On September 8, British time, Queen Elizabeth II died at balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96.
With the successive deaths of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, an era came to an end.
01
In fact, Princess Elizabeth was forced to become heir to the throne. The original King of England was her uncle Edward VIII, but abdicated due to his insistence on marrying Mrs. Simpson, who had been married twice, and the espionage scandal that followed.
Elizabeth's father, George VI, succeeded him as the new king. This is also considered to be an important reason for his untimely death. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, became the first in line to the throne.
Elizabeth was taught that she would be a queen in the future, so she not only needed a strong sense of responsibility, but also could not easily reveal true emotions. As a teenager, she had begun to do everything in her power to broadcast radio on behalf of the British Royal Family, cheering on the front lines of fighters and the vast majority of the British people who were deeply involved in the war.
The British royal family also became a symbol of British courage and resilience because it refused to temporarily move out of Buckingham Palace during World War II, vowing to die with the people.
At the age of 16, Elizabeth persuaded her father, King George, to join the army. To this day, she remains the only female member of the British royal family to have served in the military. In the military, she not only learned to drive a large military truck, but also studied machinery and mastered the skills of repairing cars. Although Elizabeth did not go to war, serving in the rear was not without danger. In the Auxiliary Territorial Service, in which he served, more than 300 female soldiers were killed in German artillery fire during World War II.
It was not until the end of world war II that Elizabeth retired from the army and returned to Buckingham Palace.
02
Prince Philip's mother was Princess Alice of Battenborg, and her mother was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who was born in Windsor Castle in England in 1885 in the presence of this great-grandmother. Despite her German parents, Alice was raised as an English princess. At the age of 3-4, Princess Alice was found to have congenital deafness. His father, Prince Andrew, was the fourth son of George I of Greece.
Before Philip, they also had 4 daughters. Philip was born in 1921. Since his paternal lineage dates back to George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark, Philip Jr. has been inherited from birth to the dual thrones of Greece and Denmark.
But by the time he was born, World War I had begun, the Greek royal family was crumbling because of the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy, and his father, Andrew, was imprisoned by the Greek Revolutionaries.
Later, Princess Alice had to appeal to the British royal family for help, and under pressure, the Greek Revolutionary Army released Andrew, but stripped their family of their Greek citizenship.
The British captain brought 1-year-old Philip, his parents and 4 sisters out of Greece and sent them to France in wooden boxes of fruit. After fleeing Greece, the family lived in Paris for 8 years. During this time, Philip learned three languages: English, French and German.
Although once a member of the royal family, exile and desolation made life difficult for their family. Princess Alice had to go out to work, support her family on a meager salary, and was once diagnosed with mental illness. Her husband, Prince Andrew, chose to slip away. He married four of his daughters "in a package", two of whom were married to German Nazi officers, and did not allow Princess Alice to attend their weddings. Then he took his mistress, left his wife and children, and slipped away. In the end, Andrew died and died in debt. Princess Alice, because she saw through everything, chose to "escape into the empty door" and became a nun.
At the age of 9, Philip was sent to england, and in addition to living in school when he was in school, he usually took turns to live in various relatives' homes, which was considered to be a hundred meals. Once Philip's classmates always liked to play a game after school, that is, to guess which relative Philip would go to spend the night at another relative's house.
Philip later defected to his uncle, British Admiral Mountbatten, who later took care of Philip and played the role of father. Later, Philip simply changed his surname to Mountbatten.
Afterwards, Philip attended the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. After graduating from the Royal Naval Academy of Dartmaus, he served in the Royal Navy throughout World War II, participating in the Sicily and Pacific Campaigns, making great achievements, and witnessing the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay in 1945.
Rarely, such a depressed and depressed experience, Philip did not develop a gloomy, sensitive personality, but a big grinning humorist. The British media has analyzed that it is likely that Philip has been using a superficial cynical attitude to fight against the inner heaviness.
03
As early as elizabeth was 13 years old, she once accompanied her father on a tour of the Royal Naval Academy and fell in love with the young Officer Philip at first sight. When he was young, Philippe was handsome and handsome, 1.9 meters tall, with thick eyebrows and blue eyes, and his appearance was very high in the entire European royal family. I have to say that the high value with some other advantages is simply a king fried.
In fact, the two first met at the wedding of a Greek princess, when Philip was 13 and Elizabeth was 8. This time at the Naval Academy, Elizabeth was already a young girl, he called her little name Lily white, and like all first love stories, they shyly exchanged correspondence addresses and began a sweet but restrained relationship.
