Why did the British Royal Family change its name to Windsor? (Short Animated Documentary)

In 1917 the British Royal Family changed its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor. So why did it do that and why did it change its name to Windsor and not something else? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

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[houssamassila]

Wait until you discover that James Bissonette is in fact one James of Rheinland-Pfalz and Magdeburg. He of course managed to keep it under wraps for centuries.

[josgibbons]

It's crazy people would be anti-monarch just because of the Royal family's German ancestry; it's even crazier they'd not feel that way just because the very well-known ancestry was glossed over with a name change.

[Shisuixd]

2:00 "It was also a title of Edward the third, who did the most British thing of all: he invaded France."
I just love your humor! Never change!

[stevenc.]

I believe that some noble families resident in the U.K. changed their German names at the same time; the Battenbergs becoming the Mountbattens. Also the city of Berlin, Ontario, Canada renamed itself after Lord Kitchener.

[ffinawesome]

Can we all just admire the entire scene made for a single word? It was fantastic. 2:17

[funnySIMON]

King of the Belgians, Albert of Saxe Cobourg Gotha, also changed the royal family name for "De Belgique/Van België/Von Belgien" depending the language because of the Kaiser and the war. The king wasn't afraid to be Tsar'd because he and his german wife actively fought the war alongside the Belgian people so they were pretty popular (still the biggest Chad of the Belgian Royal Family)

[SilverAssassin]

Sometimes I imagine History Matters giggling to himself as he writes these little jokes. They're gold! 🥇

[joermnyc]

Edward of Windsor skipping happily through the flowers to go invade France is indeed the most wholesomely British thing.

[FWDDGS]

I’m just really impressed by the effort you put into writing the newspaper for a, what, one second, blink and you miss it, sight gag! You could have just Lorem Ipsum’d it but you actually wrote jokes I had to pause and squint to read! Well done!

[Quin_Ram]

So technically, the House of Windsor is still the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Just with a different name.

[danesorensen]

And upon hearing the news, the Kaiser said in that case, he was changing the name of Shakespeare's play to, "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".

[jonathanwebster]

Fun fact: the 1917 Order-in-Council that changed the name of the British Royal Family only extended (and I quote) "to those descended in the male line from our grandmother, Queen Victoria in the male line who are domiciled in these dominions (ie, the United Kingdom and the British Empire)."

So at the time (1917), it only extended to George V, his children (and any male-line descendents in the future), the King's uncle, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria's sole surviving son), and Arthur's children and grandson, who altogether constituted the male-line descendents of Queen Victoria who were living in Britain at the time (women who had married were excluded according to the Order in Council).

One person who *was* descended in the male line from Queen Victoria, and who was *not* covered by the terms of the Order in Council, was Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, (aka Karl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), the posthumously born son of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold, who found himself inheriting the family patrimony of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and his children and male-line descendents, who did and continue to use the name of 'Saxe-Coburg and Gotha', despite (or rather, because) having the same male-line descent from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as the late Queen Elizabeth II and her father and grandfather.

[david.panart]

I love the name option “Bonaparte”. That’s some real sense of humor 😂

[maskthemney]

"Didn't want to get himself Tsar'd." Okay, that one really broke me.

[amutatedgiraffe]

The witch pun was one of the funniest things I've ever seen 2:17

[stulog]

As someone named "Stuart, " I have always wondered why there are two spellings for it. You inadvertantly answered an actual question I've had for literally decades. Thanks! 👍

[deBebbler]

"to appease your short term anger at people who hold Oktoberfest in September"
That's just lovely.

[DKH-evlr]

Love how the dialog cuts to “witch” for “which”. It is a fantastic bit.

[nickmacarius]

"When Czar Nicholas II was made ... err... 'unemployed', "

This is putting things rather mildly 😂😂😂

[letsgoraiding]

George V is one of our most underrated kings. A quote attributed to him: I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien.
(Allegedly said in response to H. G. Wells's criticism of his "alien [i.e. German-descended] and uninspiring court")