Is elizabeth the 2nd actually British??

Question

along the line didnt they run out of english royalty so they got some from scotland and other countries

Answer 1

Her ancestry is mainly German.

The British royal family has not been English since 1066.

The Germans took over in the 18th century and always made sure they married people from within their own family.

This pattern was broken in 1936 when Edward VIII who was unmarried decided to abdicate because he wanted to marry an American divorcee.

This led to his brother Albert who was next in line and never expected to be king being forced to take the throne as King George VI.

George VI was already married to a scottish woman and had two daughters, one of whom ,Elizabeth, succeded him to the throne.

She married in 1948 a greek immigrant called Philipous who had an ancestry which was mainly German, in fact they are cousins so they still managed to keep it in the family.

He is now known as Prince Philip.

Answer 2

Her lot came from Germany. The family name was Saxe-Coburg but was changed to Windsor in the First World War because of anti German feeling.

Answer 3

As has been said, Scotland IS British.  The current Royal house maybe one of German origin, but it is because lineage through earlier marrying with British Royals and nobility that they were considered for the British Monarchy (in the absence of any surviving protestant alterantive in the Stuart line).  As for her pedigree  Queen Elizabeth II is directly descended from Aethelflaed of Wessex's younger sister, Elfthryth. which is 7th century Anglo-Saxon England before England was even a unified country.  I imagine that is good enough for a British passport!

Brainstorm: The end of english rule occuring in 1066 confuses what the term "English" means.  A few generations afterthe Norman conquest, the split between the Normans and Old English (Anglo Saxons) became undecernable and tey becem "The English". Hence Richard III was probably the last English King, but [welshman] Henry Tudor married an English noble anyway so their descendants comming from the later Scottish [Stuart] and German [Hanover & Saxe Coburg/Windsor] houses could trace their ancestry back to England as much as other places.  On the subject of Edward VIII, yes Royals have a habit of intermarrying, but I doubt there would have been a problem if she was not a divorcee.

Answer 4

Scottish. Scottish. Is she British? Scottish. Think about it, lol.

The current family is technically German. They changed their name to Windsor.

Answer 5

English royalty had always married people from other countries, because they ran out of English Nobles for them to marry.

They're pretty much all of "mixed" descent, but they are all at least part English.

Answer 6

As others have pointed out, being British involves England,Wales and Scotland.

However, if you're referring to English monarchs, technically the last ancestrally English monarch was killed in 1485 from the House of York (Richard III) at the battle of Bosworth. He was replaced by the Welsh with the House of Tudor (Henry VII) and they in turn were replaced with the most disasterous set of monarchs the country ever had from the Scottish House of Stewart.

Then came the Dutch with the House of Orange (William III) and to prevent the throne passing to Catholics the act of settlement passed the throne to the nearest Protestant claimant who was the Hanoverian, or German, George I.

His grandson, George III, was born in St James Square in London which made him English which was something he prided himself on. All of the following monarchs too were born in England, including the present Elizabeth II (17 Bruton St., London) thus making them British.

Answer 7

Yes,she is British;her family has lived in the UK for centuries and she was born in England. Her mother was a very proud Scotswoman and her father,King George VI can count direct line of descent from Egbert (c. 775-839), King of Wessex from 802 and of England 827 to 839.

The family also has German and Danish ancestory as well,but as to nationality,when the family ascended the throne,they became British...so British that they were extremely upset with their German relatives for attacking the country and changed their names from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor,and the Danish Schlessweig-Holstein-

Sonderburg-Glucksburg to Mountbatten(Philip is mostly Danish,his great-grandmother was the very Danish Queen Alexandra).

Answer 8

Yes she is actually English just of GERMAN  descent.  All the royal families in Europe are related to one another in various ways.  Queen Elizabeth was born and raised in England and is therefore English.

Answer 9

How long do you have to live in Great Britain before you become British? One generation? Two? George II became a naturalized British citizen in 1705. Since then, every British monarch has been born, lived, and died in Great Britain. While the Queen does have German and Danish ancestry, I think you would have to regard her as British.

Answer 10

The Queen's mother was Scottish and had sixteen great-great-grandparents, all of whom lived in what is now the UK.

In total, six of Elizabeth II's eight great-grandparents were born in the UK (the only two who weren't were the Duke of Teck and Queen Alexandra (born Princess of Denmark)) and the two who weren't died in the UK.

Furthermore, Elizabeth II was born in the UK and ultimately was a British subject at birth. Now she is the Queen. It doesn't get any more British than that.

Answer 11

The Brits think so.

Incidentally, Scots are regarded as British. Brits include English, Scots, Welsh and North Irish.Way back they got some from Germany who could not even speak English. Elizabeths husband is not, I believe, British.

The problem is that royalty are supposed to marry royalty and nowadays it is difficult to find eligibles without looking far and wide.

If you look at history of different countries you will find that kings and queens have came from many countries other than the one ruled. James Michener, in his book"Poland" documents that the magnates who controlled Poland always went outside of Poland to fins someone who would be king of Poland  during their lifetime.  Go figure!

Answer 12

The family background ha some German, but she herself was born and bred in the UK.

Cheers :-)