THE Royal Family’S current heritage line dates back to the early 20th century when the House of Windsor was created in 1917 and is a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, itself derived from the House of Wettin, who succeeded the House of Hanover. The reason they changed the name to Windsor was due to anti-German sentiment during the first world war.
Queen Elizabeth II then sanctioned that all future generations would be under the banner of Mountbatten-Windsor, this is a combination of her and her husband’s family names.
Early history and faux-modernity
Currently the royal family have reigned in the UK for 1209 years which spans 37 generations. Dating the monarchy back shows us that all monarchs are descendent of King Alfred the Great who begun his reign in 871 but this also means that the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip are distantly related and share the same great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria.
There are a lot of newspapers and magazines claiming that Harry and Meghan are showing that the royal family are trying to modernise and one of the reasons they cite, is because they are an early 30s couple who have lived their lives and chosen to marry late like a lot of regular people. However, this is in part due to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which means that members of the British Royal family are not allowed to marry before the age of 25.
