Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German? Part I

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George V of the United Kingdom, German, Giuseppe Garibaldi, House of Bourbon, House of Habsburg, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, House of Windsor, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, Unification of Italy

Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?

I was going to address this topic when the King visited Germany. I was also going to discuss this topic before the Coronation. Oh, well……better late than never.

I saw many comments on social media about the King and the Royal Family being German. It seems to be a popular belief, and also a very popular insult, to see King Charles III as being German.

I want to approach this issue not just as an historian, but as if I were a lawyer building my case. So here we go!

Question: Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?

My answer: No he is not!

Does he have German ancestry?

My answer: Absolutely!

I think this is an important distinction between nationality, ethnicity and ancestry which I’d like to explain and I’d like to explain why I think these distinctions is important.

First of all, why I think nationality is important I believe it is important because perception of nationality is important. Perception of a monarchs nationality has led to some problems. I would like to discuss two cases.

In the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the succeeding Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies being perceived as a foreign dynasty was part of the reason why the reigning Bourbon Dynasty was deposed in 1861 under Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Free to permit my indulgence here as I briefly relay the history of the kingdom of Sicily to demonstrate my point.

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula from its founding by Count Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula.

Capetian Dynasty

Charles I (early 1226/1227 – January 7, 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian Dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. Charles was the youngest son of King Louis VIII of the Franks and Infanta Blanche of Castile.

The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capét. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin, meaning “from Anjou” in France.

In 1263, after years of negotiations, Charles of Anjou accepted the offer of the Holy See to seize the Kingdom of Sicily from the German Hohenstaufens. Pope Urban IV declared a crusade against the incumbent Manfred of Sicily and assisted Charles in raising funds for the military campaign. Charles was crowned King of Sicily in Rome on January 5, 1266.

In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, threw off Charles of Anjou’s rule of the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the mainland part of the kingdom, which became a separate entity, a separate sovereign kingdom, also styled the Kingdom of Sicily, although it is commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital.

Sicily eventually passed to the Kingdom of Aragon and then back to the main Royal line of France and eventually to the imperial House of Habsburg.

In 1734, in the aftermath of the War of the Polish Succession, Naples was reconquered by King Felipe V of Spain, a French Prince of the House of Bourbon, who installed his younger son, Charles, as Duke of Parma, and he also became as King Charles VII of Naples, starting a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. He also became King of Sicily with the name of Charles V of Sicily the next year.

Charles (Carlos) succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759 upon the death of his childless half-brother King Fernando VI. He became King Carlos III of Spain. But treaty provisions made him ineligible to hold all three crowns simultaneously therefore on October 6, Carlos III abdicated his Neapolitan and Sicilian titles in favour of his third son, because his eldest son Philip had been excluded from succession due to mental instability and his second son Infante Carlos was heir-apparent to the Spanish throne.

The third son became King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and King Ferdinand III of the Kingdom of Sicily. Ferdinand III-IV was the founder of the cadet House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

During the Congress of Vienna of 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily were restored and united as one singular Kingdom, with Ferdinand III-IV becoming King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies under the House of Bourbon.

On April 4, 1860 the latest revolt against the Bourbon regime broke out. Giuseppe Garibaldi, funded and directed by the Piedmontese prime minister Cavour, assisted the revolt.

On October 21, 1860, a Plebiscite regarding the unification of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with Italy was conducted. The outcome of the referendum was 432,053 (99%) in favour and only 667 in opposition to the unification. Despite claims and evidence of the Plebiscite being “obviously rigged”, many Sicilians viewed the unification as an acceptance of the House of Savoy which were Kings of Sardinia-Peidmont.

King Francis II was the last King of the Two Sicilies from 1859 to 1861. After successive invasions by Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia ultimately brought an end to his rule, as part of Italian unification. After he was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Peidmont were merged into the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Peidmont became the first King of Italy.

It wasn’t just the House of Bourbon in the Two Sicilies that was deposed, the House of Bourbon as Dukes of Parma were also deposed as well as the House of Habsburg which ruled Tuscany as its Grand Dukes.

The United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom In 1917, the name of the British Royal House 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.

King Edward VII and, in turn, his son, King George V, were members of the German ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by virtue of their descent from Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, herself 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, 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 July 17, 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

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….

