How Prince Philip Modernized—and Fought to Preserve—the Monarchy

• Philip and Elizabeth first met in 1934, when he was 13 and she was 8.
• Five years later, the pair crossed paths again: As Elizabeth’s cousin recalled in her autobiography, the princess “was truly in love from the very beginning.”
• The couple wed in 1947, embarking on a 74-year partnership that would cement Philip’s status as the United Kingdom’s longest-serving royal consort.

• A commission chaired by Prince Philip proposed broadcasting the 1953 investiture ceremony that formally named Elizabeth II as queen on live television.
• Even if Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed clear disapproval, the queen came around to the idea, allowing the broadcast of all but one segment of the coronation.
• More than 20 million people tuned in to the televised ceremony.

The years after the coronation of Queen Elisabeth II the royals continued to embrace television as a way of connecting with the British people:

• In 1957, the queen delivered her annual Christmas address during a live broadcast.
• Four years later, in 1961, Philip became the first family member to sit for a television interview.
• Toward the end of the decade, the Windsors even invited cameras into their home, offering the BBC the opportunity to film a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Much of this push for transparency can be traced back to Prince Philip, whose unconventional upbringing inspired him to modernize the monarchy.

• The BBC began filming its “Royal Family” documentary in June 1968. Philip oversaw the process and sought to ensure the royals were presented in a humanizing light.
• Though the documentary has strong viewership, Buckingham Palace decided to stop its broadcast without the queen’s permission, because it revealed the royals to be a pretty normal British upper-class family - the monarchy began to lose the aura of grandeur that distance conveyed.
• Over the following decades, as the royal couple’s children navigated much-publicized divorces, this sense of demystification was exacerbated even more.
• Prince Philip also faced criticism and continued to make headlines for his offensive comments, many of which played on racial stereotypes, and brought much unwanted attention to the royal family.