House of Windsor

"A Good Riddance"; cartoon from Punch, Vol. 152, 27 June 1917, commenting on the King's order to relinquish all German titles held by members of his family

Edward VII and, in turn, his son, George V, were members of the German ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by virtue of their descent from Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, the last British monarch from the House of Hanover. High anti-German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during the First World War reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. In the same year, on 15 March, King George's first cousin Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The King and his family were finally persuaded to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor....[3]

The name had a long association with monarchy in Britain, through the town of Windsor, Berkshire, and Windsor Castle; the link is alluded to in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle being the basis of the badge of the House of Windsor. It was suggested by Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham.[4] Upon hearing that his cousin had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor and in reference to Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, German Emperor Wilhelm II remarked jokingly that he planned to see "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".[5]

George V also restricted the use of British princely titles to his nearest relations,[6] and in 1919, he stripped three of his German relations of their British titles and styles.[7]

Members of the House of Windsor on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, 15 June 2013. Left to right: Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Lady Rose Gilman; Prince Michael of Kent; Princess Michael of Kent; Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor; Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn; Sophie, Countess of Wessex; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Charles, Prince of Wales; Elizabeth II; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Princess Eugenie; Princess Beatrice; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; Katharine, Duchess of Kent

The 1917 proclamation stated that the name of the Royal House and all British descendants of Victoria and Albert in the male line were to bear the name of Windsor, except for women who married into other families.

At the creation of the House of Windsor, its head reigned over the British Empire. Following the end of the First World War, however, shifts took place that saw the emergence of the Dominions of the British Commonwealth as independent states. The shift was recognised in the Balfour Declaration of 1926,[13][14] the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927,[15][16] and the Statute of Westminster 1931.[17][18] The Windsors became recognised as the royal family of multiple independent countries, a number that shifted over the decades, as some Dominions became republics and Crown colonies became realms, republics, or monarchies under a different sovereign.[19] Since 1949, three monarchs of the House of Windsor, George VI, Elizabeth II and Charles III, have also been Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, comprising most (but not all) parts of the former British Empire and some states that were never part of it.[20][21][22]

• British royal family
• British prince
• British princess
• Descendants of George V
• Succession to the British throne

• Longford, Elizabeth Harman (Countess of Longford). The Royal House of Windsor. Revised ed. Crown, 1984.
• Roberts, Andrew. The House of Windsor. University of California Press, 2000.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to House of Windsor.

• Royal Family name from royal.uk
• House of Windsor from royal.uk
• House of Windsor Tree from royal.gov.uk (Lord Culloden & Albert+Leopold Windsor are missing)