Question for Royalphiles.
I notice that Elizabeth 1st was bestowed the the title of Queen simply by her marriage to Berty/George. Why wasn’t Phillip bestowed the title of “King”?
has to be in the blood line for that title
That very significant Queen, Elizabeth I, was the daughter of Henry 8th and Anne Boleyn. She reigned from 1558 to 1603. She died childless and was succeeded by a cousin from the royal line of succession.
The present Queen, Elizabeth II, is the daughter of King George VI, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a "commoner" from an aristocratic Scottish family. Bowes-Lyon was titled Duchess of York when she married her husband; she was called Queen Consort when her husband was crowned King (after his brother abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson), and in widowhood she was titled Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The Brit's royalty traditions extend back over a thousand years, long before feminism. Elizabeth II was crowned in the 1950s and Prince Philip's titles were decided then. The custom has been that a King can call his wife "Queen" or "Queen Consort" because the public would automatically think he is "greater" than his wife. But a hereditary Sovereign Queen on the throne does not call her spouse "King," so that there will be no mistake who is in charge.
When Elizabeth II took the throne in 1952, women generally speaking were not regarded as the equals of men, and only a handful of women had reigned in Britain over the centuries; but her great-great-grandmother Victoria, whose reign ended at death in 1901, had established respect for a female Sovereign, and was Britain's longest-serving Sovereign (if I'm not mistaken) until the present Queen, Elizabeth II.
When Charles takes the throne, his wife Camilla is rumored to be titled "Queen Consort," although a large segment of the public dislike this idea and would prefer she continue to be called "Duchess" or "Princess" because of her infidelity with Charles while he was married to Diana. But Meghan and Harry's recent disrespectful behavior has taken some of the heat of scandal off of Camilla, and the public will likely accept the "Queen Consort" title for her.