Family matters: How Elizabeth II and Felipe VI are related to each other

A HEARTFELT message addressed to 'Dearest Aunt Lilibet' offering sympathy on the loss of 'dear Uncle Philip', a beautiful and profoundly moving letter with a personal touch, showed Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia's deep fondness for the British Queen last April – and it has since transpired that this is exactly how they referred to HRHs Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, both in conversation about them and to their faces, in their company.

Written communications at other times would have been addressed to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness, but through tragedy and trauma, and when meeting or talking on the phone, the Spanish monarchs used the family's pet name for Queen Elizabeth, and they were always 'auntie' and 'uncle'.

Only a year and five months would pass after the BBC singled out HRHs Felipe and Letizia's letter to the newly-widowed British Queen as 'particularly poignant' before they were having to write another painful missive – this time to her son, sharing the new King Charles III's grief at the passing of his beloved mother.

To the Spanish Royals, it does not just feel like the loss of a cherished family member – it actually is the loss of a cherished family member, because the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh are King Felipe VI's blood relatives.

It's all relative

Royal dynasties across Europe and throughout time have all been attached to branches of the same family tree, some close to the trunk and others distant leaves, sprouting up from the same acorn, their roots intertwined, drinking from the same soil. This in itself is no revelation, given that even a very significant minority of civilians share DNA with Royals if they rewind back enough generations, but in the case of 'Aunt Lilibet', 'Uncle Philip' and Felipe VI, the acorn is a grandparent in common.

If the average human life expectancy was in region of 250 years, Queen Victoria of Great Britain would, single-handedly, be keeping the greetings card industry in business – she would potentially have thousands from family alone on every birthday. Before being widowed aged 42, the UK's second-longest-reigning monarch had had nine children, and those nine would extend their genes into multiple Houses across the continent, to Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Greece, Romania, and Spain.

This means any key Royal in Europe is somehow related to an untitled aristocrat five countries away, rather like how we're all probably descendants of Romans, Vikings, Moors, or Greeks.

Felipe VI's and the UK monarchs, recently departed and still living, are, however, very near the trunk, and within touching distance of the acorn.

Queen Victoria's great-great-grandchildren

Both Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are among the British Queen Victoria's 142 great-great-grandchildren, as are the abdicated King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, and his wife, Queen Sofía.

Great-great-grandchildren are third cousins to each other, so the previous monarchs, in both countries, had married their own relatives – but distant enough that this would be considered socially acceptable in any family, and genetically safe.

'Queen Mum' Sofía and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: Second cousins

Prince Philip – born Prince Philippos - was Queen Sofía's father's cousin, making the late Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away in April 2021 – just two months before his 100th birthday – her second cousin.

Their line started with King Georgios I (George I) of Greece, the Duke of Edinburgh's granddad and Queen Sofía's great-granddad.

They are linked through King Georgios I's sons, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and King Konstantinos I (Constantine I) of Greece.

Prince Andrew's son would become the Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Andrew's brother Konstantinos had a son who would go on to become King Pavlos I (Paul I) of Greece.

This means the Duke of Edinburgh and Pavlos I were first cousins.

Pavlos I and Princess Friederike of Hannover married, meaning the latter became Queen Friederike of Greece.

Their daughter is Queen Sofía of Spain, who was born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark on November 2, 1938.

Another genealogical link involves Queen Sofía's paternal grandmother – her granddad on her dad's side, Konstantinos I, was married to Princess Sophia of Prussia, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.

Rex Emeritus Juan Carlos I, a Battenberg

As for Spain's Rex Emeritus Juan Carlos I, who married Queen Sofía on May 14, 1962 in Athens, his grandmother on his dad's side was Queen Victoria's granddaughter.

Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, or 'Princess Ena', whose grandmother was Queen Victoria, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and their son, the Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, married Princess María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

The latter couple would have two daughters and two sons.

Duchess of Badajoz, the Infanta Pilar, was their first child, born in 1936, and died aged 84; the Duchess of Soria, the Infanta Margarita, is 83 and still living; the youngest of the four, the Infante Alonso, born in 1941, only lived to be 15 years old, as he was killed in a gun accident.

