Before Prince Philip captured Queen Elizabeth II’s heart, another aristocratic suitor may have been in the running for the future monarch.
According to royal historian Hugo Vickers, author of “Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History,” his research revealed that Hugh, Earl of Euston â who later became the 11th Duke of Grafton â was considered a potential match for the young princess before she ultimately fell for the man who would become the love of her life.
“The Queen Mother was very keen that [her daughter] should marry a Grenadier Guard,” Vickers told Fox News Digital.
“And the Grenadier Guards [are] the most prestigious of all the British regiments. If you’re a Grenadier Guard, you are the top.”
” and Princess Margaret, as young girls, were contained in Windsor Castle during the war,” Vickers shared. “There were quite a number of Grenadier Guards stationed. And Princess Margaret used to say that the whole of the castle was surrounded by barbed wire, which wouldnt have kept the Germans out, but certainly kept [them] in.”
“With all of these Grenadier Guards around the place, the queen mother was very much hoping â she placed a number of Grenadier Guards, as it were, on Princess Elizabeths path. She would have loved her to marry Lord Euston. I think it was slightly in the cards at one point, and that could have happened.”
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Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, a politician whose diaries chronicled what people in royal and high-society circles were saying at the time, believed that in 1943, Hugh was “reserved for a higher destiny â the very throne itself.”
“The Queen Mother may well have preferred an English aristocrat,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital.
In the book, Lady Brigid Guinness told Channon that while Hugh was pursuing her, she believed he would wind up with the young Princess Elizabeth because “she likes him.”
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But it was Lord Mountbatten, Philip’s uncle, who reportedly helped smooth the way for his nephew while other potential suitors, like Hugh, fell out of the picture.
“My understanding is that Lord Mountbatten was instrumental in getting Earl Euston a fabulous job as ADC (Aide-de-Camp) to the Viceroy of India,” Vickers told Fox News Digital. “So Earl Euston went to India, which, of course, got him out of the way.”
The book also suggests Hugh fell out of favor because came to see him as too passive. By October 1943, Channon was writing that the royal family had encouraged the Euston romance but dropped him as “too inert and énervé.” Billy Whitaker, a Grenadier Guard at Windsor, also told Channon that he thought Hugh hadnt been seriously considered, whereas Philip was.
“I think it was a much better choice that Queen Elizabeth married Prince Philip,” said Vickers. “Prince Philip was a breath of fresh air. He had a very good naval career during the war. He was bursting with ideas. They feared he would be a modernizer. They were absolutely right. I think the Duke of Grafton, a charming and cultured man, would not have been a modernizer or a vibrant influence on how to move the House of Windsor forward.”
In 1946, Hugh married Ann Fortune Smith, a member of the Smith banking family. She went on to become Lady of the Bedchamber from 1953 to 1966 and then Mistress of the Robes to the queen from 1967 until she died in 2021 at age 101.
British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital she believes Philip was destined to be with the late queen, who died in 2022 at age 96.
“Thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth fell head over heels with 18-year-old Philip on that crucial fine weekend of July 1939,” she explained. “She was so amazed by the handsome, athletic Philip. A smitten Elizabeth kept a photograph of Phil
