Future Queen to Marry Naval Officer

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"It is with the greatest pleasure that the King and Queen announce the betrothal of their dearly beloved daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, to Lt. Philip Mountbatten, R.N., son of the late Prince Andrew and Princess Andrew (Princess Alice of Battenberg,) to which union the King has gladly given his consent."

Seventy years ago today, the announcement above delighted a bleary-eyed Britain, still deep in the recovery from World War II. With food rations, clothing rations, unemployment and a previous winter that had broken records with its brutal weather, the island nation and its entire Commonwealth was ready to rejoice. The princess's wedding four months later would bring a bit of color to the ashen remains of Blitz-out London.

As the wedding announcement demonstrates, the bridegroom was merely a naval officer. In fact, he was a newly minted British subject, having recently sworn allegiance to his future father-in-law's realm and renounced any claims he had to his family's precarious throne in Greece. Philip and Elizabeth are cousins twice over:  they are both great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria and they are both descendants of King Christian IX of Denmark. 

You can read my full account of their romance in my two-part post: The Moonstruck Princess and Her Greek God