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.

Of the deposing of the House of Bourbon and it’s Italian kingdoms and the name change of the British royal house during World War I raises a question for me.

How many generations does a family need to live within a region or country to be considered a native of that country?

The concludes Part I. Join me back tomorrow as I will answer some of these questions and conclude this topic of “Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?”

May 3, 1870: Birth of Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg

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House of Windsor, King George V of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Helen Victoria of Schleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Royal Titles, YWCA

Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (Victoria Louise Sophia Augusta Amelia Helena; May 3, 1870 – March 13, 1948) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. From 1917 her name was simply Princess Helena Victoria.

Princess Helena Victoria (always known to her family as Thora) was born at Frogmore House, near Windsor Castle. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, the third son of Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
and Countess Louise af Danneskjold-Samsøe.

Her mother was Princess Helena, the fifth child and third daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her parents resided in Britain from marriage.

She was baptised in the private chapel at Windsor Castle on June 20, 1870. Her godparents were Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Cambridge (former Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel), Princess Louise, Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold, Prince Valdemar of Denmark, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Princess Louise Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Caroline Amelie of Schleswig-Holstein (the latter two represented by the Duchess of Roxburghe).

She was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her maternal aunt Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg and also at the wedding of her cousins the Duke and Duchess of York (future George V and Queen Mary) in 1893.

She spent most of her childhood at Cumberland Lodge, her father’s residence as Ranger of Windsor Great Park. Known to her family as “Thora”, or sometimes “Snipe”, in reference to her sharp facial features, formally she used the names “Helena Victoria” from among her string of six given names.

First World War

As a male-line granddaughter of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess Helena Victoria would have been styled Serene Highness (Durchlaucht) in the German Empire.

In May 1866, Queen Victoria had conferred the higher style of Highness upon any children to be born of the marriage of Princess Helena and Prince Christian, although the children were to remain Prince or Princess of Schleswig-Holstein.

In June 1917, a notice appeared in the Court Circular that a Royal Warrant was to be prepared by George V dispensing with his cousins’ use of the “Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg” part of their titles.

However no warrant was issued, nor were they formally granted the titles of Princesses of Great Britain and Ireland nor of the United Kingdom in their own right.

In July 1917, King George V changed the name of the British royal family to the House of Windsor. He also relinquished, on behalf of himself and his numerous cousins who were British subjects, the use of their German titles, styles, and surnames. Princess Helena Victoria and her younger sister, Princess Marie Louise, thereupon ceased to use the territorial designation “of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.”

Instead, they became known simply as “Her Highness Princess Helena Victoria” and “Her Highness Princess Marie Louise”. Although the two had borne German titles, their upbringing and domicile were entirely English.

Later life

Princess Helena Victoria never married. She followed her mother’s example in working for various charitable organizations, most notably YMCA, Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and Princess Christian’s Nursing Home at Windsor. During World War I, she founded the YWCA Women’s Auxiliary Force. As its president, she visited British troops in France and obtained the permission of the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, to arrange entertainments for them.

Between the world wars, she and her sister, Princess Marie Louise, were enthusiastic patrons of music at Schomberg House, their London residence. After a German air raid damaged the house in 1940, the two princesses moved to Fitzmaurice Place, Berkeley Square.

In ill health and a wheelchair user after World War II, Princess Helena Victoria made one of her last major appearances at the November 20, 1947 wedding of her first cousin twice removed Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.

Princess Helena Victoria died at Fitzmaurice Place, Berkeley Square. Her funeral took place at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and she was buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore, Windsor Great Park. She died at the age of 77, the same age at which her mother, Princess Helena, had also died.

January 20, 1936 – Death of King George V of the United Kingdom

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Duke of York, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, George V of the United Kingdom, House of Windsor, King Christian IX of Denmark, Marie of Edinburgh, Prince Albert Edward, Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Sandringham Estate

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6, 1910 until his death in 1936.

George was born in Marlborough House, London. He was the second son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales (future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and his mother was the eldest daughter of King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark (born a Princess of Hesse-Cassel).

He was baptised at Windsor Castle on July 7, 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley.At birth George was third in the line of succession to the British throne behind his father and elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1892, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne.

