There’s a considerable amount of German blood from the queen’s side and Greek and (I think) Danish from Philip’s side.
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Russian, Danish, German, Greek from Philip (grandparents were immigrants to Greece, no native Greek blood), German (since George I) and Danish (Alexandra) from George V, German and Hanoverian British royal (all German) from Mary of Teck, Scottish and English from QEQM, English from Diana Spencer and Kate Middleton. Victoria had a German mother, a German husband and all her paternal ancestors, male and female, for several generations were pure German, despite being called British.
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All the Hanoverian kings and princes married Germans. Victoria had a German mother and a German husband. Edward VII married Alexandra of Denmark whose mother was German. George V married Mary of Teck who was German with a British Hanoverian royal mother.
QE was fluent in French. Apparently King Charles is fluent in French and German.If you listen to them and their intonation, it's clear that QE2 understood what she was saying, she wasn't just parroting it from a script. William, on the other hand...
WTF?! How many 100s of thousands on his education... what the fark did he study all that time?!?!
Philip was fluent in French and German. He started school in France after the family were exiled. After his mother was confined to an asylum, he spent time between his grandmother and uncles in England, and his sisters in Germany. He went to school in Germany before the school founder fled Hitler and moved the school to Scotland where it became Gordonstoun. I believe that he could speak a very little Greek from childhood. He also said that his family would switch from language to language in conversation whenever they forgot a word in one language but knew it in another. After his death, a French Canadian former politician remembered that a group of them were speaking French at a reception when Philip joined them. One, intending to compliment him, mentioned that he spoke French "very well for an Englishman". Philip retorted that he was, one, not English, and, two, that he'd been speaking French before any of them were born!
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King Charles, prince William, Prince George, princess Charlotte, price Louis, prince harry, Archie Mountbatten Windsor and prince Andrew were all born in London. The only exception with those in line to the throne is lilibet born in Santa Barbara. They’re English, but as with most families there is ancestry from other countries.
And it’s ancestry we were discussing
Good for you, just pointing out the fact the British royal family ‘are predominantly English’ .
If you did a DNA test on any of them that were born royal you’d see that it shows a very small percentage from England (or the British Isles as a whole). Obviously they’re British citizens and most of the more recent ones were born in England but as the discussion was about the PoW not being Welsh the discussion being had was about their heritage which, as several people have already pointed out, is not English. As a family they carry out lots of German traditions in the same way that lots of more ordinary families do long after they’ve left their parent company. Perfectly reasonable to do this and personally I don’t care where they come from but the British Royal family sure as hell aren’t British (or English for that matter) so I find it weird that anybody would say or think they are.
Well most of them were born in London so they are.
I think most of us “brits” are essentially mutts. The country has been invaded over and over if you go back far enough. We’ve had migration of other cultures here. It’ makes one big melting pot. If you look at traditions -,esp around Christmas- very much generalising here but many were established in Victorian times so guess mostly have German roots?
Agree there’s always intermarriage etc. I doubt it would be possible to claim any ethnicity or nationality
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I think a lot of German customs were adopted here but I don't think that means we have German roots. Having a German royal family may have influenced our Christmas traditions. The late Queen always followed her German family traditions by opening Christmas gifts on Christmas eve rather than Christmas day but but that hasn't been taken up by the rest of the nation.
The Christmas tree was basically "imported" from Prince Albert from Germany, and he is the reason why the BRF are still exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve, as is the tradition there.
We have an English royal family with German ancestry.
I very much meant our traditions are German - I wasn’t focusing on the ancestry aspect. My main point was we are melting pot of cultures and heritage.
A long time ago, my cousin took part in an official ancestry DNA survey thing … which showed much Danish/Viking on the maternal line (same line as mine) so at some point our ancestors went in for a bit of the old mayhem and pillaging. We’ve calmed down a bit since then, especially when it’s raining.
Not really on topic but recently Conan O'Brien (American chat show host) had his DNA declared asAgree there’s always intermarriage etc. I doubt it would be possible to claim any ethnicity or nationality
Irish. Now not even people in Ireland get that result.Yes and as a nation we have adopted the lovely Christmas tree as a tradition but we haven't adopted the tradition of opening gifts the day before Christmas day.
DNA testing is totally fascinating, keep meaning to do mine. Again, not on topic but from tracing my family tree it’s all English with a bit of Scottish but would be interested to see what else is thereNot really on topic but recently Conan O'Brien (American chat show host) had his DNA declared as
I think that the German is reasonably diluted by now! The Queen Mother considered herself Scottish (despite having an English mother and being born in London); I love the story of her calming an elderly Afrikaans man who was shouting about the bloody English by saying "We Scots do agree with you!". So QE was definitely half British. Philip brought back in German blood (plus Russian and Danish) though his mother's family were essentially first generation immigrants to the UK, his grandfather being First Sea Lord. While German thanks to all the marriages of Victoria's children and grandchildren, both his mother and her mother were born at Windsor Castle - in the same room too.
Marina of Greece brought mostly Russian royal blood into the Kents, having a Russian mother and Russian paternal grandmother, both imperial Grand Duchesses. Katharine Kent is solidly Yorkshire English.
Alice Montague Douglas Scott was, like Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the daughter of an ancient Scottish noble family with a mother from an aristocratic English family. Her daughter-in-law, Birgitte Gloucester is Danish.
Diana Spencer was aristocratic English through and through while Kate Middleton is equally fully English.
So not much German in George! It'll be interesting to see if the Christmas Eve stuff lasts for William and Kate.
I think is so interesting to see which traditions are being adopted and which are not.
I was thinking that maybe the Christmas tree was displayed more publicly, so it was essentially copied, but the gift opening was done in private and was (and is) less well known about.
I traced a great × 4 grandmother of mine to Somerset. So east of Wales. My DNA showed me to be almost entirely Irish apart from a small amount of Welsh. My guess is the two things are linked, the Welsh was in fact my English West Country ancestry.