FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2023-113 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (June 19, 2023) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps from Steve Kovacs, we learn about the succession of Royalty – sometimes not a royal straight.   

Royalty Changing Teams

Royal succession can be messy.  Usually, the next monarch is the offspring of the previous and now deceased King or Queen – most often the first-born son.    But even with this, strange affiliations may take place as we’ll explore in a minute with Britain.

And then there are the marriages of convenience to keep countries on the same page or at least on friendly terms, so the monarch may come through the backdoor marrying the sonless ex-king’s daughter as an example.  Sometimes an entirely new person becomes monarch because of war, or convenience. 

Back to Britain — King Edward VII became king when his mother Queen Victoria died in 1901.  So far straight forward… but because his father, Prince Albert, was part of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gota, he too, and by extension Britain, became affiliated with that royal house, with “members” including Belgium, Bulgaria, Portugal, and part of Germany.  A royal house is kind of a confederation, somewhat like NATO is today, agreeing in principle to help each other in case of war and to be generally friendly.

This is all good, except in the case of World War I.   Britain found itself fighting on the Allied side while the monarch, by then George V, Edward’s son, was affiliated with a royal house that was part of both sides of the war. 

The solution: create a new royal house.  Thus, the house of Windsor was established on this day in 1917, severing previous ties.  Charles III is the latest Windsor to sit on the British throne.

This is Smith’s 1808 map of Berkshire with Winsor in the lower right.  The House took its name from their beloved castle.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.