He and Queen Elizabeth II were also directly related through Queen Victoria.
Philip was born a prince of Greece and Denmark
Philip was born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921 as Philippos Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg-Glucksburg, according to Reuters.
As the British royal family's website says, Prince Philip was the fifth child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was of British descent.
Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Greece (née Princess of Battenberg); Prince Philip, later Duke of Edinburgh, in July 1922. Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Philip's dad, Prince Andrew, was the younger brother of King Constantine I of Greece and the grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark. Because of his father's Greek and Danish roots, Philip was known as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.
Prince Philip wasn't a resident of the Greek island Corfu for very long.
King George V of England sent a Royal Navy ship to transport the family from Corfu. Then-18-month-old Prince Philip "was carried to safety in a cot made from an orange box," according to the British royal family's website.
Queen Victoria of England, 1842. Musee National du Chateau, Versailles, France. Imagno/Getty Images
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II were cousins through Queen Victoria
Philip's mother, Princess Alice, was born in 1885 in the presence of her great-grandmother Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, according to Town & Country. Windsor Castle — where Prince Philip's mother was born in the 19th century — is where the duke died.
Prince Philip was related to Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandson through his maternal side, and his future wife was related to the same queen through her paternal family.
King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria.
Then-Princess Elizabeth and Philip met for the first time when they were children
The future Queen and duke first met when in 1934 at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George, Duke of Kent. At the time, then-Princess Elizabeth was 8, and Philip was 13.
Princess Elizabeth wearing a party frock, circa 1930. Prince Phillip of Greece, later the Duke of Edinburgh, wearing traditional Greek dress, circa age 9. Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
When Elizabeth was 13, she visited the Royal Naval College with her family and met Prince Philip again. At the time he was a cadet-in-training, according to the BBC. After the encounter, they started writing letters to each other.
Philip was described in the press at the time as "a blond Greek Apollo," "a Viking," and "handsome as any film star," according to Town & Country.
The two announced their engagement in July 1947, shortly after Elizabeth turned 21. The same year, Philip became a naturalized British subject and renounced his Greek and Danish Royal title, according to the royal family.
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, waving to a crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, London shortly after their wedding at Westminster Abbey. Keystone/Getty Images
Philip also adopted the family name of Mountbatten. His uncle, Prince Louis, changed the family name from Battenberg to Mountbatten during World War I.
Prince Philip and then-Princess Elizabeth married on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey, and Prince Philip gained the titles Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.
