Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Look at it this way B. D., at least you weren't referred to as an Ass... Jim At 04:45 PM 11/9/99 +0000, B. D. Colen wrote: >Wow! Is that a mouthful! I am most impressed that you can even begin to keep >the royal lineage straight - something I obviously failed to do. But I guess >I get at least partial credit for a) knowing that "Windor" was a >nom-de-Brit, b) and knowing that at some point the "British"royals wanted to >"hide" their ties to Germany. As to Philip, doesn't being part of the Greek >royal family come close to being Greek? :-) > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us >> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of >> Marc James >> Small >> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 1999 9:33 PM >> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us >> Subject: [Leica] OT: Windsors Use Leicas! >> >> >> At 03:54 PM 11/9/1999 -0000, B. D. Colen wrote: >> >And isn't Windsor a nom-de-Brit that the family adopted >> around the time of >> >WW I to hide as best they could the fact that their royal >> genes are German, >> >not British. Weren't Kaiser Willie and George V first >> cousins? Prince Philip >> >is a Greek, fer God's sake! >> >> My heavens, BD, how we foul up a fairly straightforward >> historical record! >> >> The reigning house of Great Britain ceased to be the Tudors >> upon the death >> of Elizabeth I, when James VI of Scotland, a cousin, came to >> the throne. >> His great-grand-daughter was Queen Anne, who died in 1714, bringing >> (illegally or, at the least, improperly in this Celti's eyes) >> George I of >> Hannover to the British throne, at which point the House name >> changes to >> Hanover. He was a distant relative of James I, but was >> primarily German: >> he and his son, George II, never spoke English. George II's grandson, >> however, was that most-British George III, the one we spatted >> a bit with. >> While George III did speak some German, his son, "Prinnie" >> (George IV) and >> William IV did not, and certainly Victoria, his >> grand-daughter, spoke very >> little until she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg (yes, he's the >> one who's >> "been on the can for years"), when the House name becomes >> Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Victoria's grand-son, another >> most-British sort, George >> V, changed the House name to Windsor in 1917, when he also reduced >> dramatically the use of "prince" by those of the Royal blood. >> (In 1917, H >> G Wells, a noted Socialist, called for the abolition of "an alien and >> uninspiring monarchy", to which George V grumbled privately that, >> "uninspiring I may be, but I'll be damned if I'm an alien!") >> >> The connexions between George V, Wilhelm II, and Nicholas II >> were through >> Victoria, not through the Germans, though the close >> relationship between >> the Windsors and the Montbattens (and, hence, Prince Phillip) descend >> through a German line, Prince Louis of Battenberg being married to the >> sister of the latest Czarina. Prince Phillip is "Greek" only >> by virtue of >> being a member of the Greek Royal House: his family are actually >> off-shoots of the House of Hohenzollern. (George V and >> Nicholas II were >> both grand-sons of Victoria, the one through her eldest >> child, Victoria, >> the wife of the "99-day Kaiser" and the other the second son >> of her oldest >> son, "Bertie" (the future Edward VII). >> >> In short, George V was one-quater German (Prince Albert), one quarter >> English (Victoria), and one-half Danish (his mother, the sister of the >> Dowager Czarina of First War fame). >> >> Again, the Almanach de Gotha, or Debrett's, or Burke's or >> even Whitaker's, >> will make this all crystalline to you. It is interesting and most >> important, if you are attempting to figure out precisely how >> we arrived at >> our current state of world affairs. >> >> Marc >> >> msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 >> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir! >> >> >