The late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, were connected in more ways than one
Were Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Related?
Updated on May 30, 2025
In today’s world, we think of marriage within our family with a definite “ick” factor, and we’d never dream of tying the knot with our cousin. But within the families of kings and queens, royals who married their relatives were not unusual, even as recently as the late queen of England. Wait a minute: Were Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip related? Yep, the monarch and her husband were actually related in two different ways!
“‘Consanguineous’ marriages were a common practice among European royalty for centuries,” says Nicoletta Gullace, PhD, an associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire. “Consanguineous” is genetic-speak for people descended from the same ancestor. Some famous royal love stories were actually between first cousins, which is not only vomit-inducing but also problematic because such inbreeding can lead to physical and mental defects.
But although Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were related, it might not be as gross as it sounds. Keep reading to find out why.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more royals, etiquette, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
Where was Prince Philip from?
Prince Philip was not English by birth, as he was born to the son of the king of Greece—although he was not actually of Greek heritage either. If you’re puzzled, it’s understandable: Exactly which nationality Philip belonged to was confusing even to himself! “I was born a Greek national, but I was Danish by race,” he said in a 2011 BBC interview. When asked how he thinks of himself now, he said, “I don’t. I’m just here!”
Prince Phillip’s grandfather was a Danish prince who was, interestingly, elected as King George I of Greece. George’s younger son Andrew, Philip’s father, married a German princess, Alice of Battenberg, Philip’s mother. Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, but his family had to flee after a military coup removed his uncle, Greece’s King Constantine I, from the throne. “Philip lived a turbulent life, as he was sent into exile with his family at the age of 18 months,” Gullace says.
Philip was educated in France, England, Germany and Gordonstoun School in Scotland, “where he developed his athleticism and bent for leadership,” Gullace says. He joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, when he was 18 years old, and served as an officer in the Mediterranean and Pacific during World War II.
After the war and his marriage to Elizabeth, who was a princess at the time and heir to the British throne, he renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles and became a British subject.
Were Elizabeth and Philip related?
Elizabeth and Prince Philip were related, but only distantly. How? Just because Philip was of Danish and German ancestry didn’t mean he didn’t have other ethnicities mixed in too. “It was very common for the crown heads of Europe to intermarry,” Gullace says. “The purpose of these marriages was to consolidate dynastic power and to make sure that bloodlines were maintained and the status of a marriage was sufficiently august and impressive.”
In the case of how Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were related, it all comes down to the “grandmother of Europe,” England’s Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 to 1901. Her love story with her husband, Prince Albert, is legendary, but this fact might put a damper on their historic romance: They were first cousins. (Ewww!) In any case, let’s just say they expressed their love quite prolifically. “Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had nine children, many of whom were scattered around Europe when they married, making it all the more likely that Elizabeth could form a marriage alliance with a distant cousin,” Gullace says.
How were they related, exactly?
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth were third cousins as well as second cousins once removed. As the heir to the throne, Elizabeth married her distant cousin in part because she had a limited pool of men to choose from to be her consort. “She required a man with sufficient pedigree to marry a future queen,” Gullace says.
So how were Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip related? They were related in two main ways:
1. Both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, making Elizabeth and Philip third cousins.
Queen Elizabeth:
- Elizabeth is descended from Queen Victoria through her father, King George VI.
- George VI’s father was King George V.
- George V’s father was King Edward VII.
- Edward VII’s mother was Queen Victoria.
Prince Philip:
- Philip is descended from Queen Victoria through his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.
- Alice’s mother was Princess Victoria of Hesse.
- Victoria of Hesse’s mother was also called Princess Alice.
- Princess Alice’s mother was Queen Victoria.
2. Both were direct descents of Denmark’s King Christian IX, making them second cousins once removed.
Queen Elizabeth:
- Queen Elizabeth is descended from King Christian IX of Denmark through her father, King George VI.
- George VI’s father was King George V.
- George V’s mother was Queen Alexandra (married to King Edward VII).
- Queen Alexandra’s father was King Christian IX.
- This means that Christian IX was Elizabeth’s great-great-grandfather.
Prince Philip:
- Philip is descended from King Christian IX, although a generation off from Elizabeth, through his father, Prince Andrew.
- Prince Andrew’s father was the elected King George I of Greece (born Prince William of Denmark).
- George I’s father was Christian IX, and Queen Alexandra was his sister.
- This means that Christian IX was Philip’s great-grandfather.
- Philip’s father and Elizabeth’s grandfather were first cousins; Philip and Elizabeth’s father were second cousins, so Elizabeth and Philip are second cousins once removed.
Is Prince Philip related to the Romanovs?
Yes. And here’s how this relationship figures into the tangled web that is Philip and Elizabeth’s family tree. In 1918, Romanov Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children were brutally murdered by Russian revolutionaries. Their bodies were buried in unmarked graves in the Russian woods, not all to be found again until 2007. Guess who provided DNA to help identify the remains? None other than Prince Philip.
Philip’s maternal grandmother, Victoria of Hesse, was the sister of Tsarina Alexandra, Tsar Nicolas II’s wife. So, the tsarina was Philip’s great aunt. Her children, including the legendary “lost princess” Anastasia, were Philip’s mother’s first cousins, which means Philip is their first cousin once removed. (He’s also the tsar’s second cousin once removed through his paternal grandmother, who was the first cousin of Nicholas II’s father, but that’s getting a little out of hand!)
