THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Queen was reduced to tears by the Duke of Edinburgh’s “brutal” behaviour towards her when she refused to take his surname of Mountbatten, according to a new biography.
Sally Bedell Smith even suggests that the ten-year delay between the births of the Princess Royal and the Duke of York was the result of “Philip’s anger over the Queen’s rejection of his family name”.
Her book, Elizabeth the Queen, to be published in January, details the Duke’s deep-rooted irritation over the monarch’s decision to accept the advice of the then prime minister, Winston Churchill, by keeping the family name Windsor.
The Duke had wanted the Royal family to be known as the House of Mountbatten when the Queen came to the throne in 1952, and complained to friends that: “I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children. I’m nothing but a bloody amoeba.”
Earl Mountbatten, the Duke’s uncle and mentor, believed the “delay” in the couple having any more children after the Princess Royal was a result of the Duke’s anger over the question of the family name. » | Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter | Friday, December 02, 2011
