The Name Has to be Windsor | The Crown (Claire Foy, Matt Smith)

Elizabeth (Claire Foy) breaks the news to Philip (Matt Smith) that she will be keeping the royal surname and that they will be moving the family to Buckingham Palace. Philip does not take the news well.

From Season 1, Episode 3: Windsor

The Crown is based on Queen Elizabeth II as a young newlywed faced with leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The British Empire is in decline, and the political world is in disarray, but a new era is dawning. Peter Morgan's masterfully-researched scripts reveal the Queen's private journey behind the public façade with daring frankness. Prepare to see into the coveted world of power and privilege behind the locked doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.

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[teoengchin]

The Targaryens found a great way to prevent these sort of conflicts

[joshkorte]

If I had a nickel for every time Matt Smith played a consort to a queen that made him feel impotent, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but I'm glad it happened twice.

[TheVenessa]

I could have watched 6 seasons of these actors, nothing against the next set of actors, but I think they had the best chemistry.

[MaxwellAerialPhotography]

and this is why Matt Smith never even auditioned for house of the dragon, they just offered him the role.

[ChrisKSP]

he really embodied "I'm not mad. I'm disappointed" with that ending.

[VideoVerdict]

And now the guy fliies a dragon. A very risky endeavor indeed.

[TihetrisWeathersby]

Matt played his role perfectly, I Don't think anyone could have said it as well

[eitanmagaliff]

The talent of these actors almost makes you forget how absurd the entire conversation is.

[lildozen]

Don't worry Daemon, you still have Caraxes she can't take that

[martinhargrave]

"That's the point Elizabeth, it's just advice, it doesn't mean you have to act on it."
"When it comes from the government you do."
Matt Hancock would like a word.

[mknwy]

1:34 That’s Daemon right there. Killer stare, and you literally don’t know what he might do any moment

[ticwugl]

The irony of Phillip being mad is that his name also comes from his mother. Also, Mountbatten comes from Battenburg which is german. Elizabeth's house is Saxe-Coburg and Gotha which is also german so she lost her family's original name in a way too.

[perfolkesson]

Who knew the Targaryens came so close to the British throne as well

[daisiejensen]

To be fair, the royal family is a representative of the country, and so they should have a name that represents the country. The royal family went into a lot of effort to be named Windsor. Mountbatten wasn't even Philip's surname until he renounced his Greek and Danish titles when he married Elizabeth.

[NACLGames]

It should be noted that Churchhill and Parliament's opposition to the name Mountbatten was due to both it's emphasis of Prince Philip's foreign origin, as well as it's German roots, and not simply because it had to have the Queen's family line emphasized on it. Parliament and many British Royals, going as far back as Queen Victoria, did not much care which royal house became the reigning one. In fact, it could be seen in some circles that a queen regnant demonstrated primacy by being the first in a new dynasty.

The Prince had courted much controversy when he became The Queen's (then Princess) fiance due to not having been born British, being a royal of defunct monarchies and having siblings who married into German nobility. The name itself originates from the German Battenburg family with royal associations, and itself is a relatively new name adopted to distance the now Mountbatten family from Germany. Reference to anything German was a non-starter since WW1, and obviously continued after WW2. While it was Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth's grandmother) who informed Churchill and likely had an antiquated view on the royal house matter, Churchill and other parliamentarians were more focused on the above.

All this was basically overturned by Queen Elizabeth herself once the political climate became more accepting. In 1960, she slammed through a declaration that apparently she had been pushing for a long time, that non-style or title holders of the male line descended from her would use Mountbatten-Windsor. Notice that Mountbatten even precedes Windsor in this new surname. While this means those with titles, and in particular those high up in the line of succession like the now King Charles, would continue to use their existing styles and the Windsor surname, in practice all of said descendants including even Charles are allowed to use Mountbatten-Windsor, and the name would carry on for generations after the Queen. In other words, she gave Philip what he was asking for in this scene. Even though there was the question of empty surnames for descendants helping fuel this matter (Prince Andrew and others could be left with no surname if they didn't obtain titles), I do think it indicates just how much consideration the Queen gave her husband.

As to the issue of Clarence House, Churchill too had a couple of practical reasons for "advising" the Queen to move to Buckingham Palace. Putting aside the obvious matter that it's the Sovereign's official residence and all business of government relevant to them would be conducted there, he also needed the Queen Mother (Queen Elizabeth's mother, also named Elizabeth) to move out. The Queen Mother was likely planning to continue residing in Buckingham Palace, which would allow her to 'sit in' and influence Queen Elizabeth who would still have to commute and occasionally stay at the Palace for official duties in the scenario where she lived in Clarence House. Churchill wanted the new Queen to be completely independent, even from him and future PMs (ironic I know), and so supported any notion to give the Sovereign a degree of space and separation of power. As it turned out, even after the new Queen moved in, the Queen Mother still dilly-dallied on leaving, citing renovation of Clarence House which ironically would become her new residence, and generally trying to drag out her 'eviction' as long as possible.

Of course, I'm not trying to smear the Queen Mother. I'm just highlighting the differences of opinion that causes all of these issues. Notably, after several years the Queen Mother later repeatedly stated her approval of both The Queen and Prince Philip, in particular praising the latter as a British gentleman (before she tended to highlight his foreign origin).

[thomasplinguidy]

This is the common thread of the first years of the reign of Elisabeth and Philip at her side: They want to start something new, one celebrates too early (Philip the new name of the royal family, the secretary his premature appointment). Then the Empire strikes back - sometimes through the government, sometimes through the palace staff, and they have to bow to the all-mighty status quo, and nothing is allowed to change. And later will they discover their small freedoms, what they can and cannot enforce, and become guardians of the status quo themselves.

[moboutmen]

She was so young. So much thrust upon her.

[maestroclassico]

Matt of the best actors of his generation.

[danialashraf]

Believe it or not, this is also the problem faced by the current queen of Denmark, Margrethe II. Her relationship with her late husband was damaged when he was informed that his children could not inherit Monpezat into the dynastic name of Oldenburg-Glücksburg.

[tajniak]

The irony is Philip himself had his name after his mother not his father...