Prince Philip, who died on Friday at the age of 99, was not only related to Queen Elizabeth the II by marriage. They were also related by blood. Elizabeth and Philip were great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria.
Victoria and Prince Albert had a son, Edward VII, followed by great-grandsons Prince Albert Victor and George V. After Albert Victor died of an illness, George became successor to the throne. He then had two sons -- Edward VIII followed by George VI. But Edward abdicated the throne to marry American Wallis Simpson. So, George VI became king and his daughter, Elizabeth II, succeeded him as queen.
Philip's lineage to Victoria is a little more difficult to track. Born in 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu, Philip was the fifth child and only son of Prince Andrew, younger brother of the king of Greece. His grandfather had come from Denmark during the 1860s to be adopted by Greece as the country’s monarch.
Philip’s mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg, a descendant of German princes. Like his future wife, Elizabeth, Philip was also a great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. UK's Independent said that means Elizabeth and Philip were third cousins.
When Philip was 18 months old, his parents fled to France. His father, an army commander, had been tried after a devastating military defeat by the Turks. After British intervention, the Greek junta agreed not to sentence Andrew to death if he left the country.
Philip attended the Royal Naval College at 18 years old, just before the start of World War II. It was there that Elizabeth said she met Philip for the first time when she was 13, although there are multiple reports they met at a wedding five years earlier (Elizabeth said in a letter she didn’t recall). The young Elizabeth developed a crush on Philip, and they eventually started a relationship.
Philip and Elizabeth II married on Nov. 20, 1947, but not before Philip renounced his Greek citizenship and became a British subject.
After their wedding, Philip was given the titles Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. Elizabeth II became queen after her father's death in 1952. As Elizabeth’s royal consort, Philip had no claim to the throne and would never become king.