Elizabeth is very frank about this "love at first sight" and she is willing to let others know that she has been in love with Philip since the first time she met him at the age of 13.
But Elizabeth's father, King George, was very opposed to the two of them. "We've been together for decades, we're a natural couple." Eventually, his father approved Philip's marriage proposal, but they could not have a wedding until Elizabeth was 21 years old.
Eight years after falling in love with the long run, in 1947, when Elizabeth was 21 years old, the two held a grand wedding of the century, which brought some joy to the British in the haze. At that time, 200 million people listened to the broadcast, and the entire European royal family went to the scene. At that time, the British economy was severely damaged by the Second World War, and there was a serious shortage of materials, and the ration system was implemented. But they did receive gifts from all sides, including stockings and turkeys from some American women. At that time, the Mahatma Gandhi of India also sent them gifts, but Elizabeth's mother, Queen Mary, did not like Gandhi very much, saying that Gandhi's gift was an insult, and only the young Philip objected, saying: "Gandhi is a great man." ”
At this point, the male version of Cinderella Philip successfully counterattacked into the British royal family.
04
After marriage, although according to the royal regulations, the two can only hold arms in public at most, but in private, like ordinary couples, there are love and contradictions.
Elizabeth didn't like the sound of ice hitting a cup, so Philip invented a machine for her to make round hockey balls; Elizabeth didn't like him smoking, and he could quit immediately; Once during an interview, he suspected that the reporter was too close to Elizabeth, and he directly shouted for the reporter to walk away, don't squeeze her...
He was probably also the only one who dared to say no to the queen. Sometimes the queen wants to enjoy the life of an ordinary person and help her husband and children prepare breakfast, and Philip will complain very directly that it is really difficult for An English woman to cook. Elizabeth's palms were sweating profusely on her first independent visit as queen, and he would jokingly say, "Oh dear, how do you look weird today?" At the coronation ceremony, Elizabeth fidgeted, and he would laugh again, Oh my wife, where did you get this hat? When Philip watched TV, he used to turn on the sound very loud, and Elizabeth disgusted him and asked him to turn it off, and he would pretend to be unreasonable like a child and say no. Compared with Elizabeth's calm and restrained life, Philip is the humor in the marriage of the two, which is a very important spice.
He once said in a meeting with a group of British students who were exchanging in Xi'an that if you stayed here too long, you would become squinty. Some people think that he is suspected of discrimination, in fact, the same is true of the painting style in which he usually speaks.
A woman once told Philip that she was 104 years old, and Philip said I don't believe it, and women always say that they are 10 years younger. Son Andrew said when he was a child, Dad I want to go to space, and philip came to say, impossible, you are too fat. He said to the President of Nigeria in a traditional robe, "You wear this dress like pajamas." He asked the Australian Aborigines, do you still throw spears at each other? The reporter interviewed him about why he chose the Navy instead of the Army, he said because I didn't like to walk. It can be seen that Philip has always been more "blunt", which is why the Queen's father, when he opposed this affair, said that Philip was "so blunt that it was annoying".
Although he was known as a British diplomatic mudslide because he was too "blunt", he was also the spiritual pillar of Elizabeth. Every time Elizabeth met and began to chat awkwardly after the courtesy, Philip would take the lead and run over to brag and rescue Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's personality seems to be quite different from Philip's, but that may also be one of the reasons she likes him. Those who encounter this true disposition feel very real and unpretentious. In fact, when we ordinary people fall in love, we often map the aspects we want to do but can't do to the other half.
05
Perhaps the biggest contradiction between the two of them is the question of whose surname the children are with. In the West, children are generally surnamed after their fathers, and women must also be given the husband's surname after marriage. Elizabeth's surname was "Mountbatten" before she succeeded to the throne, and after her coronation, she changed back to "Windsor". Because Elizabeth was queen, their children were born with the queen's surname Windsor.
At the time of Prince Charles's birth, Philip tried to get Prince Charles to follow his surname, but failed. Later, other children were born, and Philip moved his uncle out of the house in order to let the child take his surname, and also found a lawyer, after which the Queen had to compromise and create a new surname Mountbatten-Windsor. So now the children of the British royal family end up with this surname.
