Book: Philip 'almost brutal' over name

LONDON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Queen Elizabeth of Britain's refusal to take her husband's family name caused a 10-year rift in her marriage to Prince Philip, an upcoming biography says.

Philip, who was given the title duke of Edinburgh when he married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, used the name Mountbatten, an Anglicized version of his mother's German family name, Battenberg.

When his wife became queen, she insisted the royal family would remain the House of Windsor, the name her grandfather, King George V, adopted during World War I.

Vanity Fair reported Philip was so angry he engaged in what Prime Minister Harold MacMillan described in his diary as an "almost brutal" attitude over the name, The Daily Telegraph said. The queen changed her mind on the name in 1960 when she was pregnant with her third child, Andrew, duke of York, and another official said she was at one point in tears.

Bedell Smith's biography, "Elizabeth the Queen," is to be published in January.

In the eventual compromise, Elizabeth's descendants have the name Mountbatten-Windsor unless they are entitled to the designation "royal highness." Princess Anne used Mountbatten-Windsor when she signed the marriage register after her first wedding.

Bedell Smith suggests Philip's anger might have been a reason for the 10-year gap between the births of Anne and Andrew.