King Juan Carlos I was the second-born child of Count Juan of Barcelona and Princess María Mercedes de Borbón y Dos Sicilias, coming into the world on January 26, 1938.

Effectively, therefore, both Queen Sofía's and King Juan Carlos I's grandmothers on their respective fathers' sides were first cousins, sharing the same set of grandparents.

They met 'properly', and for the second time, at Queen Elizabeth II's cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent's wedding in 1961, marrying the following year.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the direct female line from Victoria 

Back to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: Queen Victoria's third child, Princess Alice of Great Britain, had a daughter – Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine – who married Prince Louis of Battenberg.

Prince Louis and Princess Victoria's daughter would bear the title Princess Alice of Battenberg, and would go on to marry Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, son of Georgios I of Greece.

Princess Alice of Battenberg's and Prince Andrew's son, Prince Philip, married Princess Elizabeth on November 20, 1947, four months after their engagement was announced.

The bride-to-be's father wanted to wait until his daughter turned 21 before telling the world about her forthcoming nuptials, which would lead to the future Duke of Edinburgh's renouncing his Greek and Danish Royal titles, converting his mother's German surname from Battenberg to Mountbatten, and taking British citizenship.

Third cousins Elizabeth and Philip had reportedly met 'properly' just months before World War II broke out, when the Royal Naval College cadet was 18. For Elizabeth, 13, it was love at first sight, and the smitten teenagers wrote to each other regularly for many years before Philip asked Elizabeth's father for her hand in marriage.

Queen Elizabeth II's direct family relationship to Queen Victoria is well-documented. Her father, King George VI of Great Britain, was Queen Victoria's great-grandson – born Prince Albert, and known at home as 'Bertie', just like his great-granddad, as he was born on the 34th anniversary of Queen Victoria's becoming a widow. Victoria's husband passed away on December 14, 1861, and the future King George VI was born on that same date in 1895.

The monarchs who almost weren't: Young Elizabeth's quiet life

Spain's current King, Felipe VI – only son of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía – has another point in common with the lady he knew as 'Aunt Lilibet': The reigning monarchs of both countries up until 16.30 UK time on Thursday, September 8, 2022 were both only on the throne by accident.

Even non-Brits are probably familiar with how Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, were born in an ordinary private house (17 Bruton Street in London's borough of Mayfair) to the then Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Albert and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and lived a quiet life out of the limelight at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park; it was Princess Elizabeth's Uncle David who would become King when her grandfather, King George V, eventually passed away.

This happened when Elizabeth was nine, in January 1936, and Uncle David became King Edward VIII, but did not remain on the throne even long enough to attend his own coronation.

It had been planned for the following year, 1937, but after less than 11 months as reigning monarch, Edward VIII abdicated – he had fallen in love with a US-born divorcée, Wallis Simpson, and Royal tradition prevented him from marrying her, so he gave up the throne to follow his heart.

Brother Bertie was next in line, becoming King George VI – but even though the then 11-year-old Elizabeth was direct heir to the throne, she was not considered as such officially: Her parents could still have more children, and if one was a boy, he would leapfrog the young Princess to the Crown.

Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya, en route to Australia and New Zealand for a Royal tour, accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, on behalf of her father – resting at home due to poor health on doctor's orders – when she discovered she had become Queen.

The Duke of Edinburgh broke the news to her on February 6, 1952, that her father had passed away, and the couple rushed home to the UK.

Now Queen Elizabeth II by default, she made her Accession Declaration to the Privy Council on February 8, 1952.

For a young woman, thousands of miles from home, to not only find out her father had died in her absence at just 56 years old, but to have to face the entire nation and start a new, tough and hugely responsible job on the same day, knowing she would never be off duty and never retire – and not even given time to grieve first – would be enough to spark a mental breakdown in the strongest among us.

But from the tender age of 25, this tragic loss hailed the start of 70 years and seven months of unconditional, unswerving service, with her only rest at the end being in the final two days of her reign – and her life.

