As we saw in Game of Thrones, Royal families have distinguished themselves by their house names, or last name if you wish, creating dynasties. Britain is no different, and with time, we’ve seen a parade of iconic Royal Houses that some have managed to outstand and others have simply been forgotten.
Think of the big Houses of York, Lancaster, and their union that created the Tudor dynasty, the Stuarts, the Hanover, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and naturally, the reigning house for over a century, the Windsors. Funny enough, the name Windsor was adopted by the Royal Family and it’s not the real one. As a matter of fact, the reigning family still belongs to Queen Victoria’s house, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Why did they change it, and who did it?
[Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with their nine children]
The Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Royal House
This German dynasty has had royals spread throughout the globe in different countries going as far as Mexico during the second Empire led by Maximilian of Habsburg and his wife Carlota. In England it came through Queen Victoria, to be more precise, through her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Traditionally, the name of the monarch came from their father, so even when Victoria herself belonged to this Royal House on her mother’s side, she inherited the name of Hanover. The Hanovers (also from Germany) came into power in the early 18th century and provided six British, starting with the first four Georges, William IV, and his niece Queen Victoria. That is almost three centuries of rule, the longest in England’s history since the Plantagenets.
So, when Victoria passed, in 1901, Hanover stopped being the reigning house passing the torch to the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha through King Edward VII, Queen Victoria’s eldest son. However, it soon became necessary to think of another name for the Royal Family if they wanted to survive. At the end of the day, as we mentioned, centuries had passed with the monarchy having a foreign name, and as political tensions in the continent grew bigger and bigger, that would turn against them.
[King George V with his children]
The Windsor House
When Edward VII’s son, George V, became King in 1910, he automatically took his father’s house name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Up until now, these weren’t precisely used as surnames until this George V. So, to put up a bit of context, just three years after George became king, WWI outbroke. While England was stuck in this war, George saw the demise of two of the most powerful monarchies in the continent, and to be more specific, monarchies ruled by his relatives.
In Germany, his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, and in Russia, also his cousin Tsar Nicholas II had an even more terrible fate. With Germany as the enemy to beat in this violent war, anti-German sentiments started to grow rapidly. As a direct cousin of the former German monarch, George feared he and the monarchy would face a similar ending, or worse. Belonging to a German House wasn’t helping either; he had to act fast and rebrand the entire Royal Family.
Many ideas came to the table including past names like Tudor or the ancient House of Plantagenet, but they knew they needed something new and fresh. Lord Stamfordham, King George V’s private secretary, suggested it should be the name of a place the people of Britain automatically associated with the monarchy. After many suggestions, the name Windsor came out as the name of the main residences of the Royal Family. It had everything they were looking for: it was easy and short, and more importantly, rooted in English history and culture.
On July 17, 1917, King George proclaimed: “our house and family shall be styled and known as Windsor.” That meant that not only would the House adopt the name but that also all its members would take Windsor as a surname.
[Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip]
What about Mountbatten?
Windsor got stuck rapidly, and no one questioned to change it until Queen Elizabeth II became Queen. Following the lineage tradition, her son, Prince Charles, should’ve had taken the name of his father Prince Philip Mountbatten (the anglicized version of Battenberg), which wasn’t his real name either but Glücksburg. However, Parliament decided that they all should keep their mother’s surname Windsor, at the end of the day, only about a decade had passed since the end of WWII, and anti-German sentiments were still high.
While the official name of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s descendants is Windsor, some of them have used Mountbatten. A clear example is Prince Harry’s children Archie and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. But other royals have used it as well, such as Princess Anne when she married Captain Mark Philips and Prince Andrew when he wedded Fergie Ferguson.
Changing the British house name to Windsor might’ve been one of the best publicity stunts ever made in Royal History. Thanks to the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Windsors have been in power for over a century, but if we want to be more precise, Elizabeth still belongs to the Hanover dynasty, so they’ve been wearing a Crown for over three centuries, almost reaching the Plantagenet record of 331 years of rule.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