Elizabeth also sympathized with Philip for giving up his nationality, religion, honor and surname for her, as a prince, he also had to abide by the royal rules, sitting posture, etiquette, etc. There were rules, and he had to play the "man behind him" for a lifetime. In order to comfort her husband, the small things in the family are more listened to by Philip, including the education of children, marriage, etc. A former palace maid said that whether it was at Buckingham Palace or the Queen's favorite Windsor Castle, "they have always maintained the habit of sleeping together." ”
But the moment she put on the crown, she was no longer just his Lilibai, but the queen of the people. Even in normal family life, Elizabeth felt guilty about Philip. Especially for the second half of their marriage, Philip was full of gossip about his affair, and she also chose to turn a blind eye. She had even invited Philip's gossipy girlfriend to ride in the same car and attend Philip's funeral.
06
Philip once said on their 50th anniversary, "Tolerance is the most important factor in sustaining a marriage." You can tell from me what a tolerant person the Queen is. In fact, another important reason for Elizabeth's tolerance of Philip is Philip's contribution to the British Royal Family.
In the past hundred years, the European royal families have collapsed one after another, but the British royal family has survived. Of course, it is also difficult to step forward, on the one hand, to run in with different new governments to develop new cooperation models, on the other hand, to constantly adapt to social changes and carefully win the hearts and minds of the people.
At one point, the British Royal Family was also questioned about the meaning of existence, and people thought they were just spending money. In fact, the external image of the British royal family and the ability to absorb gold play a considerable role in driving the British economy. The royal family can attract a large number of tourists every year to visit and experience different cultures. Some royal events, such as the wedding of Harry and Meghan, the wedding of Princess Eugenie, etc., such a big wedding, the contribution to the economy is also quite large, probably bringing hundreds of millions of pounds of income. For example, selling wedding tickets, selling wedding souvenirs, selling hotels around weddings, clothing industry, etc. Once Liu Qiangdong and Milk Tea had participated in the wedding of the British royal princess by buying tickets. The clothing brand worn by former Princess Megan was often bought out as soon as it came out.
Although Philip is cynical on the surface, he is actually as transparent as a mirror, silently helping the queen in the modernization and reform of the royal family, after all, he knows best the taste of the overthrow of the royal power.
He called for a modernization of the royal family, when television was just becoming popular and he was the first member of the royal family to appear on television. In 1953, he went to great lengths to facilitate the television broadcast of the Queen's coronation. It was also at his instigation that the first documentary about the royal family was broadcast.
After elizabeth was crowned in 1953, she put the country above love and family, and adhered to her duties as queen, and endured a lot, but Philip also had her own contribution. Some people ridiculed him for eating soft rice in the royal family, but the son-in-law of the royal family is not a good person, unlike the common people's family, who only needs to earn money to live a life. The pressure and responsibility of the royal family, placed on ordinary people, are likely not to be shouldered. Buckingham Palace has counted that Prince Philip has performed more than 20,000 official duties alone, delivered more than 5,000 speeches, visited more than 170 countries and made 637 solo visits. It wasn't until 2017 that he officially retired at the age of 96.
For the sake of royal responsibility, Philip also gave up his future. One of his alumni once said that Prince Philip was a very talented seafarer, and if it were not for the responsibilities of the royal family, then the person who is now serving as Britain's first sea minister should be him. Therefore, the Queen also spoke highly of Philip, saying that Philip was her source of strength and guide. He and his family owe him far more than everyone knows.
07
Over the years, there have been more and more chickens and dogs in the British royal family, the Queen's own sister and two sons have also been plagued by scandals, and the runaway Prince Harry and Meghan are not fuel-saving lamps. But the queen has always been as steady as Tarzan. Prince Philip has always stood in the united front with the Queen in defending the royal family. He once wrote in his letter, "I hope that we can become an indestructible community, in the face of suffering, together to withstand all external blows, but also to walk together with optimism forever." "Until he became an old man, Prince Philip remained by the Queen's side.
Some people say that he is a scumbag, but presumably the queen is not a simple person in love, and I believe that the trade-offs behind this are also a frequent compulsory course for the queen. Under the crown, there is not only the brilliance and honor of appearance, but also the sacrifice of individuals, the suppression of desires, the trade-offs and games of interests. Prince Philip was able to gain a firm foothold in the royal family for more than 70 years, which is also his skill.
It's a marriage that starts with love and ends with responsibility and decency. Due to the different dimensions, we cannot look at it in terms of the secular view of love and marriage. But from celebrity stories like theirs, we may be able to get some inspiration and thinking, and peek into the logic behind the high-dimensional world.
Epilogue:
The diversity of the world is far greater than we can imagine. There is more than one set of logic behind things, and the definition of marriage is not unique.
We can choose to respect differences and understand differences. Then, from the differences and differences, look for places where you can improve yourself.
Note: The picture comes from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author.