 Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten after their wedding | |
| Date | 20 November 1947; 78 years ago (1947-11-20) |
|---|---|
| Venue | Westminster Abbey |
| Location | London, England |
| Participants |
|
| ||
|---|---|---|
Personal Reign | ||
 | ||
The wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten (laterQueen Elizabeth II andPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) took place on Thursday 20 November 1947 atWestminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom. The bride was the elder daughter ofKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) as well as theheir presumptive to the British throne. Although Philip was born aprince of Greece and Denmark, he stopped using these foreign titles on his adoption of British nationality four months before the announcement of their marriage. On the morning of the wedding, he was madeDuke of Edinburgh,Earl of Merioneth andBaron Greenwich.
Elizabeth andPhilip weresecond cousins once removed (by descent fromChristian IX of Denmark andLouise of Hesse-Kassel) andthird cousins (by descent fromQueen Victoria andPrince Albert). Princess Elizabeth met Prince Philip in 1934, at the wedding of Philip's cousinPrincess Marina of Greece and Denmark toPrince George, Duke of Kent, paternal uncle of Elizabeth, and again in 1937.[1] After another meeting at theRoyal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth—though only 13 years old—fell in love with Philip and they began to exchange letters.[2] An entry inChips Channon's diary made reference to the future marriage of Elizabeth and Philip as early as 1941, "He is to be our Prince Consort, and that is why he is serving in our Navy."[3]
The couple became secretly engaged in 1946, when Philip askedKing George VI for his daughter's hand in marriage. The King granted his request, providing any formal engagement was delayed until Elizabeth's 21st birthday the following April.[4] Their engagement was officially announced on 9 July 1947.[5] Philip proposed to Elizabeth with a 3-carat round diamond ring consisting of "a centre stone flanked by 10 smaller pave diamonds."[6] The diamonds were taken from a tiara that belonged to Philip's mother,Princess Alice of Battenberg, and were also used to create a quatrefoil bracelet for Elizabeth.[7]
The King gave his formal consent to the marriage in hisBritish Privy Council, in accordance with theRoyal Marriages Act 1772. The same was done in Canada at a meeting of theKing's Canadian Privy Council, with thechief justice of Canada,Thibaudeau Rinfret, standing in as deputy to the King's representative, thegovernor general of Canada.[n 1][8]
Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten married at 11:30GMT on 20 November 1947 atWestminster Abbey.[9] Elizabeth became the tenth member of the royal family to be married at the Abbey.[10]
Princess Elizabeth was attended by eightbridesmaids:Princess Margaret (her younger sister),Princess Alexandra of Kent (her first cousin), Lady Caroline Montagu-Douglas-Scott (daughter of theDuke of Buccleuch and niece of the Duchess of Gloucester),Lady Mary Cambridge (her second cousin), Lady Elizabeth Lambart (daughter of theEarl of Cavan),Lady Pamela Mountbatten (Philip's first cousin),Margaret Elphinstone (her first cousin), and Diana Bowes-Lyon (her first cousin).[9] Her cousinsPrince William of Gloucester andPrince Michael of Kent served aspage boys.[9] The bridesmaids wore wreaths "in their hair of miniature white sheaves, Lilies and London Pride, modelled in white satin and silver lame", while the pages wore Royal Stewart tartan kilts.[11]
Thebest man was theMarquess of Milford Haven,[10] the groom's maternal first cousin. The Marquess was a grandson ofPrince Louis of Battenberg andPrincess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine; and a great-great-grandson ofQueen Victoria.