As a young man destined to serve in the navy, Prince George served for many years under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was stationed in Malta. There, he grew close to and fell in love with his cousin, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. His grandmother, father and uncle all approved the match, but his mother and aunt—the Princess of Wales and Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh—opposed it.

The Princess of Wales thought the family was too pro-German, and the Duchess of Edinburgh disliked England. The Duchess, the only daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, resented the fact that, as the wife of a younger son of the British sovereign, she had to yield precedence to George’s mother, the Princess of Wales, whose father had been a minor German prince before being called unexpectedly to the throne of Denmark. Guided by her mother, Marie refused George when he proposed to her. She married Ferdinand, the future King of Romania, in 1893.

Princess Marie of Edinburgh

In November 1891, George’s elder brother, Albert Victor, became engaged to his second cousin once removed Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, known as “May” within the family. Her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck (a member of a morganatic, cadet branch of the House of Württemberg), and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a male-line granddaughter of King George III and a first cousin of Queen Victoria.

On January 14, 1892, six weeks after the formal engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia during an influenza pandemic, leaving George second in line to the throne, and likely to succeed after his father.George had only just recovered from a serious illness himself, after being confined to bed for six weeks with typhoid fever, the disease that was thought to have killed his grandfather Prince Albert. Queen Victoria still regarded Princess May as a suitable match for her grandson, and George and May grew close during their shared period of mourning.

Prince George of Wales and Princess Mary of Teck on their wedding

A year after Albert Victor’s death, George proposed to May and was accepted. They married on July 6, 1893 at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Throughout their lives, they remained devoted to each other. George was, on his own admission, unable to express his feelings easily in speech, but they often exchanged loving letters and notes of endearment.The death of his elder brother effectively ended George’s naval career, as he was now second in line to the throne, after his father.

George was created Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killarney by Queen Victoria on her birthday May 24, 1892, and received lessons in constitutional history from J. R. Tanner.

The Duke and Duchess of York had five sons and a daughter. Randolph Churchill claimed that George was a strict father, to the extent that his children were terrified of him, and that George had remarked to the Earl of Derby: “My father was frightened of his mother, I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.”

In reality, there is no direct source for the quotation and it is likely that George’s parenting style was little different from that adopted by most people at the time. Whether this was the case or not, his children did seem to resent his strict nature, Prince Henry going as far as to describe him as a “terrible father” in later years.

They lived mainly at York Cottage, a relatively small house in Sandringham, Norfolk, where their way of life mirrored that of a comfortable middle-class family rather than royalty. George preferred a simple, almost quiet, life, in marked contrast to the lively social life pursued by his father.

On Victoria’s death on January 22, 1901, George’s father ascended the throne as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales.

George became King-Emperor George V on his father’s death in 1910.

George V’s reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape of the British Empire. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords.

Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and King George V of the United Kingdom

As a result of the First World War (1914–1918), the empires of his first cousins Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and German Emperor Wilhelm II fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent.In 1917, he became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment.

In 1924, George appointed the first Labour ministry and the 1931 Statute of Westminster recognised the Empire’s dominions as separate, independent states within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

He suffered from smoking-related health problems, such as chronic chronic bronchitis, throughout much of his later reign.

In 1925, on the instruction of his doctors, he was reluctantly sent on a recuperative private cruise in the Mediterranean; it was his third trip abroad since the war, and his last. In November 1928, he fell seriously ill with septicaemia, and for the next two years his son Edward took over many of his duties.In 1929, the suggestion of a further rest abroad was rejected by the King “in rather strong language”.

Instead, he retired for three months to Craigweil House, Aldwick, in the seaside resort of Bognor, Sussex. As a result of his stay, the town acquired the suffix “Regis”, which is Latin for “of the King”. A myth later grew that his last words, upon being told that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, were “Bugger Bognor!”

George never fully recovered. In his final year, he was occasionally administered oxygen. The death of his favourite sister, Victoria, in December 1935 depressed him deeply.

On the evening of January 15, 1936, the King took to his bedroom at Sandringham House complaining of a cold; he remained in the room until his death. He became gradually weaker, drifting in and out of consciousness.

By January 20, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.” Dawson’s private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King’s last words, a mumbled “God damn you!”, were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night.

