Happy Victoria Day

[Scooter]

Meade--as I recall, Edward (who succeeded Victoria) was of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line because f his father, Prince Albert

Yes, because children always took their father's name, even those of a queen regnant. Certainly no monarch would have thought to retain his/her mother's name, which in those days marked you as illegitimate. The choice of Windsor in 1917 was about getting rid of the German association, rather than a decision to alter how dynastic houses were named. The proclamation made this clear:

Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor....

The intent was that the name would be inherited through the male line only.

So the present Queen, descended in the male line, continued the House of Windsor. George VI had thought to style her children as Royal Highness (previously restricted to male grandchildren of the sovereign), so there was no pressing need for a surname (which would have been Mountbatten). It might have ended there, had not Philip's uncle, already suspected of wishing to use the monarchy to his own advantage, believed (contrary to Victoria's precedent) that it was already the House of Mountbatten. He was overheard by Queen Mary, who was having none of it, and pressed Churchill to do something.

So another proclamation in 1952, the Queen's children would be of the House and Family of Windsor, but once again excluding their descendants in the female line. In 1960, expecting another child, she issued another proclamation, that any of her descendants not styled Royal Highness (but not married women or their descendants), would have Mountbatten-Windsor as a surname.

I expect that, barring some radical dynastic change à la King Ralph, that a future monarch not properly a Windsor by these rules would choose to retain the name.

[Burning Petard]

Meade: " I suppose you don't stand quietly during some lousy foreigner's national anthem either."

Real 'muricans' don't even stand quietly during OUR national anthem.

snailgate.

[Big RR]

Interesting Scooter, thanks. I guess there haven't been all that many reigning queens in England (the only ones I can think of were the post Henry VIII trio of Jane Grey (only a few days) and Mary and Elizabeth I (both dying childless), Mary of William and Mary (who had a husband who also reigned), Anne (I think no children survived her), Victoria, and the current Elizabeth the II, so there's not a lot of precedent to look at.

[Scooter]

Yes, only the last two queens regnant had children; of the others, Mary I and Mary II were both preceded and succeeded by members of their immediate family, so no change in the reigning house, while Elizabeth I and Anne were succeeded by members of more distant collateral lines.

I don't recall seeing any discussion of William III's quite singular case - his claim to the throne clearly rested on both his Stuart lineage and his Stuart marriage, and is typically counted among the Stuart monarchs for those reasons. But he was, of course, of the House of Orange, which I have never seen listed among the reigning houses of the UK.

(edited out an incomplete thought)

[Lord Jim]

Interesting stuff about the royal houses Scooter; I always like it when I come here and learn something new...

[dales]

That might even be several times a day, LJ.

[Lord Jim]

Oh, would that that were true Dale...

Unfortunately at this point, I'm lucky if it happens several times a year...

[Long Run]

This regal rules of succession reminds me of the last GOT episode SPOILER ALERT

Prior to the "most powerful people" in Westeros picking their new (and hitherto useless) leader in the series finale, Samwell Tarly is mocked, one last time, for his whimsical ideas. "We represent all the great houses, but whomever we choose, they won't just rule over lords and ladies," he pipes in. "Maybe the decision about what's best for everyone should be left to, well, everyone." His comment is followed by a profound pause that serves as the showrunner's wind-up to their cynical punch line: Psyche! Did you actually think for a moment that Westeros was going to become a democracy? The lords laugh the idea off, and even Sansa gives the proposition a smirk. "Maybe we should give the dogs a vote as well!" chimes in Edmure Tully.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Meade: " I suppose you don't stand quietly during some lousy foreigner's national anthem either."

Real 'muricans' don't even stand quietly during OUR national anthem.

snailgate.

[TPFKA@W]

Not that it has anything to do with this thread but me granny and old Liz could have passed for sisters.