By 1910, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had
reigned in the United Kingdom and the British Empire for nine years. That
year,
the first monarch of that house, Edward VII, died and was succeeded by his
eldest surviving son, George V, who had served in the Royal Navy and considered
himself to be patriotically British. Yet the royal house to which he belonged
was anything but British. It was the ancestral house of his grandfather Prince
Albert, based on the German ducal lands his family held. Even so, the fact that the
royal family was of immediate German origin was not a secret, and it did little
to diminish the overall affection that the public had for them. World War I however,
would change that.
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|
King Edward VII
was the latest of a line of monarchs beginning with
George I in 1714 who were of German origin or descent. |
As the “war to end all wars” dragged on, Germans and
Britons of German descent became increasingly suspect in the eyes of the
British public, who were being fed stories about German war atrocities and cartoon
images of blood-thirsty German soldiers. The anti-German mood became so toxic,
that it manifested itself in riots and vandalism at homes and businesses owned by
people with Germanic names. This led to the forced resignation of Prince Louis of Battenberg – a German prince who was a decorated British naval officer of 40 years and a cousin of the royal family – from his office of First Sea Lord (which is the professional head of the British Naval Service). Eventually, the British Royal Family
itself was suspected of having too close of a connection with the enemy Hun, and not being full-heartedly
supportive of the British war effort against Germany. In fact, only the
opposite was true, but it certainly did not help being a first cousin of the
German kaiser, Wilhem II, as George V was (because both men were grandsons of
Queen Victoria). It also did the royal family no favors that it had a German
royal house name – Saxe-Coburg-Gotha – and held German titles. The writer H.G.
Wells criticized George for having an “alien and uninspiring court,” to which the king
responded, “I may be uninspiring, but I’ll be damned if I’m an alien!” But the
final straw came when Gotha G.IV planes were dropping bombs on London.
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| King George V (center), with his two eldest sons: Prince Edward (the future Edward VIII) on the left and Prince Albert (the future George VI) to the right. |
It soon became apparent that there needed to be a
change in name for the royal family. George did not know what his actual
surname might be, so the College of Heralds was consulted, and they reported
that his name was either Guelph (the
ancestral house of the Hanoverians) or more likely Wettin (the ancestral house of the Saxe-Coburg’s). Either way,
these names did not sound British, so a search began for new name. Proposed
names included those of former royal dynasties: Plantagenet, Lancaster, and
York. Tudor-Stewart was also suggested as a way to pay homage to the House of
Tudor, which ended the fratricidal Wars of the Roses in England, as
well as the
House of Stewart/Stuart, the Scottish royal house that brought the British Isles
together under one monarch. These names were written off as either too
English-oriented (in a kingdom which included the Scots, Irish, and Welsh) or
backward-looking for a royal family attempting to re-christen itself as being
a model, modern, and thoroughly British family. Eventually, George’s private secretary, Lord Stamfordham,
suggested Windsor, after the king’s
favorite residence of Windsor Castle, which has been a seat of the monarchy
since the days of William the Conqueror, and used by Scottish and British monarchs since
James VI & I ushered in the Union of the Crowns. There was also some
historical basis for using the name, since Edward III of England was known as “Edward
of Windsor” in his early years.
On July 27, 1917, King George V issued a proclamation in which he renamed his royal house and family Windsor and renounced the German titles that he and his family held. The proclamation
was
significant as it allowed male-line descendants of Queen Victoria without the
dignity and style of HRH Prince or Princess
to use Windsor as their surname. This was necessary for two reasons. Firstly,
George also issued Letters Patent that limited the dignity and style of a
British prince and princess to children of a monarch, male-line grandchildren
of a monarch, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.
Secondly, George V and Queen Mary had decided to allow their children to marry
native British men and women, because hitherto, it was largely unheard of for
royalty to in effect, marry their subjects, which explained the tendency to
marry members of other royal families (particularly Protestant ones based in
Germany). These two reasons guaranteed that there would be descendants of
reigning monarchs without princely titles who would require a surname.
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| Arthur Bigge, Baron Stamfordham, the man who suggested Windsor as a family name for George V and his family in 1917. |
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|
Windsor Castle.
Built by William the Conqueror, it has been a royal residence since Henry I of
England, and extensively modified and enlarged by successive English and
British monarchs.
|
On July 27, 1917, King George V issued a proclamation in which he renamed his royal house and family Windsor and renounced the German titles that he and his family held. The proclamation
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| Good Riddance: King George V sweeping away his titles "Made in Germany" |
In practice however, the name has been used by
titled members of the royal family for birth registrations, marriage
certificates, and other purposes. For example, the reigning queen’s father –
the future George VI, who was then styled as His Royal Highness Prince Albert, Duke of York –
was listed as “Windsor, Albert F.A.G. (Duke of York)” in an official index of registered British marriages in 1923. The initials F.A.G. stand for his middle
names, Frederick Arthur George, and the maiden name of his bride, Lady Elizabeth
Bowes-Lyon, is listed in the column next to him.