Dawson, who supported the “gentle growth of euthanasia”, admitted in the diary that he hastened the King’s death by injecting him, after 11:00 p.m., with two consecutive lethal injections: 3/4 of a grain of morphine followed shortly afterwards by a grain of cocaine. Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King’s dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King’s death at 11:55 p.m. could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than “less appropriate … evening journals”.

Neither Queen Mary, who was intensely religious and might not have sanctioned euthanasia, nor the Prince of Wales was consulted. The royal family did not want the King to endure pain and suffering and did not want his life prolonged artificially but neither did they approve Dawson’s actions.British Pathé announced the King’s death the following day, in which he was described as “for each one of us, more than a King, a father of a great family”.

His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.

February 8, 1960: Creation of the Surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

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1917 Letter's Patent, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Edinburgh, House of Windsor, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Mountbatten-Windsor, Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Sussex

Mountbatten-Windsor is the personal surname used by some of the male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Under a declaration made in Privy Council on February 8, 1960, the name Mountbatten-Windsor applies to male-line descendants of the Queen without royal styles and titles. Individuals with royal styles do not usually use a surname, but some descendants of the Queen with royal styles have used Mountbatten-Windsor when a surname was required.

The British monarchy asserts that the name Mountbatten-Windsor is used by members of the Royal Family who do not have a surname, when a surname is required. For example, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Anne, Princess Royal, children of the Queen, used the surname Mountbatten-Windsor in official marriage registry entries in 1986 and 1973 respectively. Likewise, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, used the name when filing a French lawsuit related to the topless pictures of his wife published by the French magazine Closer.

At the time of the 1960 declaration, palace officials claimed in private communications that it created a hidden surname that would emerge several generations later when some of Queen Elizabeth II’s descendants were further removed from the throne. On the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, the Queen decided, with their agreement, that any children they might have should not be styled His or Her Royal Highness. Consequently, the birth of their daughter in 2003 marked the first emergence of the Mountbatten-Windsor surname. Their daughter was named Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor, although she goes by the courtesy title of Lady Louise Windsor, her father being the Earl of Wessex.

Mountbatten-Windsor differs from the official name of the British royal family, which remains the House of Windsor. In accordance with law and custom in the English-speaking world, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor belongs to all male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and is used by them if and when a surname is needed. Other descendants of King George V, the first monarch of the House of Windsor, use Windsor as their surname if and when a surname is needed: for example, descendants of the King’s sons Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent. The King’s other two sons, King Edward VIII and Prince John, left no descendants.

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and is the first descendant of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to use the Mountbatten-Windsor surname.

A great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor is seventh in the line of succession to the British throne. He is also heir apparent to his father’s Dukedom of Sussex, Earldom of Dumbarton, and Barony of Kilkeel.

Under the terms of the Letters Patent issued by King George V in 1917 – the sons and daughters of sovereigns and the male-line grandchildren of sovereigns are entitled to the title of Princes/Princess with the style of Royal Highness. The Letters Patent in 1917 also included the eldest son of the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales – but was amended by Letters Patent by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 prior to the birth of Prince George of Cambridge so that all the children of the eldest living son of the Prince of Wales would bear royal rank.

As The Duke of Sussex is not the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, his son is neither a British prince nor does he have the style Royal Highness, which is the gift of the Queen (usually acting on the wishes of the child’s parents). There was the option of using Prince Harry’s subsidiary title of Earl of Dumbarton, as a courtesy, but Meghan and Harry decided instead that he would be styled as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, in accordance with their wish that he grow up as a private citizen.

When the Prince of Wales becomes King, Archie then will become the grandson of the sovereign and he will technically be entitled to the title of Prince with the style of Royal Highness. However, the Prince of Wales has stated the desire to trim down the number of working members of the Royal Family, and with the desire that Archie grow up as a private citizen, his obtaining the style and title is highly unlikely. I suspect a new set of Letters Patent once the Prince of Wales becomes King, replacing the 1917 Letters Patent.

Queen and Duke of Edinburgh meet the new son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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1917 Letter's Patent, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, Duchess of Sussex, Duke of Sussex, Elizabeth II, House of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, House of Windsor, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Queens

Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor

TRH the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were today introduced to the newborn son of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle. The Duchess’ mother, Ms Doria Ragland was also present.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to announce that they have named their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Ms Doria Ragland and TRH the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were photographed with their newborn son earlier at Windsor Castle today.

