Philip told Fergie: ‘Go to a nunnery – or a madhouse!’

WHEN Prince Andrew announced his engagement to Sarah Ferguson, his father pronounced himself delighted. ‘I think Sarah will be a great asset,’ the Duke of Edinburgh said enthusiastically.

The Queen agreed: she liked the lively redheaded daughter of Prince Charles’s polo manager, and the feeling was mutual. After all, they seemed to have a great deal in common, including their love of horses, dogs, country life and, of course, Prince Andrew.

The wedding day, July 23, 1986, proved to be exceptionally joyful. Two years later, The Queen and Philip were delighted when the Duke and Duchess of York produced their fifth grandchild. She was named Princess Beatrice after Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter.

As the Queen and Philip were at Balmoral at the time, Sarah volunteered to travel to Scotland just four days after the birth — so they could see the baby before Andrew had to return to Royal Navy duties in the Philippines.

In those early days, Philip got along well with Sarah. But she lost his good opinion after her marriage fell into difficulties relatively quickly after the birth of Eugenie in 1990, and she started being seen with other men and behaving in public without suitable decorum.

Two years later, the couple met with the Queen and Philip to tell them they’d decided to separate.

The meeting was brief and painful. Andrew muttered words such as ‘mutual incompatibility’ and Sarah apologised for her behaviour, which she agreed had been a long way short of what was both expected and required.

According to the Duchess, the Queen looked ‘sadder than I have ever seen her’, and ‘asked me to reconsider, to be strong, to go forward’.

The Queen may well have been sad, but Prince Philip was not. According to a member of the household, he was ‘incandescent’ with anger.

There was an element of personal animosity in this. On several occasions, Sarah had come to Andrew’s defence when he was being berated by his father for some perceived weakness or other — and Philip is not a man who likes to be contradicted.

However, it was the Duchess’s public deportment rather than any private disagreements that most enraged the Duke. As an outsider who’d learned to adapt to the exigencies of royal life, he regarded his daughter-in-law’s behaviour as selfish and reprehensible.

That summer, he appeared to be vindicated when Sarah was photographed topless in the South of France, having her toes sucked by her financial adviser John Bryan.

S

HE and her daughters were staying with the Queen and Philip at Balmoral when the photos were published in the Daily Mirror. They proved the fatal nail in what was left of her reputation.

The Queen was ‘furious’, the Duchess recalled. She was cold and abrupt as she berated her semi-detached daughterin-law for exposing the monarchy to such ridicule. Prince Philip was even more direct, likening her to his uncle’s wife, Edwina Mountbatten, whose morals had long been a source of embarrassment to the Royal Family. Turning to Sarah, he told her: ‘You should get to a nunnery — or a madhouse.’

He also wrote dozens of letters to her, some very critical. Far from agreeing with his wife that time would solve the couple’s problems, Philip took the view that Sarah should leave the Royal Family.

Through her self-indulgent behaviour, he felt, she’d let down the Queen and the institution of the monarchy, and was therefore no longer to be tolerated. In the end, he could no longer bear to be in the same room as Sarah; if she came in one door, he’d leave by another.

After she and Andrew finally divorced in 1996, Philip banned her from entering any of the royal residences he was staying at — a rule that applies to this day.

The Queen, who still feels some affection for Sarah, has tried to persuade him to allow Beatrice and Eugenie’s mother to spend part of each summer’s holiday at Balmoral. But Philip won’t budge.

And since she has always respected his role as head of the family, she wouldn’t dream of going against his wishes.

Even so, the Queen isn’t above a little underhand subterfuge. On occasion, when Philip had left Balmoral for a few days, she’d phone Sarah to say: ‘Here’s your chance — come up now.’

It didn’t take long for the Duke to find out that she’d been there, of course. But he was never unduly angry: after 70 years of marriage, the Queen and her husband have reached a state of benevolent compromise on most issues.