Queen Mother ‘didn’t want’ daughter Elizabeth to marry Prince Philip over ‘family ties’

The Queen Mother didn’t want Her Majesty to tie the knot with her love Prince Philip over ‘family ties’, a documentary has claimed.

The Channel 5 programme, The Queen Mother: War & Widowhood, which airs on Saturday, claims Queen Elizabeth’s mother wasn’t keen on her marrying Philip.

She instead wanted the young princess to marry a grenadier guard or English aristocrat, according to experts.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen’s mother, reportedly had reservations over his German family ties.

Speaking on the documentary, Dr Chandrika Kaul, a historian at St Andrews, said: “Part of the Queen’s reservations about Prince Philip was the family baggage that came with him, and particular the Mountbattens.”

The Duke of Edinburgh, who died last month aged 99, was born into the Greek and Danish royal families.

But the prince also had family ties in Germany through his mother’s side as she was born a Princess of Battenberg.

Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Burma, was the brother of Philip’s mother, Princess Alice.

Mr Mountbatten was also the second cousin of the Queen’s father, George VI.

He became a close confidante to Philip.

Dr Kaul added: “Elizabeth [Bowes-Lyon] didn’t like Louis Mountbatten who was, of course, a cousin of the king, and the uncle of Philip.

“She thought him to be a social climber and very pushy.

“Elizabeth was determined that Philip’s family members were not welcomed because all four of Philip’s sisters had married into the Germany royal family and two of his brother’s in law were members of the Nazi party.

“Philip was very angry that his family was being sidelined in this very public way.”

Hugo Vickers, royal author, claims the Queen Mother did not see the duke as part of the British Royal Family.

He said: “What her mother wanted was a grenadier guard, and Elizabeth [Bowes-Lyon] put a number of grenadier guard officers in her path.”

Mr Vickers claimed that the Queen Mother “had a natural distrust and dislike of foreigners, particularly Germans”.

He added: “She didn’t like Germans because her brother Fergus had been killed in the First World War. And Prince Philip had a lot of German blood.”

But despite her mother’s apprehensions, Elizabeth II married Philip in 1947 at Westminster Abbey in London and spent over 70 years together.

They had four children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.