A royal family is the immediate family of a king or queen regnant , and sometimes his or her extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while the terms comital family, ducal family, grand ducal family, or princely family are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning count, duke,grand duke, or prince.

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The British royal family comprises the monarch of the United Kingdom and her close relations. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the British royal family, and apart from Queen Elizabeth II herself, different lists will include different people. Those who, at a time in question, carry the style Her or His Royal Highness (HRH), and any styled Her or His Majesty (HM), are normally considered members, including those so styled before the beginning of the current monarch's reign.

By this criterion, a list of the current royal family will usually include the monarch, the consort of the monarch, the widows of previous monarchs, the children and male-line grandchildren of the monarch and previous monarchs, the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, and the wives or widows of the monarch's and previous monarchs' sons and male-line grandsons.

Some members of the royal family have official residences named as the places from which announcements are made in the Court Circular about official engagements they have carried out. The state duties and staff of some members of the royal family are funded from a parliamentary annuity, the amount of which is fully refunded by the Queen to the Treasury.

Since 1917, when King George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, members of the royal family belong, either by birth or by marriage, to the House of Windsor.

Senior titled members of the royal family do not usually use a surname, although since 1960 Mountbatten-Windsor, incorporating Prince Philip's adopted surname of Mountbatten, has been prescribed as a surname for Elizabeth II's direct descendants who do not have royal styles and titles, and it has sometimes been used when required for those who do have such titles.

Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families. He was born in Greece, but his family was exiled from the country when he was an infant.

After being educated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, he joined the Royal Navy in 1939, aged 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth (his third cousin through Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and second cousin once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark), whom he had first met in 1934. During the Second World War he served with the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets.