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Posted on October 24, 2007 by Jason Petrina | Posted under History
Interesting Facts and Trivia about the Royal Family
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Queen Elizabeth I was not actually considered to be a contender for the throne when she was born on April 21, 1926. As the eldest child of the second youngest son of King George V, it was not anticipated that the young girl would ever accede to the throne. At the time of her birth, she was third in line to the throne. Her uncle, first in line to the throne was not married at the time of her birth. When she was ten years old her uncle assumed the role of King, following the death of King George V; however, he reined for only slightly less than a year; at which time he abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, with whom he had been having an affair for quite some time. Upon his abdicated, Princess Elizabeth's father acceded to the throne and she was placed square in the position as first heir to the throne. Having reigned for more than fifty years, Queen Elizabeth is the second longest serving head of state in the world. Throughout her more than fifty years of reign as the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II has lived through 10 British Prime Ministers; including Winston Churchill and most recently, Tony Blair. Her reign has furthermore included six Archbishops of Canterbury, beginning with Geoffrey Fisher and including the most recent Rowan Williams. The Duke of Edinburgh and his rather famous wife, Queen Elizabeth I, are actually distant relatives and descendants of Queen Victoria. The Duke is descended through Queen Victoria's third child, Princess Alice while the Queen is descended through Queen Victoria's eldest son, King Edward III. Beyond his title of Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen's husband or consort also holds the titles of Earl of Merioneth and Baron of Greenwich in addition to a Prince of the United Kingdom, a title which his wife created for her husband in 1957. According to the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, no member of the British royal family is allowed to marry under the age of 25 without the consent of the ruling monarch. The Act of Settlement of 1701 prohibits anyone who is either a Roman Catholic or married to a Roman Catholic from inheriting the throne. Several members of the very extensive order of succession of the British throne have been removed because they either became Roman Catholics and/or married Roman Catholics. Until quite recently, the British royal family did not actually have a last name. The matter was resolved to some degree during the first World War when the royal family adopted the surname of Windsor. The matter was taken as a matter of course to prevent issues related to the fact that the members of the royal family were direct descendents of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha through the husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert. Many people felt that the name was far too Germanic sounding. While today the British royal family is officially referred to as the House of Windsor; Queen Elizabeth eventually passed a decree stating that all future descendents would be known as Mountbatten-Windsor; a combination of her recently invented family name and the family name of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh; born Phillip Mountbatten. About The Author: Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com |
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