The baby was born on Monday, 6th May, at 05:26 in the morning, weighing 7lbs 3oz at birth and The Duke of Sussex was present.

The name Archie was brought into England by the Normans when William I “The Conqueror” invaded England and became king in 1066. Eventually, in the Middle Ages, the name became common in Scotland and means ‘True and Bold.” The longer version is Archibald. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have simply used the shortened version of “Archie” as the official name.

Harrison simply means “Harry’s son” which I think is pretty clever.

Here is a link to my earlier blog post why Archie Mountbatten-Windsor will not have a tittle. https://europeanroyalhistory.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/will-the-children-of-the-duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-have-titles/

However, as a non-royal son of a Duke, Archie is entitled to be styled by his fathers secondary title “Earl of Dumbarton” but it has been confirmed that he will not use that title and will be simply known as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

Will the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have titles?

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Elizabeth II, House of Windsor, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Meghan Markle, Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Harry, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of Sussex

This past October Kensington Palace announced that HRH The Duchess of Sussex was pregnant. Seeing that she is due to deliver her child anytime from mid-April to early May I’d like to discuss and clear up any confusion to what titles the baby will have…if any.

Their Royal Hignesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

Under the provisions of the 1917 Letter’s Patent any children born to the Royal Couple during the life time of the Queen will NOT have a royal title. Under the provisions of the 1917 Letter’s Patent the royal title is limited to the grandchildren of the sovereign in the male line. The Duke and Duchess’ child will be great-grandchildren in the male line of the sovereign thus making them ineligible for a title.

However, if the child is a boy he will be called the Earl of Dumbarton since the Earldom of Dumbarton is a secondary title of the Duke of Sussex. The eldest son of a duke, marquess or earl almost always uses one of his father’s subsidiary titles as a courtesy title; for instance, the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex is called Viscount Severn. Generally, the practice of using a secondary title as a courtesy title for the heir to a noble title is applied to non-royal nobles. Since the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex does not have a title he is granted the use of a courtesy title. This will be the case if the son of the Duke of Sussex remains non-royal. In the case of Royals with a dukedom (the Duke of Cambridge for example) the heir to the title, Prince George in this case, uses “of Cambridge” as a territorial designation instead of Earl of Strathearn his father’s secondary title.

A male child will also be in line to inherit his father’s dukedom. Royal dukedoms are hereditary, according to the terms of the letters patent that created them, which usually contain the standard remainder to the “heirs male of his body”. However, if a male child of the Duke of Sussex remains without a royal title then the Dukedom of Sussex will cease to be a royal Dukedom once this child succeeds to the title.

The original 1917 Act only provided a title for a great-grandchild in the male line of the sovereign when that child is the eldest son, of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. In this instance, Prince George of Cambridge is again a good example.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and family.

The Queen issued new Letters Patent on December 31, 2012 declaring that all of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children will have the style of Royal Highness and be titled Princes and Princesses. The document states, “The QUEEN has been pleased by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated December 31, 2012 to declare that all the children of the eldest son of The Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of Royal Highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour.” This is how the siblings of Prince George of Cambridge, Charlotte and Louis, were able to be granted the style Royal Highness and Prince or Princess of the United Kingdom.

It is my understanding that this amendment of the 1917 Letters Patent wasn’t just for the children of the Duke of Cambridge but also for any children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales in the future, if ever the same circumstances arises.

The Queen could do something similar with the children of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. As the font of all honors Her Majesty is allowed to further amend the 1917 Act. However, in the long run it won’t be necessary when the Prince of Wales come to the throne. Any children born to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that are born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II will automatically gain the style Royal Highness and the title Prince/Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland when the Queen passes away; for they will no longer be great-grandchildren of the sovereign, they will be the grandchildren of the new sovereign, King Charles III.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

That is how things stand of today but they could change. I have encountered some people that believe the Queen will create Letters Patent granting the Royal Style and Title to the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Queen issued Letters Patent granting that all of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children will have the title of Royal Highness and be styled Princes and Princess on December 31, 2012, a full seven months before the birth of Prince George of Cambridge. It is of my opinion that if the Queen was going to create Letters Patent granting the Royal style and title to the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex she would have done it by now. It is possible she will create new Letters Patent for the Sussex baby and I could be wrong.

