity. ‘I don’t think anybody thinks I had a father,’ he remarked ruefully in the 1970s. ‘Most people think that Dickie [Mountbatten] is my father anyway.’
The easiest way of understanding Prince Philip’s paternal ancestry is to start with his grandfather, King George I of Greece. A dashing figure, seen in photographs sporting a range of spectacular moustaches, King George was born Prince William of Schleswig-Holstein- Sonderburg-Glücksburg in 1845 in Copenhagen, the younger son of an army officer whose meagre pay meant that his children grew up in comparative poverty. Their home, the Yellow Palace, was not especially palatial, with a front door that led straight on to the pavement, their lifestyle scarcely regal, with William’s mother doing much of the housework and his sisters sharing a room and making their own clothes. As a family, the Glücksburgs were loud and frivolous, informal and uncultured, apt to ‘make funny noises and yell if they saw anyone trying to write a letter’.3 They were also distinctly unspoilt and unpretentious, yet within a very short space of time they had ‘colonised royal Europe’, as one chronicler put it.
In 1852, William’s father was unexpectedly named as heir to the Danish throne, by virtue of being a godson and distant kinsman of the childless king, although for the time being this made no difference to his income and the family still struggled to make ends meet.5 However, their status changed dramatically in 1863, when, within a year, the father succeeded as King Christian IX of Denmark, William’s sister Alexandra married the Prince of Wales, destined to become King Edward VII , and a delegation from Greece came and asked seventeen-year-old William to be their king. Another sister, Dagmar, would shortly marry the future Tsar Alexander III of Russia, while yet another, Thyra, married the heir to the throne of Hanover – although that was soon dissolved by Prussia after the 1866 Anglo-Prussian war. Within the next half-century, the descendants of Christian IX would occupy no fewer than nine European thrones.6 Only the descendants of Queen Victoria were more widely spread.
King George I, as William became on his accession, later maintained that he had accepted the Greek throne with great reluctance, since it meant abandoning his chosen naval career to go and rule a far-off country with a turbulent people and a language he did not speak.7 Greece had only recently broken free from the Ottoman Empire as a result of the long and bloody war of independence that had claimed the life of Lord Byron among countless others.
Excerpted from PRINCE PHILIP: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II by Philip Eade. Published in November by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by Philip Eade. All rights reserved.
Prince Philip
Before he met the young girl who became Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip was raised in Greece (where he was born Prince Philippos, sixth in line to the Greek throne), France, Nazi Germany and Britain. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born deaf; she labored as a volunteer nurse at the front during the First Balkan War. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, was court-martialed by the revolutionary government and barely escaped to England with his life.
Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II is the first biography exclusively devoted to the prince’s formative years, up to Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation. Acclaimed biographer Philip Eade brings to vivid life the storm-tossed youth of the longest-serving royal consort in British history, one of the most fascinating and enigmatic members of the royal family.
When Philip was 11 months old, his aunt remarked, “I have never seen such a cheerful baby.” The young Philip would have to rely on his innate high spirits to endure a strikingly tumultuous upbringing: He spent much of his earliest childhood in near-penury; Princess Alice was committed to a psychiatric clinic when Philip was 8; Prince Andrew went to live with his mistress, effectively leaving his young son an orphan. He grew to adulthood “shoveled around” among various relations, eventually finding something of a surrogate father in his uncle, “Dickie” Mountbatten.
Educated at Cheam, which was relatively benevolent for a prep school of the day, Philip nevertheless found himself on the receiving end of a cane more than once. Though he grew to love Cheam, at age 12 he was enrolled in a German school that, in that first year of Hitler’s reign as chancellor of Germany, “was now being steadily Nazified.” (As Philip tended to burst into laughter when he witnessed the Nazi salute, it was decidedly to his benefit when, soon after, he was transferred to a school in Scotland.)
From his earliest school days, Philip had nurtured an abiding love of the sea, and with Dickie Mountbatten’s encouragement, he commenced a career in the Royal Navy. It is ironic that Mountbatten helped arrange the fateful meeting between Philip and the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth—for Philip was obliged to end his naval career upon Princess Elizabeth’s coronation.
Philip emerged a character of singular vitality and charm, his self-confidence and occasional pugnaciousness leavened by profound empathy, generosity and a precocious sense of duty. Yet the young prince, though noted for his emotional reserve, was also prone to volcanic outbursts, which would have profound consequences for his family and the future of the monarchy. Eade’s biography is a revelation, making Philip’s inner life remarkably accessible to the reader.
Hardcover : 368 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, LLC ( November 08, 2011 )
Item #: 13-486502
ISBN: 9780805095449
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 0.92inches
Product Weight: 18.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Finally 
November 19, 2011
Finally, a book that shows Prince Philip as a person in his own right. He is much more a person, than just a man standing next to Queen Elizabeth in photos. A very worthy read for persons interested in the lives of the British monarchy.
This book has been long overdue.
Reviewer: Jody
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