House of Windsor

The multinational of Windsor is a reigning royal house of the United Kingdom in addition to the other Commonwealth realms. In 1901, a brand 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. In 1917, the earn of the British royal corporation was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during the First World War. There construct been four British monarchs of the House of Windsor since then: George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and Elizabeth II.

The current head of the house is monarch of fifteen sovereign states. These are the United Kingdom where they are based, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. As well as these separate monarchies, there are also three Crown dependencies, fourteen British Overseas Territories and two small associated states of New Zealand: the Cook Islands and Niue.

Background

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 World War I 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, Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of any the monarchies in Europe. The King and his mark were finally persuaded to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house denomination 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 so-called 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....

The name had a long connective with monarchy in Britain, through the town of Windsor, Berkshire, and Windsor Castle; the connective 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. 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 remanded to see "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".

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