Which of the royal family had to change his German surname?
George V is the king who changed the Royal Family House Name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the anglicized Windsor. The English-born George was quite upset with his German cousin,Wilhelm,for bombing London with 24 twin-engined GOTHA warplanes.World War I really made a lesson Queen Victoria sought to teach her family stick:family members included royals from many different countries,like Germany and Denmark,but they were British and their allegiance was with England. George changed not only his family branches’ name,but the names of his cousins as well!He stripped German titles from his cousins,like His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg who became the English Marquess of Milford Haven,the Lord Louis Mountbatten,father of Lord Louis Mountbatten,Earl of Burma–the present Duke of Edinburgh’s kin. The changes occurred in 1917.See http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalF… and read
PRESENT DAY ROYALTY Prince Philip technically had no surname growing up since he was a Prince of Greece and Denmark. However, he was mostly raised by his maternal uncles and grandmother whose name was Mountbatten (an anglicized version of the original Battenberg). Before he married he renounced his birth titles, and adopted his maternal grandfather’s surname of Mountbatten. But that was only for a few months, since as royal consort he technically has no surname again. ————————– HISTORICAL ANSWER One of the biggest problems was that early in 1917, a German bomber that was produced in Gotha began dropping large (for the day) bombs onto civilian areas of London. The aircraft was referred to as “The Gotha” which was part of the royal household name. Neither the name “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” or the name “Battenberg” were very old names. SCG only went back to about 1825 and Battenberg only went back to 1850. Queen Victoria knew the SCG name was a problem long before WWI, and she
