PRINCE Philip gained his British royal title due to being married to the Queen.
But the Duke of Edinburgh was actually already a prince by birth, and his siblings were princesses.
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Who were Prince Philip’s siblings?
Prince Philip was born on June, 10, 1921, to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg on the Greek island of Corfu.
He was the youngest child of the couple and their only son.
Philip had four older sisters, Princess Margarita, Princess Theodora, Princess Cecilie, and Princess Sophie, who have all passed away.
Philip became the only remaining sibling after youngest sister Princess Sophie died in 2001.
Princess Margarita Of Greece And Denmark
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Philip’s eldest sister Margarita was born on April 18, 1905, and passed away on April 24, 1981, at the age of 76.
Margarita married Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg of Germany and they had six children, although her first child, a daughter, was stillborn.
Margarita survived her husband by 21 years.
She was also godmother to Prince Philip’s only daughter, Princess Anne.
Princess Theodora Of Greece And Denmark
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The second daughter in the family was Theodora, who was born on May 30, 1906, and died on October 16, 1969, when she was 63 years old.
Theodora married her paternal second cousin, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, in 1931, and they had three children together.
She died just five weeks before her mother, Princess Alice, who passed away on December 5, 1969.
Alice had been invited by Philip and the Queen to live in Buckingham Palace before passing away aged 84.
Princess Cecilie Of Greece And Denmark
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Philip’s third sister was Cecilie, who was born on June 22, 1911.
Tragically she was the first of Prince Andrew and Princess Alice’s children to die.
Cecilie was just 26 when she died in a plane crash on November 16, 1937.
The flight had been going from Darmstadt to London, and it later emerged that pregnant Cecilie gave birth while on the plane.
A Belgian enquiry concluded that the captain had tried to do an emergency landing in bad weather due to the labour.
Her husband, Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, and two of Cecilie’s other children – sons Ludwig (aged 6) and Alexander (aged 4) – also perished on the flight.
Cecilie’s daughter Johanna, who was not on the flight, was adopted by another member of the royal family, but died of meningitis two years later.
Princess Sophie Of Greece And Denmark
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Philip’s closest sibling in age was Sophie, who was born on June 26, 1914, and died at the age of 87 on November 24, 2001.
Sophie’s first marriage was to Prince Christoph of Hesse when she was just 16, and she was the first of Philip’s siblings to tie the knot.
The couple had five children together, but Christoph was tragically killed in an airplane accident in a war zone near Forlì, Italy, on October 7, 1943, and his body was found two days later.
Sophie’s second marriage was to Prince George William of Hanover, but the union was controversial.
Although King George VI gave permission for the couple to marry, consent was later withheld due to the UK being at war with Germany at the time.
This is the only known case of marriage permission being rejected by a British monarch.
Despite this, Sophie and George later married without monarch consent and went on to have three children.
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Was Philip close to his sisters?
Prince Philip had a famously turbulent childhood and was forced to flee Greece in 1922 when his father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, feared he would be executed during a military coup.
The family fled to France, but were soon separated, with Philip being sent to the MacJannet American School before moving to the UK to study at Cheam School.
His sisters later largely lived in Germany and all married German aristocrats.
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Not much is known about his relationship with his sisters, but he and Sophie were said to be close.
The Queen and Philip’s youngest son, Prince Edward, had Sophie for a godmother, while Margarita was Princess Anne’s godmother.
Sophie was also a frequent visitor to Buckingham Palace and was seen at a number of royal events.
Prince Philip was married to Queen Elizabeth II for more than 70 years – after they wed on November 20, 1947.
He was also the patron of hundreds of organisations, often attending events with the Queen as part of their royal duties.
Prince Philip died on April 9, 2021.