Weekly |
The Family Windsor
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The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge leaving the hospital on December 6, 2012. |
Royal Watchers the world over received an early Christmas present this month when news broke that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge was expecting. For reporters it was an end of year bonus worth its weight in newspaper ink. One minute they were creating the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill, reporting on Kate's field hockey playing attire (high-heels and a dress) the next they were lined up outside King Edward VII Hospital where she had been admitted with an ultra-severe case of morning sickness.
The entire length of Kate's four day hospital stay we were treated to blow-by-blow accounts of her progress, along with a minute-by-minute, ticker-tape tracking of the Prince's comings and goings. There's no way this daddy-to-be is going to be slipping out for a pint with the lads. His every move is being monitored; with journalists acting like human GPS devices. And you know it will only get worse. The public will be privy to every phase of the Duchess' pregnancy.
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Royal cousins, Kaiser Wilhelm II
and King George V. |
Poor little sprog. What's a baby Mountbatten-Windsor to do? That double barreled moniker will be the baby's surname. Not that it will used that often. Members of the Royal Family rarely, if ever, use their surnames; HRH Prince or Princess being perfectly adequate. They can also be known by the name of the Royal House. William, for instance, is of The Royal House of Windsor, and though Willy of Windsor does have a nice ring to it, being the son of the Prince of Wales, William, like his brother Harry, is a "Wales", i.e. Prince William of Wales and Prince Harry of Wales. It was only when he married, that William got to use his full name; William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor. Fortunately the wedding registry didn't require that he list his titles, for not only is he a Prince, he is also a Duke (of Cambridge), an Earl (of Strathearn) and a Baron (of Carrickfergus). His must be quite the calling card.
Time once was when members of the British Royal Family went only by the name of the House, or dynasty, to which they belonged. At the time of George V's accession to the throne in 1910, the House, and subsequently George's surname, was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, inherited from his father, Edward VII and passed down from Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband.
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German Gotha bomb
damage to Cleopatra's Needle, London: 1917. |
Then on May 25, 1917, in the midst of the Great War, which pitted cousin (George V)-against-cousin (Kaiser Wilhelm II), the bomb dropped. Or 21 to be precise. And not just any bombs, but Gotha bombs, sent over from Germany for a daylight raid on London. Poor weather resulted in the bombs being diverted to secondary targets; Folkestone and Shorncliffe, causing 95 deaths and 195 injuries. A subsequent attack two weeks later was also diverted, but a week or so later, a third attack hit it's mark. 162 died, including 18 children, when one of the bombs fell on their London school; 432 were injured. It would be the deadliest raid of World War I.
While the British might not have objected to George marrying Princess Mary of Teck, whose father was of German extraction, having one's capital city come under attack by bombs bearing your own monarch's name, Gotha, was just not cricket. Gauging his subject's unrest, George promptly declared that "all descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the name of Windsor".
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"A Good Riddance"; propaganda
cartoon from Punch, June 1917. |
The satirical magazine Punch declared "The King has done a popular act in abolishing the German titles held by members of His Majesty's family" and depicted George V in a cartoon showing him sweeping away the German titles held by members of his family. Skeptics, however, may have interpreted the cartoon a little differently, in that the King was cleaning his "House" by simply sweeping the problem under the carpet. Regardless, overnight, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was replaced by the name Windsor, after the distinguished British castle of the same name.
The Royal Family name of Windsor remained in place until 1960 when, after the Queen's hubby Prince Philip threw one of his wobblers and likened himself to "a bloody amoeba", complaining he was "the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children", a Royal proclamation went out. From thenceforth, the Royal Couple's direct descendants would be known as Mountbatten-Windsor. Mountbatten being Philip's surname.
Unless Prince Charles decides to alter the status quo when he becomes king, he will continue to be "of the House of Windsor" and his grandchildren will use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. So that's the newest royal baby's surname taken care of, but speculation as to the baby's first name is bound to be a hot topic for several months to come. Bookmakers, tabloids and talk show hosts are already playing "Name That Heir". I don't know what all the fuss is about. After all what's in a name, a baby by any other name, still smells so sweet. Well, most of the time.
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