The Royal Family Knot

by Pa Rock

Amateur Genealogist

Great Britain's Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth and one of the more important royals, passed away yesterday morning in London just a couple of months shy of his 100th birthday.  

Philip of Greece, as he was called before he married the future queen back in 1947, was a lesser prince of Greece and Denmark before his fortuitous marriage into Britain's House of Windsor.   Although he went without a surname for years, as a young naval officer in World War II Philip began using the surname of his maternal grandparents, "Mountbatten,"  a name which had been anglicized from the German "Battenberg" during World War I.  After Philip married into the "Windsor" family, he was insistent that the Queen use his surname.  Some commotion ensued from British royalists, but in 1960 the family officially became "Mountbatten-Windsor."

Philip was known as a "Prince" based upon his lineage in the royal houses of Greece and Denmark.  He was given the title "Duke of Edinburgh" just prior to his marriage to young Princess Elizabeth.   When Elizabeth ascended to the throne of England upon the death of her father in February of 1952, Philip gained another title, that of "Consort" to the Queen.   He officially served as "consort" longer than any other person in British history.

But in addition to being her husband and her consort, Philip also had another connection to his Queen - they were cousins by at least two different lines.   That is an historical fact, but as someone who dabbles in genealogy and has a basic understanding of how cousinships are formed, I sat down yesterday evening and began looking at the family trees of Philip and Elizabeth to see for myself just how they were entwined.

The first relationship was easy.  Philip and Elizabeth were both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, descending from two different children of the old Queen.  That made Philip and Elizabeth third-cousins.  

The second relationship was a bit more problematic.

Queen Victoria and her husband/consort Prince Albert had nine children and many of them married into other European royal houses.   At about the same time as her rule, another European royal leader, King Christian IX of Denmark, a man who had once sought to marry the young Victoria and wound up instead marrying his second-cousin, was also cranking out kids - and many of his children likewise married into the other royal houses of Europe.  Descendants of  King Christian of Denmark included - ta da - Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip of Great Britain.  In that descent Elizabeth was a g-g-granddaughter to the Danish king, and Philip was a g-grandson, a combo that made Elizabeth and Philip second cousins, once removed.

European royalty may not be good for much, but for people who would like to improve their skill at determining relationships, the descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX of Denmark provide a veritable gordian knot of practice material!