The failure of the marriage of their son and heir Prince Charles to the ingénue Lady Diana Spencer certainly did that. It was the lowest point of the Queen’s long reign. Never had she envisaged she would be in the position of having to write to both her son and daughter-in-law saying a divorce was desirable. It went against everything she had been taught and rankled with her strong religious beliefs and position as Defender of the Christian Faith. It was made even worse by the death of Diana a year and a day after the divorce was finalised. Without the strong moral support of her husband, the Queen may well have crumbled, but she didn’t. In November 1997, three months after Diana’s death, they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and she paid tribute to her husband, saying he was ‘her strength and stay all these years’. More personally, she spoke for the first time of his ‘constant love and help’.

The seventy-year marriage of Elizabeth and Philip has transcended some of the most turbulent times in the history of Great Britain. From the dark days of post-war Britain to the similarly dark days of the age of terrorism in which we now live, the Queen and Prince Philip have seen it all. They watched in sadness as not one but three of their children’s marriages ended in divorce, but they have lived long enough to see them all happily move on. They have enjoyed good enough health to see their many grandchildren grow up and can now watch their great-grandchildren begin that same process. No one can ask for more. The story of how they achieved this is the story of this book.

Chapter 1

WEDDING CELEBRATIONS

‘Lilibet is the only thing in this world which is absolutely real to me and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence . . .’ So wrote the 26-year-old Prince Philip to his mother-in-law two weeks after his marriage on 20 November 1947. It was to be the blueprint for their life together and, such was the depth of his passion at the time, he went on to expand on his theme.

‘Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one’s sense of humour or one’s musical ear or one’s eyes? I am not sure, but I know that I thank God for them and so, very humbly I thank God for Lilibet and for us.’