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| The marriage of Albert F.A.G. Windsor (the future George VI) to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as listed on an official marriage index. Source: Freebmd.org.uk |
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| The birth of Elizabeth A.M. Windsor (the future Elizabeth II), as listed on an official birth registration index. Source: Freebmd.org.uk |
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| The names of Philip Mountbatten and Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor as written on the marriage register of Westminster Abbey. |
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| The birth of Charles P.A.G. Windsor (Prince Charles) as listed on an official birth registration index. Source: Freebmd.org.uk |
But upon Elizabeth II’s accession in 1952, the question of the name of the
royal family was re-opened. She had married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of
Edinburgh (formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), and like most women,
it was thought that she would take her husband’s name and that Mountbatten – the name of Philip’s
maternal relatives in Britain which he adopted upon his naturalization as a
British citizen – would be the name of their descendants. After her accession, Philip’s uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten (known as
“Dickie”), boasted at a dinner party that the “House of Mountbatten” now
reigned. This insolent comment got around to Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary who convinced
Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Windsor
– the name chosen by her husband George V back in 1917 – and not Mountbatten ought to be
the name of the royal family. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (Elizabeth II's mother) agreed with
Churchill and Queen Mary, and the new reigning queen herself wished to stick to the name
of her father and grandfather. On April 9, 1952, she issued a statement
reaffirming that her house and family would continue to bear the name Windsor.
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| Queen Mary was not amused about the prospect of the royal family becoming the House of Mountbatten. |
In reality however, the House of Windsor would have continued throughout the
Queen’s reign. Traditionally, female monarchs reigned as members of the house/surname
into which they had been born, while their successors reigned as members of the
house/surname of their husband. For example, Queen Victoria was born into the
House of Hanover, and reigned as the last monarch of that house in the United
Kingdom. Her son, Edward VII became the first monarch of the House of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the ancestral house of his father and Victoria’s
husband, Prince Albert. So by convention, the “House of Mountbatten” would not have come about until the accession of Prince Charles (or his male-line heirs).
But in 1952, there were members of the British
establishment who had
been suspicious of Philip from before his marriage to Elizabeth. He had been a penniless Greek prince who came from a Germanic background – having been born into the German-Danish House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg – and his sisters had
all married German princes, some of whom had Nazi connections. Philip did have an honorable record serving in the Royal Navy during World War
II, but his foreign background and brash temperament made him an outsider to the British establishment (which hoped that he would simply do no harm to the monarchy). His “Uncle Dickie”
Mountbatten was a generally well-liked and
respected member of that establishment (being a skilled and effective military leader and statesman), who exuded charm, confidence, and charisma. But Mountbatten was also viewed as pompous
and arrogant, always shamelessly using his connections to lobby for jobs and positions he wanted. Mountbatten
was also thought to hold views to the left of the political spectrum, and his
role in Indian independence did nothing to endear him to the arch-imperialist
Churchill (who as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1914, had forced Mountbatten's father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, to resign from his post as First Sea Lord). It was also feared that Mountbatten could use his
connections with
the royal family to create a more “progressive” monarchy that would shape government policy. So the establishment simply
did not want the Mountbatten name to be plastered on the monarchy in the generations
yet to come, and wanted the Queen, in writing, to state that Windsor would be
the name of her house and the name that her descendants would carry. (Mountbatten would eventually have his own last laugh against Churchill and the establishment by becoming First Sea Lord some forty years after his father's forced resignation.) For his
part, Philip was not enthusiastic about the Mountbatten surname, but
nonetheless believed in the general principle that his children and future
descendants ought to take his name, and he explained the traditional passing of
royal house names to Churchill and members of his cabinet (see previous
paragraph). Though Philip was historically correct, the Cabinet rebuffed this,
as well as his attempt to find a compromise with names such as Edinburgh and
Edinburgh-Windsor (based on his title, Duke
of Edinburgh). He bitterly complained to a friend that he was nothing but
“a bloody amoeba,” unable to pass his name on to his children like other men.