King Felipe VI almost wasn't, either: The war that changed his life before his birth

King Felipe VI's reign involved two 'accidents': Firstly, when his father was born on January 26, 1938, Spain was a republic. The Monarchy had been overthrown seven years earlier and the now-ex King Alfonso XIII and his wife Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg were forced into exile in Rome.

Although no longer King, Alfonso XIII 'abdicated' whilst in Italy, so that if another election were to be held and the Monarchy restored, he would not return to the throne.

His eldest two sons had already renounced their rights to the Crown, meaning a 'Royal return' would put the sixth of his seven children and the last survivor of his four sons on the throne.

But Count Juan of Barcelona did not become King; the Civil War broke out in Spain five years after the Second Republic was declared, and by the time Juan Carlos I was barely 20 months old, the fascists had won and their leader, General Francisco Franco, now in power.

Decades of misery followed, with Spain under a dictatorship from 1939 until Franco's death in November 1975 – although Franco sought to continue his repressive régime even beyond the grave.

His health failing, he opted to restore the Monarchy, now absent from the scene for 44 years; the only direct male descendant of the last King of Spain was Juan Carlos I, whom the dictator appointed as his successor and instructed to carry on as he, Franco, was about to leave off.

Juan Carlos I had other ideas, and restored democracy to the nation, co-authored and signed a Constitution enshrining human rights in black and white, thwarted a military coup, and gave the country back the freedoms it had lost when the fascists won the war.

That was the first 'accident' that led to Prince Felipe of Asturias becoming King. The second was when his father fell dramatically from popularity, among a generation that had not been born in time to see him release Spain from a long dictatorship and who were far from impressed by a number of unfortunate choices he had made in more recent years, leading to his agonising decision to give up the throne.

Concluding that the Monarchy needed a fresh new image and a younger face, Juan Carlos I abdicated on June 19, 2014, in favour of his only son, Felipe.

Breaking branches of the family tree: New generations, new genes

Felipe VI's generation of Royals has been one of the first to marry outside the numerous and expanded dynasties radiating out from Queen Victoria's line and stretching back into the mists of time across Europe.

The 21st century has seen, among others, Queen Elizabeth II's grandsons marrying a young businesswoman he met at university, in Prince William's case, and a US-born TV actress, in Prince Harry's case; and Prince Felipe of Asturias marrying a journalist and TV news reporter, Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano.

Spain's Constitution was amended when HRHs Felipe and Letizia had their first child, Leonor, on Hallowe'en 2005, so that if their new daughter eventually had a baby brother, he would not bypass her en route to the throne.

In the end, the couple has only had two children – Leonor and, on April 29, 2007, Sofía, named after her paternal grandmother, the Duke of Edinburgh's second cousin.

Queen Letizia will turn 50 on September 15, and King Felipe VI is 54, so they are very unlikely to become parents for a third time.

Order of succession: Queen Leonor and King George by the mid-21st century

For the UK, the passing of 'Aunt Lilibet' spells the end of a long era – not only the second-longest-running monarch on earth after Louis XIV of France, with 70 years, seven months and two days in her rôle, but also the last female monarch of the UK for another three generations at least.

It would seem unlikely King Charles III will ever abdicate, as he has pledged to continue his mother's legacy and her determination to serve her nation for the rest of her life.

Unless he does so, when the man who was known as Prince Charles until Thursday evening - and the UK's oldest new monarch in history, due to turn 74 on November 14 - passes away, his son Prince William, now 40, will become King. 

After Prince William, his and Princess Catherine's eldest child, Prince George, will become monarch.

Should Prince George live to be 88, he will be the first British King of the 22nd century – and as he is only nine years old at present, it is, clearly, too soon to tell whether the fourth generation of UK monarchs is likely to be male or female. 

But in theory, if George opted not to be King, the rôle is likely to pass onto his younger sister, Princess Charlotte, especially if he does not have children of his own at that point.

Nowadays in Britain, as in Spain, order of birth comes before gender, so Charlotte, now seven, is third in line to the throne, ahead of her and George's little brother Louis, four.

