Geoffrey Fisher
Archbishop of Canterbury

Those who God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne, married her distant cousin Philip Mountbatten in a lavish wedding in London's Westminster Abbey. Philip, a dashing young prince from the Greek royal family, had fought as a British naval officer during World War II. After the war he renounced his foreign titles and became a British citizen, and on the eve of his marriage to Elizabeth he was made Duke of Edinburgh. He was twenty-six, and Elizabeth was twenty-one. The celebrations surrounding the wedding of the popular princess lifted the spirits of the people of Britain, who were suffering from serious economic difficulties in the aftermath of the war. On February 6, 1952, the death of King George VI sent Elizabeth to the throne, and Philip ended his naval career to concentrate on his new official duties as consort of the British monarch. Elizabeth and Philip eventually had four children-Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.