New Photo Exhibit Celebrates Prince Philip at (Almost) 90

He was born on a kitchen table. Before he was a year old, his family had fled into exile. The British vessel that rescued them didn't have accommodations for a baby, so he slept in an orange box.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, got off to a rocky start but went on to become the longest-serving consort in British history. Photos documenting his long and rather remarkable life are on display at the Drawings Gallery of Windsor Castle in a special exhibition called "Prince Philip: Celebrating Ninety Years." The show opened this weekend and runs till Jan. 22, 2012.

The pictures include the first photo ever taken of Prince Philip. He's shown as a baby in the arms of his mother at the villa Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu, where he was born on June 10, 1921. Another shows the baby prince, clad in a dress, grinning happily as he stands on his own two feet.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born with family connections in just about every kingdom in Europe. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was a great-granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, was descended from the czars of Russia and the ancient line of Danish kings stretching back to the Viking Gorm the Old. (In the 1990s, Philip would donate DNA to help identify the remains of the last Russian czarina, his great-aunt Alexandra, and her children.)

But the Greek royal family never had much money, and life in exile wasn't easy. Philip's parents separated when he was still very young. His mother suffered a breakdown, and his father moved to the South of France. Philip was shipped off to school in Britain and spent his holidays with various relatives.

And in many ways, tragedy seemed to stalk his family. While he was still a teenager, his elder sister Cecile and her entire family were wiped out in a devastating plane crash. The next year an uncle with whom he often stayed died of cancer.

Philip built a career in the British Navy, serving in World War II. And in November 1947 he made a spectacular marriage for a penniless prince, wedding Princess Elizabeth -- the heiress presumptive to the British throne.

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Just before his marriage, Philip gave up his (admittedly remote) claims to the thrones of Greece and Denmark and took the surname Mountbatten, an anglicized version of his mother's name. His new father-in-law, King George VI, granted him the title of Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1952, Philip was promoted to the naval rank of commander, but then his career ended when his wife became Queen Elizabeth II with the death of her father. For the next six decades, Philip would spend his life walking two paces behind his wife and supporting her -- and the monarchy.

Philip is often portrayed as the enforcer of the royal family. He is said to have played a major role in directing the lives of his four children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, sending the three boys to his old school, where Charles was notably miserable.

In his official biography, Charles would later portray Philip as a bully and moan that his father had bludgeoned him into marrying Lady Diana Spencer. (Charles was 32 at the time of the wedding.) Diana and Sarah Ferguson were said to be terrified of their father-in-law. And Mohamed Al Fayed would later claim that Philip had ordered the car crash that killed Princess Diana and Al Fayed's son Dodi. (French investigators said their driver was drunk and speeding.)

The queen's husband has also been known to make some politically incorrect gaffes. On a 1986 visit to China, he told British students, "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed." In 1995, he asked a Scottish driving instructor, "How do you keep the natives off booze long enough to pass the test?"

Despite his advancing age and sometimes unfortunate comments, Philip keeps an active schedule of royal engagements. He is a patron of some 800 organizations and carries out
an average of 350 engagements each year, according to Buckingham Palace. As he approaches 90, he recently announced that he would start cutting back a bit.