The Windsor royal family: brief history
From Saxe-Coburg origins to now
The House of Windsor is the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth countries. In 1901 the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – a branch of the House of Wettin – succeeded the House of Hanover to the British monarchy with the accession to the throne of King Edward VII.
In 1917 the name of the royal house was changed to the English Windsor, which was enacted by a proclamation of King George V, because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during the First World War.
During the House of Windsor reign from 1917 there have been a total of four British monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and our current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II is monarch of 16 sovereign states.
These are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis.
As well as these separate monarchies, there are also three Crown dependencies, 14 British Overseas Territories and two associated states of New Zealand.
In addition to changing the royal family name to Windsor, George V also restricted the use of British princely titles to his nearest relations and, in 1919, he stripped three of his German relations of their British titles and styles.
In 1952 Queen Elizabeth II issued a royal proclamation declaring that the royal house was to remain known as the House of Windsor. This was despite her marrying into the House of Mountbatten.
In 1960 the Queen confirmed her wish for the royal house to remain known as the House of Windsor.
Throughout the Windsor reign there has been much modernisation of the monarchy in tandem with many social changes.
One such modernisation has been the use of mass communication technologies to make the royal family accessible to a broader public all over the world.
George V adopted the new medium of radio to broadcast across the Empire at Christmas.
The coronation ceremony was broadcast on television for the first time in 1953 at The Queen’s insistence.
The World Wide Web has been used in recent years to provide a global audience with information about the royal family.
In 1917 the name of the royal house was changed to the English Windsor’ Changed by George V