Five Brothers and a War

History—1800 to 1900 AD

British royalty, headed by Queen Victoria (1837-1901) was the House of Hannover from George I (1714-1727) through Victoria. That meant that George II (1727-1760), George III (1760-1820), George IV (1820-1830) and William IV (1830-1837) were all House of Hannover members. When Victoria married Albert, from the House of Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (“Saxe-Coburg-Gotha”) her son, King Edward VII (1901-1910) became the one and only member of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, because his successor, George V changed the name to “Windsor” on July 17, 1917, during World War I by declaring that, “All descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or have married, shall bear the name Windsor.” Prior to the outbreak of World War I, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, Russian Tsar Nicholas II and British King George V were engaged in diplomacy. They were first cousins and friends since childhood. Both Wilhelm and George were grandsons of Queen Victoria. Nicholas was a cousin through the marriage of King Christian IX of Denmark’s daughter Alexandra to Edward VII. But beneath the pomp and family, there were deep divisions that contributed heavily to the outbreak of war.

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Of course, Nicholas lost his life and therefore his throne during the Bolshevik Revolution, shortly before the end of World War I, and Wilhelm was forced to abdicate his throne just after the end of that war. Britain began its long descent from Empire back to relatively small nation between the two world wars—a process that dramatically sped up when Britain had to expend vast resources during World War II.

Five Brothers and a War

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