What I report next are rumors that haven’t been verified but are worth mentioning. There has been talk that when the Prince of Wales becomes king he desires to trim down the numbers of working royals. Also, I have heard that the Duke of Sussex, similar to the Earl of Wessex, desires that their children not be given a Royal title so they can be raised away from the limelight in order for them to have as normal of a life as possible. If any of that is true the Prince of Wales, as King, my create his own Letters Patent that replaces the 1917 Letters Patent restructuring the Royal Family and limiting titles.

HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

One thing is certain, whether boy or girl, the Baby of the Duke & Duchess of Sussex will be the FIRST to be officially surnamed Mountbatten-Windsor, per the Letters Patent of 1960. Under a declaration made in Privy Council in 1960, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor will be applied to male-line descendants of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh who are without royal styles and titles. Individuals with royal styles do not usually use a surname, but some descendants of the Queen with royal styles have used Mountbatten-Windsor when a surname was required.

On this date in History: Queen Elizabeth II decrees non-royal descendants the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

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Edward VII, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, House of Windsor, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Mountbatten, Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, the prince of Wales, Winston Churchill

On this date in History, February 8, 1960. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

In 1947, Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II), heiress presumptive to King George VI, married Philip Mountbatten. He was born a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg, and had been a prince of Greece and Denmark. However, Philip, a few months before his marriage, renounced his princely titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten, which was the surname 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. It is the literal translation of the German battenberg, which refers to Battenberg, a small town in Hesse. The Battenberg family were morganatic scions of the Grand Ducal House of Hesse and By Rhine (formally Hesse-Darmstadt).

Soon after Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, Lord Mountbatten observed that because it was the standard practice for the wife in a marriage to adopt her husband’s surname, the royal house had become the House of Mountbatten. This statement is rather surprising given Lord Mountbatten’s knowledge of his family’s royal genealogy and history in general. Plainly, Lord Mountbatten was wrong. Although it is true that technically the Queen was a Mountbatten by marriage, it was not true that the name of the Royal House had changed.

Traditionally a female sovereign reigned under the Royal House to which she was born, and the name of the Royal House would not change until the next generation. An example would be Queen Victoria (1837-1901) who was the last monarch of the House of Hanover (the Royal House representing her Patrilineal descent) while her son, King Edward VII (1901-1910) who was a member of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the same Royal House his father, Prince Albert, The Consort, belonged. It was the name of the Royal House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha that was changed to Windsor by King George V (1910-1936) in 1917.

When Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, (wife of George V) heard of Lord Mountbatten’s comment, she informed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and he later advised the Queen to issue a royal proclamation declaring that the royal house was to remain known as the House of Windsor. This 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.” The Duke of Edinburgh Is said to have privately complained, “I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.”

On February 8, 1960, seven years after the death of Queen Mary and the resignation of Churchill, the Queen confirmed that she and her children would continue to be known as the House and Family of Windsor, as would any agnaticdescendants who enjoy the style of Royal Highness and the title of Prince or Princess. However, the Queen took a step further from the April 1952 decree and also decreed that her agnatic descendants who do not have that style and title would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

This Amendment to the earlier decree came after some months of correspondence between the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the constitutional expert Edward Iwi. Iwi had raised the prospect that the Royal child due to be born in February 1960 would bear “the Badge of Bastardy” if it were given its mother’s maiden name (Windsor) rather than its father’s name (Mountbatten). Macmillan had attempted to rebuff Iwi, until the Queen advised the acting Prime Minister Rab Butler in January 1960 that for some time she had had her heart set on a change that would recognise the name Mountbatten. She clearly wished to make this change before the birth of her child. The issue did not affect Prince of Wales or Princess Anne, as they had been born with the name Mountbatten, before the Queen’s accession to the throne. Prince Andrew, the current Duke of York, was born 11 days later, on February 19, 1960.

Any future monarch can change the dynastic name through a similar royal proclamation, as royal proclamations do not have statutory authority. However, despite the tradition that the name of the Royal House does change to reflect the Patrilineal descent of the new monarch, it seems unlikely the Prince of Wales will change the name of the Royal House and the House of Windsor will remain.