For her wedding dress, Elizabeth still requiredration coupons to buy the material forher gown, designed byNorman Hartnell.[12][13] The dress was "aduchesse satin bridal gown with motifs of star lilies and orange blossoms."[13] Elizabeth's wedding shoes were made out of satin and were trimmed with silver and seed pearl.[11] Elizabeth did her own makeup for the wedding.[14] Her wedding bouquet was prepared by the florist M. H. Longman, and consisted of "whiteorchids with a sprig of myrtle". The myrtle was taken from "the bush grown from the original myrtle inQueen Victoria's wedding bouquet".[11] The bouquet was returned to the abbey the day after the service to be laid on the tomb ofthe Unknown Warrior, following a tradition started by Elizabeth's mother at her wedding in 1923.[11]
On the morning of her wedding, as Princess Elizabeth was dressing atBuckingham Palace before leaving for Westminster Abbey,her tiara snapped. The court jeweller, who was standing by in case of emergency, was rushed to his work room by a police escort.Queen Elizabeth reassured her daughter that it would be fixed in time, and it was.[15] Elizabeth's father gave hera pair of pearl necklaces, which had belonged toQueen Anne andQueen Caroline, as a wedding present. Her diamond and pearl cluster earrings were also family heirlooms, passed down fromPrincess Mary toQueen Mary's mother theDuchess of Teck. On her wedding day, Elizabeth realised that she had left her pearls atSt James's Palace. Her private secretary,Jock Colville, was asked to go and retrieve them. He was able to get the pearls to the princess in time for her portrait in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace.[16]
As alieutenant in theRoyal Navy, Philip wore his dress uniform which was adorned with his medal ribbons and the star emblems of theOrder of the Garter andOrder of the Redeemer.[17] He also carried a ceremonial sword, with which he later cut the wedding cake.[17]
.jpg)
The royal parties were brought in large carriage processions, the first with the Queen and Princess Margaret and later a procession with Queen Mary.[18] Philip leftKensington Palace with hisbest man, his maternal first cousin theMarquess of Milford Haven.[18] Princess Elizabeth arrived at the Abbey with her father, the King, in theIrish State Coach.[9]
The ceremony was officiated by theArchbishop of Canterbury,Geoffrey Fisher, and the Dean of WestminsterAlan Campbell Don. TheArchbishop of York,Cyril Garbett, delivered the sermon. The ceremony was recorded and broadcast byBBC Radio to 200 million people around the British Empire and the world.[13][19]
Like her mother's, Princess Elizabeth's wedding band was made ofWelsh gold.[20][21] The ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold from the Clogau St David's mine, near Dolgellau;[10] this nugget had been given to the then Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and used to make her wedding ring and subsequently the wedding rings of both of her daughters.[22] The same nugget was later used to create the wedding rings ofPrincess Anne andLady Diana Spencer.[22]
William Neil McKie, the Australian organist and Master of the Choristers at the abbey, was the director of music for the wedding, a role he again filled atElizabeth's coronation in 1953.[23] McKie also wrote amotet for the occasion, "We wait for thy loving kindness, O God".Psalm 67, "God be merciful unto us and bless us", was sung to a setting bySir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow. The anthem was "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" bySamuel Sebastian Wesley; the hymns were "Praise, my soul, the king of heaven", and "The Lord's my Shepherd" to the Scottish tune "Crimond" attributed toJessie Seymour Irvine, which was largely unknown in theChurch of England at the time. Adescant to "Crimond" had been taught to Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret by alady-in-waiting, Lady Margaret Egerton; the music for the descant could not be found two days before the wedding, so the princesses and Lady Margaret sang it to Sir William McKie, who wrote it down in shorthand.[24] The service started with a specially composedfanfare byArnold Bax and finished withFelix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March". The abbey choir was joined by the choirs of theChapel Royal andSt George's Chapel, Windsor.[25]
Before the wedding, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, converted fromGreek Orthodoxy toAnglicanism and adopted thestyle "Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten", takingthe surname of his mother's British family.[26] The day before the wedding, King George bestowed the style "Royal Highness" and, on the morning of the wedding, 20 November 1947, he gave Philip the titlesDuke of Edinburgh,Earl of Merioneth, andBaron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London.[27] Consequently, being already aKnight of the Garter, between 19 and 20 November 1947 he bore the unusual style His Royal Highness Sir Philip Mountbatten and is so described in the Letters Patent of 20 November 1947.[27]
Upon their marriage, Elizabeth took the title of her husband and became Princess Elizabeth,Duchess of Edinburgh.
.jpg)
After the ceremony, Elizabeth and Philip then proceeded toBuckingham Palace, where the couple waved to the crowds from the balcony.
