House of Windsor
The
House of Windsor, previously called the
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (
Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha), is the
Royal House of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The House was renamed Windsor on
July 17,
1917 by King
George V during
World War I, on account of the German origins of the name, given that what was then
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was at war with
Germany.
The German name came via Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, son of Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in February 1840.
Some descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh have the surname of Mountbatten-Windsor (through an Order-in-Council given in 1960).
See also: British Royal Family
List of Monarchs from the House of Windsor
Of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:
Of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and other
Commonwealth Realms:
Notes
[1] King George V's reign began in 1910 under the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
[2] Though the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in 1922, the actual name of the kingdom was not changed until 1927. From 1927, the monarch also became the king or queen of many
Commonwealth Realms, including
Ireland,
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand,
Union of South Africa, etc. Prevously they had been monarchs
in not
of those states, through a shared Crown of the British Empire. After 1927, it became a shared
monarch wearing multiple crowns.