Elizabeth has a connection to the Romanovs as well. You only need to look at her grandfather, King George V, to see a nearly identical face to that of Nicholas II. Why do they look so much alike? George V’s mother, Queen Alexandra, and Nicolas’s mother, born Dagmar of Denmark, were sisters, so the two men were first cousins. This makes Nicolas II Elizabeth’s first cousin twice removed.
Did the public know Elizabeth and Philip were cousins at the time?
At the time of their royal wedding in 1947, the public were likely used to the idea of royal families marrying among one another because it had happened so often. And because Philip and Elizabeth were so distantly related, it’s doubtful that people cared. “Elizabeth and Philip were not so closely related as to cause any serious concern about interbreeding, and their union was certainly not considered to be in any way incestuous,” Gullace says.
But in the first half of the 20th century, scientists had also started understanding more about genetics and the dangers of inbreeding, which helped curb the practice. “The Catholic Church had long frowned upon consanguineous marriages, but the practice of marrying cousins really fell out of favor among royalty—and everyone else—when medical advances revealed the genetic risks of consanguinity,” Gullace says.
Among royalty, recessive traits causing genetic defects had already been observed, such as the “Hapsburg jaw,” which refers to the protruding chin, thick lips and long nose of the royal Spanish Hapsburg family, caused by a rare trait called mandibular prognathism. For Britain’s royal family, inbreeding hits a little closer to home with the recessive trait that causes the bleeding disorder hemophilia, which was famously passed from Philip’s ill-fated great-aunt, Tsarina Alexandra, to her son, Alexei.
Were family alliances a factor in their marriage?
No. Although Elizabeth did have to choose a suitably highborn man, she and Philip did not marry for any type of political alliance. They were a love match. “Philip’s family was considerably beneath Elizabeth’s family, and Elizabeth’s mother would have preferred her to make a grander match,” Gullace says. “The Greek royal family was not only relatively poor, but it was politically unstable.”
Elizabeth first met the dashing, young naval cadet when she was just 13, later developing a correspondence with Philip through letters. “She kept a picture of him on her desk during the war,” Gullace says.
After World War II, Elizabeth and Philip’s love story became serious. But when the couple got engaged, not much was made of Philip being a Greek or Danish prince in the press. “Most of the news headlines announcing Elizabeth’s engagement to Philip stressed his position as an officer in the Royal Navy, which had great cache after the war,” Gullace says.
Philip needed all the good publicity he could get, as three of his sisters had married Nazis and were not invited to his wedding. In order to become Elizabeth’s consort, he became a British subject and member of the Anglican Church. “At that point, he took his mother’s last name, Mountbatten, and maintained close ties to his uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, giving him an ‘in’ with the British aristocracy,” Gullace says. Lord Mountbatten was Philip’s mother’s brother, whose family used the English version of the German “Battenberg.”
Marrying for love, as Philip and Elizabeth did, wasn’t unheard of among royalty (such as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), but the usual custom was for royalty to marry for money or alliances, or both—and those unions didn’t always have a happy ending. Think of Catherine the Great, forced to marry Peter III of Russia, whom she subsequently overthrew to become empress herself. Or the unfortunate Austrian princess Marie Antoinette, whose mother arranged for her to marry the heir to the French throne for a political alliance: Not only was she not in love with her husband, Louis XVI, but she lost her head for him, to boot.
Is intermarriage still common among royals?
Intermarriage isn’t the basis for marriage for European royalty any longer. Not only is it genetically risky, but it’s also less needed now that royals are more figureheads than actual rulers. Things have also changed for Britain’s royal rules of marriage, even since Elizabeth became queen. After her sister, Princess Margaret, wasn’t allowed to marry the love of her life, Captain Peter Townsend, without renouncing her title, and the horrendously failed semi-arranged marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, the Crown learned its lesson and relaxed the rules on who could join “The Firm.” In 2005, King Charles III married his longtime love, Queen Camilla, although she had been considered unsuitable back in the 1970s.
Charles’s sons, Princes William and Harry, also married for love: Prince William to commoner Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry to divorced American Meghan Markle. So far, the latest generation of married royals has proved that love really does conquer all.
About the expert
|
Why trust us
Reader’s Digest has published hundreds of stories on the British royal family, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the fascinating facets of the monarchy. We regularly cover topics including the latest royal news, the history and meaning behind time-honored traditions, and the everyday quirks of everyone’s favorite family members, from Queen Elizabeth’s daily snack to Prince William’s confessions about his home life. We’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this piece on whether Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were related, Tina Donvito tapped her experience as a longtime journalist who covers history, travel, entertainment and the British royal family for Reader’s Digest. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Nicoletta Gullace, PhD, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and author of The Blood of Our Sons: Men, Women, and the Renegotiation of British Citizenship During the Great War; email interview, May 2025
- Royal.uk: “Queen Elizabeth II”
- Royal.uk: “The Life of the Duke of Edinburgh”
- Royal.uk: “The Royal Family Name”
- BBC: “The Duke’s Heritage”
- Historic Royal Palaces: “Family Tree”
- National Portrait Gallery: “Kings and Queens: A Family Tree”
- The Times: “Prince Philip’s Family Tree”
- Smithsonian Magazine: “Resurrecting the Czar”
