Did anyone else ever wonder how come we have a German royal family here in England?

[BlueTitSmilingAtMe]

I did, and idly googling have found out the answer.

They just didn't want a Catholic monarch! Fascinating stuff:

www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover.htm

Did you get taught this in school? I didn't.

It’s definitely something that is taught in schools.

His son actually. He was much more extremist than his sister Elizabeth.

@yesthatisdrizzle

That reminds me….

There’s a Native American U.S. Representative in Congress here in the States who regularly gets
”GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!!!” yelled at him from his racist ‘admirers’.

I learned loads about the history of the monarchy by being obsessed with historical novels as a teen!

You’re right. We should her back where she bloody comes from. 🙄

You’re right. We should send her back where she bloody comes from. 🙄

The Royals have always been international. Their loyalty is to their class not to the country they end up ruling.

Charles is half Greek. Philip being Greek.( His family had 'unfortunate' Nazi connections. Aunt Frederika being a card carrying member and 2 of his sisters marrying German Nazis.) Goodness knows why he was thought a suitable spouse for Elizabeth.

(Though Edward VII with his Nazi sympathies was thought proper to be King until his 'unsuitable' marriage.) No doubt the truth about Philip and his life will be 'discovered' once Elizabeth ,and/or Charles, is dead.

I think you'll find the 'English' are Germans who arrived in the 5th century. The original inhabitants, British, were themselves a mixture of peoples, from Europe.

Edward VIII !

@artisanbread i learned most of it from Horrible Histories

Lol I remember watching a telly programme years ago where they had a bit about that guy and the narrator said all sorrowful that people were so nasty misinterpreting him innocently waving his hand as being a nazi salute.

Like it was something that could happen to anyone. There you are waving away "hello Mrs Williams" when someone takes a picture of you at an odd angle and BAM that's you seen as a Nazi forevermore while you are in fact all blameless and such.

@elizabethdraper @ballac no I know about William of Orange I meant this bit 'that's a quarter of the UK .. with a serious lack of any understanding about the history around the general UK population' is that the OP saying everyone in NI has a serious lack of understanding? I don't get what the OP meant by that.

Certainly taught at my school. However George !! was the last German-born monarch, way back in the 1680's.

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, who was German, but he died 150 years ago.

Nor did I. It was meaningless.

Henry VIII became head of the Church of England in 1533, which definitely makes him a Protestant. All that to get out of his marriage, what an arse.

We don’t have a “German” royal family here in England. The Queen is British royalty and her family were always British back to 1066. The European royals have always intermarried with each other, that doesn’t make our royal family less British.

You’re being sexist by only looking at George I fathers line. In fact, George I was the grandson of Princess Elizabeth Stuart (British Princess daughter of James I/IV king of England and Scotland ).

I was aware of this.

One of the welcome changes of the reign of the Queen is that there is much less hostility towards those who are Catholic, and indeed mostly towards those of faith other than Christianity, except perhaps that anti-semitism still exists in some ways and by some people.

What about king Cnut? He was a Dane!

Glorious revolution innit.

What was Shakespeare on with all that “precious stone set in a silver sea” stuff then? Glue?

Yes, we had James II, but the country thought he was too catholic, so dumped him for William of Orange and James's daughter Mary.

I always find the accepted British version of this very odd. We really don't like the fact that we were conquered by the Dutch.

William of Orange invaded. Yes he has help from protestant nobles and the British defence was pathetic but that doesn't mean Britain as a whole dumped him.

Nations" don't really start to evolve until 1800 or so
**
That's arguably true of countries like Germany and Italy (although if there hadn't been a sense of collective identity then their unification movements wouldn't have got going) but it's manifestly nonsense for England and its successor nations.

Certainly executive government in England was decentralised until perhaps the 16-1700s but national identity has existed since Alfred.

Yes I did get taught that at school. However I didn't grow up in the UK

Royal history is fascinating.

How on earth is the Queen German? Like every other person in the UK today she is the desendent of multiple generations of migration. How many generations do you think a family needs to be in the Uk for before you consider themselves 'British'?

Like all of the European royalty the British royal family is the result of dynastic marriages. You might as well be arguing that she is French, Greek, Danish, Dutch, Spanish - or any of the other royal families that have connections through marriage.

In addition, do none of the females in her family tree count towards her heritage? The Queen Mother was for a very long line of Scottish and English aristocracy.

@Pallisers

The Danish monarchy is one of the oldest in the world. Queen Margrethe II's heritage can be traced back more than a thousand years to a king believed to be born around year 900.

So depending on how far back you call originally. I think the Danes gets to claim their royal family is indeed Danish.

It is also incidently why a interesting piece of etiquette exists. Because Queen Margrethe of Danish represents one of the oldest monarchies in the world (Japan being older) if Queen Elizabeth and Queen Margrethe were to arrive somewhere at the same time etiquette states Margrethe would be greeted first. (In practice they would never have them arriving at the same time)

When you see large events with many royal houses Queen Margrethe is often in one of the closest seats. Again due to this etiquette. It is acknowledged that this is the longest reigning house in a straight line.

@itrytomakemyway I agree with you there. It's a nurture v nature almost.

I am not British dh is. Our children grew up here. They view themselves as British. In practice only 50 came that way however their cultural lense is British as that is their nork. Their passports are British too.