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| Lord Lionel Hastings Ismay, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and President Franklin Roosevelt. Churchill liked Mountbatten for his service in World War II, but came to loathe him for his role as the last Viceroy of India and overseeing the process of Indian independence. |
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|
The Duke of
Edinburgh wanted to have a name
representing his side of the family, but the young Queen sided with her establishment adviser's and stuck to the Windsor name. |
The issue remained a sore point for Philip in the
early years of the Elizabeth’s reign. But by 1960, with the death of Queen Mary
in 1953, the resignation of Churchill in 1955, and the withdrawal of much of
the old guard at the Palace and in government, the Queen decided to make an
attempt to lay the issue to rest. On February 8, 1960, after extensive talks
with her ministers and advisors, the Queen announced a compromise in which her
royal house and family would continue to be known as Windsor, but that her and Philip’s male-line descendants without
the style and dignity of HRH Prince or Princess
would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
(It should be noted that this change did not affect the Queen’s male cousins
through George V and Queen Mary – the Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Kent, and
Prince Michael of Kent – or their descendants, whose surname remained Windsor). But the effect has
been that
the surname has been available for use by all of the Queen’s children and
her descendants with British princely titles on occasions when a surname may be necessary (such
as on birth and marriage certificates). Princess Anne signed her name as Mountbatten-Windsor upon her 1973
marriage to Captain Mark Phillips, and her maiden name is listed as such on the
1977 birth registration index containing their son, Peter Phillips. The children
of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex – who do not use the royal titles afforded to
them by birth – are styled as children of an earl: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor
and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn. (Prince Edward’s secondary
title is Viscount Severn, and it is customary for the eldest son of a man with
aristocratic titles to use the secondary title, known as a courtesy title).
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| Mountbatten-Windsor is listed as Princess Anne's maiden name on the birth registration list containing her son, Peter Phillips. Source: Freebmd.org.uk |
But there is one more wrinkle in all of this:
members of the royal family who have territorial titles (i.e., Prince of Wales)
can use the territorial designation of such titles as an informal surname. For example, Prince Edward was known as “Edward Windsor” during his time working in
the entertainment industry, but upon becoming Earl of Wessex in 1999, he became
professionally known as “Edward Wessex.” Prince William – whose formal title
before
becoming Duke of Cambridge was
Prince William of Wales – decided to
be known as “William Wales” while he attended the University of St. Andrews as
well as during his military career, and Prince Harry has done the same (owning to the fact that their father is the Prince of Wales). The
recently-born Prince George of Cambridge will probably be informally known as “George
Cambridge” for similar purposes. This is why members of the royal family are
sometimes referred to as the Wales's (Prince of Wales & family), Cambridge’s (Prince William, Duke of
Cambridge & family), York’s
(Prince Andrew, Duke of York & family), Wessex’s (Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex & family), as well as the Kent’s and
Gloucester’s (who are the Queen's cousins through George V and Queen Mary), and so on.
In the final analysis (and to give a straight answer), Mountbatten-Windsor is the surname of the royal family of Queen Elizabeth II, but the members of the family with the style and dignity of HRH Prince or Princess are not required to use it except perhaps for circumstances in which a surname may be necessary, such as signing birth and marriage certificates. Such members can use informal surnames derived from the territorial designation of their titles or just the titles themselves without any surname at all, which explains the absence of a surname on Prince George’s birth certificate.
It should be noted that the name of the royal house and family can change at any time, either at the behest of a reigning monarch, or by the accession of a monarch with a different house and family name than the previous one. Upon Prince Charles becoming king however, it is not expected that he will make changes to the name of the royal family, and that the he and his family will continue to be of the House of Windsor, whilst the formal surname will continue to be Mountbatten-Windsor.
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| Flight Lieutenant William Wales |
In the final analysis (and to give a straight answer), Mountbatten-Windsor is the surname of the royal family of Queen Elizabeth II, but the members of the family with the style and dignity of HRH Prince or Princess are not required to use it except perhaps for circumstances in which a surname may be necessary, such as signing birth and marriage certificates. Such members can use informal surnames derived from the territorial designation of their titles or just the titles themselves without any surname at all, which explains the absence of a surname on Prince George’s birth certificate.
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|
On his birth
certificate, Prince George was written in as
His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. |
It should be noted that the name of the royal house and family can change at any time, either at the behest of a reigning monarch, or by the accession of a monarch with a different house and family name than the previous one. Upon Prince Charles becoming king however, it is not expected that he will make changes to the name of the royal family, and that the he and his family will continue to be of the House of Windsor, whilst the formal surname will continue to be Mountbatten-Windsor.
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| The Badge of the House of Windsor |
Photo Credit: Mark S. Jobling via Wikimedia Commons cc, German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) via Wikimedia Commons cc, BiblioArchives/Library Archives via Flickr cc, Robert Payne via Flickr cc, Sodacan via Wikimedia Commons cc
Sources:
Marr, Andrew. The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2012. Print (Pages 22-25, 50-53, 74-77, 88, 135-137).
Smith, Sally Bedell. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. New York: Random House. 2012. Print (Pages 146-147).
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