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Did the british royal family changed it's name from Battenburg to Windsor because it sounded too German?

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  1. no, i think they changed it from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, because THAT sounded too German. I don't think they were ever Battenburgs!


  2. It was not the royal family, but some of their close relations.

    Mountbatten was adopted by two branches of the Battenberg family, although it was also due to the anti-German sentiment among the British public during World War I.

  3. Either that, or because it sounded like a cake.

  4. Simple answer - piece of cake!

  5. The King of England (George V) was first cousins with the emperor of Germany Kaiser Wilhelm II during the first world war.

        Britain lost nearly a million men in WWI, nearly twice as many as they lost in WWII. British civilians hated the Germans.

        Did someone in your office think the royal family changed their name because it sounded too Swedish? Can I take bets on history with people in your office?

  6. Wasn't Battenburg - was SaxeCoburg - but yes, basically you are right!

  7. No, they never were Battenbergs. The Mountbattens were the Battenbergs, and I do believe *their name was changed because it sounded "too German" in post-WWI England.

  8. The name was SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA for the Queen's side of the family and SHLESWEIG-HOLSTEIN-

    SONDERBURG-GLUCKSBURG

    and BATTENBERG for Philip's side. The names were changed during WORLD WAR I right after London was bombed by 24 twin-engined GOTHA war planes. King George V was very angry with his German relatives;cousin bombed cousin! England was angry,too.The royal famly changed their name to Windsor,which was one of their castles to show solidarity with their country,which was the United Kingdom,and not Germany.Philip's side of the family the Shlesweig-Holstein-

    Sonderburg-Glucksburgs are

    of a DANISH royal house with some German ancestry.Queen Alexandra,who was the member of the Danish royal house,was always anti-German in sentiment,ever since Germany took over part of Denmark.So the change to Battenberg,then Mountbatten,after the bombing, for Philip's family,wasn't surprising,although the very Danish Philip's two sisters married into  German aristocracy.

    The name change was a response to their German relatives-the war was not appreciated and bombing one's own family members was a particular insult.One major reason that so many royals do have some German ancestry was the doing of Queen Victoria;she had a vision in which all of her family members occupied the thrones of Europe,making the world a safer,more peaceful place where no government would have the need to bully others.

  9. Yes

  10. No, they changed it from: 'Saxe-Coburg und Gotha' to Windsor because it sounded too German.

  11. It was orginally Saxe-Couburg-Gotha but the only monarch to reign under that House was Edward VII, Queen Victoria's son. Queen Victoria and her predecesors reigned under the House of Saxe-Couburg. By Victoria's marriage to Albert Gotha was added to the end during Edward VII's reign. Edward VII's son, George V, changed the way too German sounding name to Windsor during WWI so the British did not associate themselves with the Germans.

  12. No - it sounded too much like a cake!

  13. They are a national disgrace whatever they choose to call themselves - pah! pah?

  14. everybody on here sounds right to distance themselves from the Germans after WWI and during WWII

  15. Yes, the Royal family itself was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but I believe that Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Charles' late great uncle, was indeed a Battenburg, but changed it to Mountbatten due to wartime anti-German sentiment.

  16. By virtue of Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, son of Duke Ernst I of the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her descendants were members of the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with the house name of Wettin. Victoria's son Edward VII and his son George V reigned as members of this house.

    However, high anti-German feeling among the people during World War I prompted the Royal Family to abandon all titles held under the German crown and to change German-sounding titles and house names for English-sounding versions. On 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation by George V provided that all agnatic descendants of Queen Victoria would be members of the House of Windsor with the personal surname of Windsor. The name Windsor has a long association with English royalty through the town of Windsor and Windsor Castle.

    Upon hearing that his cousin George V had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, German Emperor William II remarked jokingly that he planned to see Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (the play's true title, of course, is The Merry Wives of Windsor).

  17. No it's because they wanted to distance themselves from the square cake trade. Too common apparantly.

  18. Yes.
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