House of Windsor: The reigning royal house of UK that got its name in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment

New Delhi: The demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension of King Charles III have brought back the focus on the House of Windsor, the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. In 1901, a line of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (itself a cadet branch of the House of Wettin) succeeded the House of Hanover to the British monarchy with the accession of King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Then, when did the house change its name? This article endeavours to present you with the answer to this question.

Why was the name changed?

King Edward VII and 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. During World War I, there were extreme anti-German sentiments in Britain.

And things became worse in March 1917, when Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. On March 15, King George’s first cousin, Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, was forced to abdicate, and it brought the monarchy under the threat of extinction all over Europe. The boiling political situation in the continent and the anti-German sentiment in Britain meant that the King and his family were forced to forsake all titles held under the German Crown and change German titles and house names to anglicised versions.

The House of Windsor came into being in 1917 when the name was adopted as the British Royal Family’s official name by a proclamation of King George V, replacing the historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

As per the 1917 proclamation, 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. In 1947, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), married Philip Mountbatten (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg. Before his marriage, Philip abandoned his princely titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten, which was that of his maternal uncle and mentor, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and had itself been adopted by Lord Mountbatten’s father (Philip’s maternal grandfather), Prince Louis of Battenberg, in 1917.

After she became the Queen in 1952, the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill advised her to issue a royal proclamation declaring that the royal house was to remain known as the House of Windsor, which she did on April 9, 1952, officially declaring it her “Will and Pleasure that I and My children shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that My descendants, other than female descendants who marry and their descendants, shall bear the name of Windsor.” Any future monarch can change the dynastic name through a similar royal proclamation.

Monarchs of the House of Windsor