House of Windsor to House of Glücksburg?

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Duke Carlo-Hugo of Burbon- Parma, Duke of Edinburgh, Emperor Peter II of Russia, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, House of Holstein-Gottorp, House of Oldenburg, House of Romanov, House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, House of Windsor, HRH The Prince of Wales, King George V of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince William, World War I

On July 17, 1917 HM King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. With World War I raging at the time there was a considerable amount of anti-German feelings in the land. For many people it didn’t seem right that the King had a German name while they were fighting a war against the German Empire In searching for a name to rechristened the royal dynasty they decided on the name Windsor, which was felt personified and the strength of the country and it also went along with the royal tradition that many European Royal Houses had of naming their dynasties after a Castle.  The original Windsor Castle was built-in the 11th century after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I, it has been used by succeeding monarchs and it is the longest-occupied palace in Europe.

The royal house of the United Kingdom has been known as Windsor now for almost 100 years. Will it remain Windsor one Charles becomes king or will it change? Often when the throne passes through the female line the name of the dynasty will change to reflect the patrilineal descent of the new monarch. This has been the case for the majority of royal houses in Europe although there are  exceptions. Some claim that the changing the name of dynasties was the invention of modern historians and that during some of these time periods dynastic names were not consistently used. Even with the kings and queens of England dynastic name changes have not always been consistent. For example, King Stephen was technically a member of the House of Blois but most historians and text books place him as a member of the House of Normandy. The same case happens with William III. Most books place him as a member of the House of Stuart yet he was, in the male line, a member of the Dutch House of Orange.

From a Genelaogically perspective, Elizabeth II is a member of the Wettin Dynasty from the collateral branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line via her descent from Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria. Her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. This makes The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge and his future offsprings members of that dynasty. This is all from a genealogical aspect of course because technically they are members of the House of Windsor. The House of Glücksburg itself is a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg. The Oldenburg dynasty has ruled in Denmark, Russia, Greece, Norway, Schleswig, Holstein, Oldenburg and Sweden. The question now becomes will the name of the royal house change when Charles succeeds to the throne?

There has been no indication either way that it will change or that it will not change. In times past this would not have been an issue and the name of the royal house would automatically change once the Crown passed through the female line to reflect the patrilineal line. With the name Windsor the British monarchy has a name that does not have foreign roots like many of the former British royal houses had. This trend, of adopting or keeping nationalistic names for European Monarchies has become the new tradition. Many extant monarchies have chosen to keep the dynastic name even when passing through the female line. For example, in the Netherlands the dynastic name of the royal family is Orange-Nassau despite passing through the female line in the last three generations. Even further back in time Austria kept the Habsburg name even though the last male line Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, died in 1740. In Russia the name of Romanov was kept even though the last male line Romanov died with the death of Emperor Peter II in 1730.

The dynasty that replaced the Romanov’s were the House of Holstein-Gottorp a collateral branch of the House of Oldenburg, but because Romanov was the name so associated with the Russian royal family it was decided to retain the name. In Belgium and Luxembourg they also have distanced themselves from their dynastic titles. In 1986, former Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, dropped the dynastic title of the House of Bourbon-Parma, because the head of that house, Duke Carlo-Hugo of Bourbon Parma deemed that Jean’s son, the current Grand Duke Henri, had entered into an unequal marriage. In 1921 King Albert I of Belgium dropped the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynastic name for the same reasons George V did. Today the Belgian royal family is simply known as being “of Belgium.”

With Britain now having a gender neutral succession it seems wise to just retain the name of Windsor for the name of the royal family even though it may, or will, pass through the female line many times in the future. With such a proud British (or specifically English) name such as Windsor attached to the royal family this association would be lost by changing it to the House of Glücksburg. It would once again be placing the family name under something foreign and not British or English. Some have theorized that a future Charles III could hyphenate Windsor with Mountbatten, something the queen herself decreed in 1961 for all their descendants who did not hold a royal title, or Charles III could call the royal house the House of Mountbatten or even the House Edinburgh. However, none of those scenarios seem likely.

