“Tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage… The Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”
Prince Philip, 1997
(CMR) The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary Friday and released a photo of them opening a card from their great-grandchildren for the occasion.
Buckingham Palace released a photo of the pair taken by royal photographer Chris Jackson in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle.
The card was made by great-grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The Queen wore a chrysanthemum brooch made of diamonds and sapphires for the occasion which she also wore on their honeymoon at Broadlands in Hampshire and in 2007 to mark their diamond wedding celebration.
The Queen, 94, was a 21-year-old princess when she married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947.
Their courtship was one for the books with Princess Elizabeth first seeing him when she was a teenager and he was training at the British naval academy. When Philip returned from the Second World War eight years later they began a courtship. Those close to the princess at the time said it was love at first sight and as the longest enduring relationship of any British sovereign it has stood the test of time.
On their golden anniversary she said of her husband:
“He is someone who doesn’t take easily to compliments, but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all this years.”
The royal couple has four children: Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Prince Charles.
Prince Philip, at 99, is now retired from public engagements and spends most of his time at Sandringham estate in Norfolk as the Queen primarily resides at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
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