Prince Philip 1921–2021 By Professor Kate Williams, CNN royal historian When Elizabeth of York first encountered Prince Philip, she was not intended to be queen. She was seven years old and bridesmaid to her aunt, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, as she married the Duke of Kent at Westminster Abbey, while 12-year-old Philip was attending as the bride’s first cousin. The children barely spoke -- but the foreign newspapers had already listed Prince Philip as a suitably royal husband for the little Princess, as her third cousin through Queen Victoria. When they met again, five years later, in 1939, everything had changed. Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward VIII, had abdicated three years earlier. Her father was now King and she was the heir to the throne. Philip was an 18-year-old naval cadet. And Europe was on the brink of cataclysmic conflict and change as World War II was about to begin.