Hopefully this all doesn’t sound xenophobic. My intent was to demonstrate that since the political atmosphere has changed over the centuries when royal families ruled over many different nation-states, and that the modern monarchy is more nationalistic, it makes great sense to abandon that old practice of renaming the royal dynasty when it passed through the female line and to retain a name that reflects and honors the people who the royal family serves.

The House of Windsor

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House of Orange-Nassau, House of Windsor, King Edward VII, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Marquess of Cambridge, Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Queen Mary I, Queen Victoria

July 17, 1917.

HM King George V

Anti German feelings were running high in the United Kingdom during World War I. Ever since the death of Queen Victoria, who was a member of the House of Hanover, the name of Britain’s royal house was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, named after the German duchy where Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, had originated. Under this pressure King George V decided to change the name of the royal house and to relinquish all German titles for himself and extended family members living in the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha they were also titled Duke or Duchess of Saxony.

By Royal Proclamation on this date HM King George V changed the name of the royal house to Windsor.

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.

Windsor Castle had long been associated with the Monarchy and naming a dynasty after a Castle did have precidence in Europe. Both the Habsburg and Hohenzollern royal families were named after castles.

Descendants in the female line from Queen Victoria (or in the case of the Teck family were descendants of George III in the female line) also had to relinquish their German styles and titles. The Battenberg family anglicized their name to Mountbatten while the Teck family, which Queen Mary belonged, became the Cambridge family stemming from their maternal descent from HRH Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, 7th son of King George III.

HSH Prince Louis of Battenberg (married to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine) and his children relinquished their German titles and on November 7, 1917 King George V created Louis, Marquess of Milford Haven, Earl of Medina, and Viscount Alderney in the peerage of the United Kingdom. At this time his younger three children, Louise, George and Louis also dropped their princely titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten. The youngest son, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was Britain’s last Viceroy of India. The eldest daughter, Alice, had married prince Andrea of Greece and never bore the surname Mounbatten. However, her son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, did choose Mountbatten has his surname when he became a British subject in 1947.

The Duke of Teck, Prince Adolphus, brother of Queen Mary, became Adolphus Cambridge and was made a Peer of the Realm by King George V as Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Eltham, and Viscount Northallerton. Queen Mary’s younger brother, Prince Alexander of Teck, was married to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Alice of Albany, created him as Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon. Princess Alice was allowed to keep her royal title as she was a male line descendant of Queen Victoria.

The name of the dynasty will remain the same during the reign of a Queen Regnant. For example, Queen Mary I 1553-1558, remained a Tudor despite being married to a Habsburg. Queen Anne remained a Stuart despite being married to a Danish prince of the House of Oldenburg. The same with Queen Victoria, the name of the Royal House did not change from Hanover to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until the accession of her son. King Edward VII, in 1901. However, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, wanted the Queen Elizabeth II to issue a proclamation in 1952 changing the name of the royal house to that of Mountbatten. Queen Mary was a wee bit upset about this maneuver and spoke to Prime Minister Winston Churchill about the issue. Later that year the queen did issue her own proclamation affirming the name of her family and royal house as that of Windsor. This was slightly amended in 1960 where the queen proclaimed that male descendants of her and Philip who are not titled Prince or Princess of the United Kingdom will carry the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. This did not change the name of the Royal House.

What about the future? This is from the website of the British monarchy.

A proclamation on the Royal Family name by the reigning monarch is not statutory; unlike an Act of Parliament, it does not pass into the law of the land. Such a proclamation is not binding on succeeding reigning sovereigns, nor does it set a precedent which must be followed by reigning sovereigns who come after.

The tradition would have it that when Charles becomes king the name of the Royal House would change. Philip was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg. Charles could keep the name Windsor or the name of his Father’s royal house or the name Mounbatten or Mountbatten-Windsor. Being the traditionalist that I am I was all in favor of changing the name to reflect the new royal house on Charles’s accession. However, I have changed my mind. Given that the British monarchy will change to cognatic primogeniture where the eldest child succeeds to the throne regardless of gender it makes more sense to retain the name Windsor. In the future we could have the same situation as the Dutch where three Queen Regnants have reigned. It would just be silly and cumbersome to change the royal house each and every time. The Dutch remain the House of Orange-Nassau. Besides, Windsor is a very British sounding name and so associated with the monarchy that I now think it should remain…forever.