German ties that go back 300 years
THE British monarchy has been closely linked with German royalty for at least three centuries.
Queen Anne’s death in 1714 brought the House of Stuart to an end and marked the beginning of the House of Hanover.
Anne was a Protestant, but more than 50 of her closest relatives were Catholics and banned from succeeding to the throne by an Act of Parliament.
As a result she was succeeded by her German second cousin George I, who had been Georg Ludwig the Prince Elector of Hanover. From 1814 the British monarch was also King of Hanover.
That connection ended when Queen Victoria took over in 1837 because she was a woman, but under her reign the German connection became even stronger.
She married another German – her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent and Queen Victoria became known as the ‘grandmother of Europe’.
Albert had a profound impact on Britain. He led reforms in university education, welfare, the royal finances and slavery. He also had a special interest in the development of science.
He died at the age of 42, leaving Victoria devastated – she mourned for him for the rest of her life.
The House of Hanover ended with Victoria’s death in 1901. Her son and successor Edward VII was the first king in the
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - another German name. This close German connection did not go down well in Britain and across the empire during the First World War. The Kaiser, Germany’s Wilhelm II, was Queen Victoria’s grandson
and our George V’s first cousin. It led to a name change in the royal house to the more British-sounding Windsor, after the castle. Queen Elizabeth II chose to keep the Windsor name when she came to the throne in 1952.