House of Windsor

Adéla Hlaváčová

Since this is the first, therefore the "opening" chapter to my project about the Royal family of Britain, I feel obligated to tell you something about the ruling house itself. In this chapter we'll get into history a little, we'll mention some of the most important members of this family and also explain the name change.

The House of Windsor is currently the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. However, before that there was the House Hanover, which was a very important German house that ruled for more than three centuries in Hanover, Great Britain and Ireland up until the death of its last heir: Queen Victoria in 1901. After she passed away, the throne of the United Kingdom passed to her oldest son: Edward VII. The new King was a descendant to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, because of his father Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and that is how this noble House came to power. There have been five British monarchs of the House of Windsor after Edward VII

(1901-1910) were: George V (1910-1936), Edward VIII (resigned), George VI (1936-1952), Elizabeth II (1952-2022), and Charles III (2022-). His elder son Prince William, duke of Cambridge, is heir apparent.

You might think that this is not the same house as House Windsor, but you'd be mistaken. The Royal House actually changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor. The reason behind this was that the previous name had German roots and it didn't even sound very English. In addition to that, the United Kingdom was in the middle of the First World War at that time, so this change of names also had an anti-German sentiment to it. Therefore, George V declared by royal proclamation (on July 17, 1917) that all descendants of Queen Victoria in the male line who were also British subjects would adopt the surname Windsor.