Photo by The Countess of Wessex via Getty Images
For nearly 74 years, The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were happily married, but their love began several years before their 1947 wedding at Westminster Abbey.
Their story began in 1939 when Princess Elizabeth was 13, and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was 18. Elizabeth had joined her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and younger sister Princess Margaret on a trip to the royal naval college, Dartmouth, and teenage Elizabeth was smitten by the handsome royal cadet.
Prince Philip went off to fight in World War Two, and he and Elizabeth exchanged letters. Her cousin, Margaret Rhodes, later said: “Elizabeth was truly in love from the very beginning.”