DESCENDED FROM THE HIGHEST RANKS OF ROYALTY

AS a young naval lieutenant based in Melbourne with the Pacific Fleet in 1944, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark described himself as “a discredited Balkan prince of no particular merit or distinction”.

But far from being a minor Greek prince, Philip’s royal antecedents connect him to the highest ranks of European royalty.

Entry number 449 in the Corfu Register of Births shows that on May 28, 1921, a son was born to Prince Andrew of Greece, son of King George I of Greece, and Princess Alice, daughter of Prince Louis (Ludwig) of Battenberg. The baby was baptised in the Greek Orthodox Church as “Philippos”.

It was not until two years later, when Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar, that the date of birth was changed to June 10, Philip’s official birthday.

The Queen and Prince Philip were third cousins because both are great- greatgrandchildren of Queen Victoria. The Queen is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, later King Edward VII. Philip was a direct descendant of Queen Victoria’s second daughter, Princess Alice, the grandmother of Philip’s mother, who was also called Alice.

Until Philip took British nationality in 1947, he called himself Philip of Greece. When he became a British citizen, he renounced his foreign title and became Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten RN. On the eve of his wedding he was created His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. He would not become a prince again until ten years later, when the Queen elevated him to “the style and dignity of a Prince of the

United Kingdom”.