Their Uncle Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his and Duchess of Sussex Meghan's children Archie, three and Lilibet Diana, one, come after, being fifth, sixth and seventh in line respectively.

So, for anyone aged much over 20 years old today, no female will be on the British throne again in their lifetimes.

Yet in Spain, the future of the Monarchy is very definitely female. Notwithstanding any children Leonor or Sofía have by then, the former – who is not yet 17 and has just started her second year of sixth-form college in Wales – will become Queen of Spain as soon as her father either passes away or abdicates or, if she renounces the throne, the country will automatically have a Queen Sofía instead of a Queen Leonor.

Unless Leonor has had children of her own by then, when the eldest, male or female, will be next in line.

If King Felipe has inherited the blue-blooded tendency to longevity, it is likely to be another 40 or even up to 50 years before Leonor becomes Queen, if her father chooses to remain in the rôle – like Elizabeth II – for the rest of his life.

Curiously, Leonor will be the first reigning Queen of Spain since 1868 when the last of the country's female monarchs was dethroned – and who was called Isabel II.

Proper names are never normally translated, but key Royals seem to be the exception to this rule – so, in Spain, Elizabeth II of Great Britain was known as Isabel II, too.

King Charles III will be known in Spain as Carlos III – and there has already been a Spanish monarch of the same name, who ruled from 1759 to 1788.

Queen Elizabeth II, Victoria's oldest surviving great-great-grandchild; Juan Carlos I, 16th 

Spain's Rex Emeritus Juan Carlos I is Queen Victoria's 16th-eldest great-great-grandchild currently living, and Sofía is the 18th-eldest.

Surviving great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria are now few in number; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was the oldest still alive until last April, and until Thursday evening, Queen Elizabeth II had taken his place as the oldest living great-great.

Following the loss of Queen Elizabeth II, only 53 of the original 142 remain living.

Currently, the oldest of Queen Victoria's great-great-grandchildren still alive is Prince Philip's first cousin, Lady Pamela Mountbatten, 93, born in Barcelona, raised in India and educated in New York, and Queen Elizabeth II's lady-in-waiting for the first two years since her coronation.

Princess Astrid of Norway turned 90 on February 12 this year, the same age as Anne Abel Smith – sister of the late British Army officer, Colonel Richard Abel Smith, and of Elizabeth Abel Smith, now 86 – and Count Bertram of Castell-Rüdenhausen, who were all born in 1932.

Princess Marianne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is 89; Dorothea of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Margaretha of Sweden are 88; Queen Elizabeth II's first cousin Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, will be 87 this coming October 9.

The Archduchess Alexandra of Austria-Tuscany and Countess Victoria of Castell-Rüdenhausen are also 87, and the Archduke Dominic of Austria-Tuscany – also known as Dominic von Habsburg and the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne under the name of Domingo I – is 85, as is Princess Birgitta of Sweden.

King Harald of Norway – Princess Astrid's younger brother – turned 85 on February 21, and Princess Mechtilde of Leiningen is 86.

Born in the same year as King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, the Hereditary Prince Georg Andreas of Hohenlöhe-Langenburg (November 24), Princess Désirée of Sweden (June 2), and Calma Schnirring (November 18), are now either 84 or will be this year.

Queen Victoria's youngest living great-great-grandchildren are Elizabeth Ramsay, 59; Alice Ramsay, 61; Katharine Fraser, Mistress of Saltoun, 65; Robin Alexander Bryan, 65; the Grand Duchess Marie Vladimirovna of Russia, 69; and Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 71.

The other 27 still alive were all born between 1939 and 1949 inclusive.

Queen Victoria's first-ever great-great-granchild to be born was the Duke of Edinburgh's sister, the eldest of five – Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark, who came into the world on April 18, 1905.

Elizabeth Ramsay – or The Honourable Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Ramsay of Mar – has no Royal duties or titles, but is 361st in line to the British throne and the youngest of the 142, born on April 15, 1963 – meaning an age gap of 58 years, minus three days, between third cousins at either end of the line.