English or German? Part II

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10th Duke of Beaufort, 1st Duke of Westminster, Duke of Clarance and Avondale, Earl of Eltham, Henry Somerset, Hugh Grosvenor, King Edward VII of Great Britain, King George V of Great Britain, Kingdom of Württemberg, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Lady Margaret Grosvenor, Lord Cambridge, Marquess of Cambridge, Mary of Teck, Prince Adolphus of Teck, Prince Albert-Victor of Wales, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, The Duke of Cambridge, Wellington College, World War I

In Part one we looked at the Cambridge-Teck family and how that even though they were technically a minor German royal family they were born and bred in England. The children of Princess Mary-Adelaide of Cambridge and Franz, Duke of Teck a morganatic scion of the House of Württemberg were all born at Kensington Palace and raised in England. As was had seen in Part one, the eldest daughter, Princess Victoria-Mary, known as May, grew up to become engaged to Prince Albert-Victor of Wales, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (second in line to the British Throne) until his untimely death in 1892. After a suitable mourning period May became engaged to Prince Albert-Victor’s brother, Prince George, Duke of York who became King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1910. May chose to be called Queen Mary and became the role model of a dedicated and dignified queen. She was born during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1867 and lived to see her own granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, ascend the throne before she passed away in 1953.

Queen Mary’s eldest brother was born HSH Prince Adolphus of Teck. He was educated at Wellington College and then joined the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. At the age of 19, he joined the 17th Lancers,, the regiment of his maternal uncle, HRH Prince George, The Duke of Cambridge, who was the commander-in-chief of the British Army from 1856-1895. Prince Adolphus was promoted Lieutenant in 1893 and transferred to the 1st Life Guards and raised in rank to that of Captain in 1895. In 1897 Queen Victoria created him Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) and in 1901 King Edward VII promoted him to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO).

1894 Prince Adolphus married Lady Margaret Grosvenor, daughter  Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster Lady Constance Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, (herself the fourth daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland). Prince and Princess Adolphus of Cambridge had four children, Prince George born in 1895, Princess Mary in 1897 (she later married Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort of the old Plantagenet line), Princess Helena in 1899 and Prince Frederick in 1907.

In 1900 Prince Franz, Duke of Teck died and Prince Adolphus as the second Duke of Teck and he and his wife were styled HSH The Duke and Duchess of Teck. In 1911 his brother-in-law, King George V, as a gift to mark his own Coronation, granted his cousin the style His Highness. In 1914 with the outbreak of World War I the Duke of Teck returned to military service first serving as a military secretary at the War Office and later as military secretary to the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Forces (B.E.F.) in France, Sir Douglas Haig, with the rank of brigadier general.

In 1917 there was a lot of anti-German feelings in Britain and King George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor and further renounced all German titles for himself and members of the British royal family. In response to this the Duke of Teck relinquished his title of Duke of Teck in the Kingdom of Württemberg and the style His Highness. Adolphus, along with his only surviving brother, Prince Alexander of Teck, adopted the name Cambridge, after their grandfather, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (1774-1850). The Children of Adophus Cambridge also lost their German princely titles and adopted the surname Cambridge. Shortly thereafter King George bestowed his brother-in-law Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Eltham, and Viscount Northallerto. These titles were all in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. His elder son took the title Earl of Eltham as a courtesy title, while the younger children became Lord/Lady (Christian Name) Cambridge.

After the war Lord Cambridge made his home in Shropshire after at Shotton Hall near Shrewsbury and had an active socail life. In 1923 he was offered the vacant throne of the Kingdom of Hungary (long-held by the Habsburg family) but he gave this offer no serious consideration. Lord Cambridge died, aged 59, after an intestinal operation in October 1927 at a Shrewsbury nursing home, The was ist Marquess of Cambridge was first buried at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and later transferred to the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore. His elder son, the Earl of Eltham, succeeded him as Marquess of Cambridge.

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.