The life of Prince Philip, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, in historical photos

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and the long-time consort of Queen Elizabeth, was very close to reaching the milestone of 100 years. He died at age 99 on April 9, 2021. His birthday was on June 10.

A year and a half after Prince Philip's death, Queen Elizabeth herself would pass away as well. The couple was very much connected until the end of their lives.

The late Queen's husband was a consort with old-school opinions and habits. There were several difficult moments in his past. These are the keys to his biography in photos.

This is the place where Philip Mountbatten was born in 1921. Mon Repos Palace, on the island of Corfu, was owned by the Greek royal family. It is now a museum.

Image: Marc Ryckaert / Wikimedia

Philip was born into a family of high European nobility. His family title was Prince of Greece and Denmark and his ancestors included the Tsars of Russia. All his four sisters married German princes.

Philip had a wandering childhood - between Greece, France, Great Britain, and Germany.

It was a severe blow when his mother was hospitalized for schizophrenia and virtually disappeared from his life.

In addition, in 1937, when Philip was only 16 years old, his sister Cecilia (photo) died in a plane crash along with her husband, two children, and her mother-in-law.

Then came World War II, in which he fought in the British navy. On the German side were two of his brothers-in-law. The prince always remembered this terrible period in his life. He honoured the soldiers of that war for their heroism and sacrifice.

After these great tragedies in his life, he married Elizabeth of England in 1947. It was the beginning of a new life.

Elizabeth II was 13 when she met Philip at the Dartmouth Naval Academy. A young cadet, he introduced himself to the visitors and showed Elizabeth and her sister around the complex. The year was 1939.

Later, they would meet again (they had family and friends in common) and a love affair began. It endured unlike hardly any other in recent Windsor history.

The marriage of Elizabeth II and Philip was generally a happy one. There was only one delicate moment at the beginning, when Philip wanted his surname to take precedence in the Royal Family, against the Windsor tradition.

As was common for any man in those years, he wanted to have his children bear his name - Mountbatten - and not that of his wife - Windsor. That was quite a tall order for the British royals.

The Queen Mother maneuvered with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and a compromise was reached: the kids became Windsor Mountbattens. In practice, it didn't change much. Philip's irritation with his role in the palace allegedly went so far that he said: "I'm not fit for anything, I'm a bloody amoeba."

Chroniclers say that his anger did not last long. In general, the Duke of Edinburgh had an affable character.

Elizabeth and Philip had four children. The first was Prince Charles, heir to the throne.

In the picture, the couple is trying to pose with Charles and Anne, the two eldest children.

Andrew and Edward would follow later. (Here we see baby Andrew surrounded by his family in 1960.)

Philip's life was fully dedicated to the British Crown. He passed this sense of duty on to his children who, at a young age, participated in official events.

Philip was the consort to the Queen, and the title of Prince (that she gave him) was mostly symbolic.

Overall, historians have argued that he played the role of consort well. Or, at least, most of the time.

In his later years, he made certain gaffes and politically incorrect statements typical of an old-fashioned man. The Duke of Edinburgh often joked about cultures outside the UK in a way that would nowadays be considered racist.

Among other infamous statements was the following: "I'd like to visit the Soviet Union, but those b*****ds **** killed half my family." He never gave too much thought to the effects of his humor, and for too long his mentality was that of someone still living in the 1950s.

Philip was loved by those who praised his spontaneity. He was loathed by those who believed that, just because you're a prince, you don't have the right to say just anything.

An example of his insensitive remarks was the time when, faced with the rise in the number of unemployed in Britain, he allegedly said: "First everyone wanted more time off, and now they're complaining."

Over time, there have been reports of Philip's alleged extramarital affairs. According to Town & Country Magazine, "there's no proof he's ever been unfaithful, but over the past 70 years the Duke of Edinburgh has been labeled a ladies man, and linked to numerous women, perhaps most notably stage actress Pat Kirkwood."

In general, however, Elizabeth and Philip's relationship was uneventful. The family catastrophes were mostly limited to those of their children.

Prince Charles, Princess Anne, and Prince Andrew would have serious relationship problems ending in divorces. That was not how a conservative man like Prince Philip would have liked to see it.

With the marriage of his son Charles with Diana, Philip would experience one of his most turbulent episodes as a father. He had to witness an unhappy couple and a divorce up close.

Then there was the death of Diana in 1997. As he comforted his two grandchildren Harry and William, the prince built on his own experience of missing his mother as a child.

Philip was also accused by Mohamed Al-Fayed of conspiring to murder Diana. Al-Fayed was the father of Diana's partner (Dodi) who had died with her in the 1997 Paris car crash. The case went to court but in 2008 the conspiracy hypothesis was dismissed.

Until a very advanced age, Prince Philip had no health problems. In 2011, he underwent angioplasty surgery. In 2018, hip surgery followed.

In 2019 the alarm bells rang when he escaped unharmed from an accident while driving his Land Rover. A passenger in the other car involved in the crash, Emma Fairweather, suffered a broken wrist. There was also a nine-month-old baby with her in the vehicle - thankfully unscathed.

By 2017, Philip had already retired from public activity in the British Royal Family, in order to escape the public scrutiny of his behaviour and his ailing health.

The unhappy years of Harry and Meghan Markle in the royal family - and the way in which they talked about them publicly - created a stain on the monarchy's reputation recently.

Allegedly, for Prince Philip, it was incomprehensible that his grandson Harry had gone to California and said goodbye to all his obligations. Such a thing had never crossed Philip's mind, not even in the hardest of times.

With long-standing health problems that required his hospitalization, Prince Philip had a precarious 2020 and 2021. He was close to reaching the age of 100 but his physical condition did not allow him to celebrate the centennial.

In early 2021, Philip of Edinburgh was hospitalized for a month after a "procedure for a pre-existing heart condition." His daughter-in-law Camilla said to the press that the Duke "hurt at moments."

Philip was released from the hospital on March 16 and quietly lived his last days in the palace alongside his wife. He had three more weeks to say his last goodbye after a long and rewarding life.

After her passing on September 8, 2022, and her funeral on September 19, Queen Elizabeth II was buried alongside Prince Philip in St George's Chapel, Windsor.

Image: @theroyalfamily / Instagram