Lewes Forum thread

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Royal Family

On 1 May 2011 at 10:14pm History Lover wrote:

Can somone tell if the queen is of german orgin and prince philip is greek and the royal family gave themself the title of the windsors

On 1 May 2011 at 10:18pm Grunge wrote:

I think the answer is yes, yes and they changed their name from Saxe Coburg Gotha to Windsor to disassociate themselves from their German connection because of wars.

On 2 May 2011 at 12:23am Paul Newman wrote:

George 1st founded the Hannoverian Dynasty. Parliament got him in as despite his laughably weak claim he was not a Catholic.There is no dynastic change since. Edward 7th acquired the Saxe Coburg thing in the late 19th century but he was hardly German, I guess they had all died. Kings and Queens do not really have surnames like any old commoner anyway , I imagine they felt it was wise to sound English as well as be English but they are not German and had not been since 1660..something. Walpole really ruled not George the 1st so our Royal Family have a democratic association with freedom from Catholic absolutist foreign oppression.

On 2 May 2011 at 12:28am Paul Newman wrote:

(PS which is not to say that Grunge is not right its just that its not right to say oh well the Queen is German, not in any meaningful sense ...which he didn`t but other people sometimes do .There was a connection but they were connected to everyone ...)

On 2 May 2011 at 9:22am Grunge wrote:

I agree with Paul, and can also add that although Prince Philip is often called Greek, the fact is that his family was called in from outside the country to rule Greece, therefore I don't believe he is of Greek blood, though I'm ready to be proved wrong!

On 2 May 2011 at 11:31am sashimi wrote:

@Grunge, the Greek Royal Family have no Greek blood. The first King was Danish and he and his successors married German princelings. Phillip Mountbatten's family name was changed from Battenberg during the First World War when George V changed his name to Windsor. But, that said, Prince Phillip was educated in Britain, speaks faultless English and served in the Second World War in the Royal Navy. So, whether you like him or not, he's absolutely entitled to be considered 'one of us'.

On 2 May 2011 at 12:23pm Paul Newman wrote:

Good stuff Sashimi

On 2 May 2011 at 5:33pm Grunge wrote:

He is certainly one of us; he can drop a brick just as heavily as the rest of us!

On 3 May 2011 at 9:40pm Brixtonbelle wrote:

Prince Albert was German - so the Queen is about a quarter ??

On 3 May 2011 at 10:30pm Madame Bovary wrote:

BB I've got a feeling that your maths are a bit out there. I can't work it out myself, but surely Victoria was Queen Elizabeth's great great grandmother, so it can't be as much as a quarter.
Who's good at maths and can help us out???