Their wedding breakfast was held in the Ball-Supper Room of the Palace.[9][10] The menu included Filet de Sole Mountbatten, Perdreau en Casserole, and Bombe Glacee Princess Elizabeth.[10] Music was played by the string band of theGrenadier Guards.[10]
Theofficial wedding cake was baked by London bakeryMcVitie & Price.[10][28] Afruitcake made of four tiers, it stood nine feet high,[10] and weighed about 500 lbs.[28] It was made with 80 oranges, 660 eggs, and over three gallons of Navy Rum. As World War II had ended a mere two years earlier and certain things were still subject to rationing,[28] some of the ingredients used to make the cake were shipped to Britain from around the world; this led to the cake being given the nickname "The 10,000 Mile Cake".[10][28] Decorations included the coats of arms of both the bride's and the groom's families, as well as the bride and groom's individual monograms, and sugar-iced figures depicting regimental and naval badges, as well as the couple's favourite activities.[10] The couple cut the cake with the Duke of Edinburgh's Mountbatten sword, which had been a wedding gift from his father-in-law, the King.[10]
The couple received over 2,500 wedding presents from around the world and around 10,000 telegrams of congratulations.[9][13] The gifts were put on public display atSt James's Palace and made available for public viewing.[10]
The day after the wedding thewedding bouquet was returned to Westminster Abbey and placed on theTomb of the Unknown Warrior;[10] this tradition was initiated by the bride's mother,Queen Elizabeth, followingher marriage to the bride's father, then theDuke of York. The bouquet was composed of whitecattleya,odontoglossum, andcypripedium orchids and a sprig ofmyrtle from the Osborne Myrtle Bush, which had been planted atOsborne House byQueen Victoria in 1846.[29][30] The flowers in the bouquet were supplied by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners and were arranged by florist MH Longman.[10]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
.jpg)
Reference:[31]
Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark,the groom's mother
The Crown Princess andCrown Prince of Sweden,the groom's maternal aunt and uncle (representingthe King of Sweden)
The Queen andKing of Yugoslavia,the groom's first cousin, once removed, and her husband, the bride and groom's third cousin
The Queen Mother of the Romanians,the groom's first cousinThe King of the Romanians,the groom's first cousin, once removedThe Queen of the Hellenes,wife of the groom's first cousin, also second cousin of the groom (representing theKing of the Hellenes)
The Duchess of Aosta,the groom's first cousinPrince andPrincess George of Greece and Denmark,the groom's paternal uncle and aunt
The King andQueen of Denmark,the groom's second cousin and his wifePrincess Axel of Denmark,the groom's second cousin (also wife of the groom'sfirst cousin once removed)Prince Georg of Denmark,the groom's second cousinPrince Flemming of Denmark,the groom's second cousin
The King of Norway,the groom's first cousin, once removed and the bride's paternal great-uncle
Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain,the groom's first cousin once removed and the bride's first cousin twice removedThe Count andCountess of Barcelona,the groom's second cousin and his wife
The Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg,the groom's third cousin once removed (representing theGrand Duchess of Luxembourg)Princess Elisabeth of Luxembourg,the groom's third cousin once removedPrince Tomislav of Yugoslavia,the bride and groom's third cousinPrince Andrew of Yugoslavia,the bride and groom's third cousin
The Prince Regent of Belgium (representing theKing of the Belgians)
Princess Juliana andPrince Bernhard of the Netherlands (representing theQueen of the Netherlands)
The King of Iraq
TheDuke of Windsor, the former king, was not invited, and his sister, thePrincess Royal, did not attend as she said she was ill (her husband,Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, had died six months before).Ronald Storrs claimed that the Princess Royal did not attend in protest over her brother's exclusion.[33] So soon after the end of World War II, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations, including Philip's three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding.[34]
.jpg)
The couple boarded a train toHampshire atLondon Waterloo railway station, and spent their wedding night at the home of the Duke of Edinburgh's uncle, theEarl Mountbatten of Burma, inBroadlands.[10][13] From there the couple travelled toBirkhall on theBalmoral Estate, where they spent the remainder of their honeymoon.[10][13]
For her going-away outfit, Elizabeth wore "a dress and matching coat in mist-blue with mushroom-coloured accessories" that was designed by Hartnell.[11]
_(3x4_close_cropped).jpg)
