The Queen: How Elizabeth fell head over heels for her handsome Prince Philip

Despite her father’s concerns, the future Queen only had eyes for one young man, Prince Philip. This is how their romance began over continents.

Nothing about the young Elizabeth’s life was normal – including how she fell in love.

When 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth sailed to Dartmouth Naval College in July 1939 on an official visit, with the King and Queen and her sister Margaret, a blond “Viking” in the form of 18-year-old naval cadet Prince Philip was assigned to look after the two young princesses.

The handsome Greek prince caught Elizabeth’s heart in the process.

A radiant Princess Elizabeth on her wedding day with her husband Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh. Picture: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty

It was the ultimate fairy-tale romance, so much so that in 2016, a letter written by Elizabeth in 1947 describing the moment she fell in love, was sold for $27,000 at auction.

The couple look over their wedding photographs while on honeymoon in Romsey, Hampshire. Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The royal pair’s marriage would last 73 years. Picture: AP

Elizabeth and Philip had a shared passion for the outdoors. Picture: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

“I was 13 years of age and he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave. He joined the navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave – I suppose about twice in three years,” she wrote.

The arrival of Prince Charles and Princess Anne brought a new generation of royals - and an heir to the throne. Picture: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

The pair wrote to each other and when he was on leave, Philip – who was after all, a distant cousin, a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria – spent more and more time with the princess.

The Queen and Prince Philip at a state banquet in 1970. Picture: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

On one of their many royal tours, this time in Sierra Leone. Picture: AFP

Despite the King thinking his daughter far too young for a serious romance, saying she “has never met any young men of her own age,” it turned out she wasn’t interested in meeting any others and only had eyes for one.

The couple at Royal Ascot in 2016. Picture: Julian Herbert/Getty Images

In 1946, Philip was invited to join the Royal Family on their annual summer holiday at Balmoral and it was there he proposed.

The announcement would not be made public until the next year, but in his thank you letter to the Queen Mother after the holiday, he wrote, “I am sure I do not deserve all the good things which have happened to me. To have been spared in the war and seen victory. To have fallen in love completely and unreservedly makes all one’s personal and even the world’s troubles seem small and petty.”

Originally published as The Queen: How Elizabeth fell head over heels for her handsome Prince Philip