Royal Fans React To Prince Philip Courting Queen Elizabeth At 13 Rumors

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II have been married for decades, but some royal fans are wondering when their courtship really commenced.

On the online forum site Quora, one royal fan asked if the Duke of Edinburgh really started courting Her Majesty when she was just 13 years old and he was 18 years old. Other royal fans quickly explained that this couldn’t have been the case.

Rhys Hoffman, an author and social advocate, said that Prince Philip and the Queen first met when the latter was just 13 years old. But a courtship between the two couldn’t have happened at that time.

“Lord Louis Mountbatten had ideas at the time that Princess Elizabeth would be a prospective future bride and this was common among royals and aristocrats at that time. There will be all kinds of people speculating that the then-Princess Elizabeth was groomed by Prince Philip but this was not the case,” he said.

The Queen and Prince Philip, who are distant cousins, met each other for the first time when they attended the wedding of the Duke’s cousin Princess Marina and the Queen’s uncle, Prince George, Duke of Kent in 1934.

But the couple’s official first meeting took place in 1939 when King George VI brought his family to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon. King George VI’s biographer, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett noted that it was during that weekend that the Queen fell in love with Prince Philip.

Marion Crawford, the Queen’s governess at that time, admitted how Her Majesty was absolutely smitten with Prince Philip.

“I thought he showed off a good deal… Never took her eyes off him the whole time,” Crawford said.

However, Prince Philip didn’t show any interest in the Queen at that time. During an interview with biographer Basil Boothroyd, he and his wife met at Dartmouth.

“And as far as I was concerned, it was a very amusing experience, going on board the yacht and meeting them, and that sort of thing and that was that,” he said.