When Did The British Royal Family Stop Speaking German? [Long Shorts]

As my wife pointed out, the imposition of French was because they were conquerors. Getting German kings was because we needed (the view at the time, obviously) someone who wasn't Catholic.

Captain Darling “But I’m as English as Queen Victoria!” Captain Blackadder “Ah! So your mother’s German, you’re half German and you married a German!”

Is it possible that Queen Victoria wrote her private diary in English because her mother's English was not great and her mother had control over almost every part of her life?

The fact that ALL European (Brits included) royalty are related to each other and almost all spoke French &/or German &/or English (+ Spanish etc., if that was your nationality) because it allowed for intercommunication, and better marriage prospects ... and access to court politics. (Actually, the higher your 'rank' and greater your wealth, the more you could get away with 1 language, maybe 2 - because your spouse would be more likely to accommodate you . Those hoping to 'marry up' or 'marry well' were more likely to have more languages.) Example - 'The Father-in-Law of Europe,' King Christian IX of Denmark, had 6 children all of whom married very well. They were taught English by their Governess, but it wasn't until they were introduced to 'society' that they realised there was a problem - they all spoke with a distinct Irish accent, as their Governess was Irish! The King hired tutors, and the accent was remedied (lol one of my favourite stories.) His 6, Danish born, English speaking children became: - Frederik VIII, King of Denmark - Alexandra, Queen of the United Kingdom - George I, King of the Hellenes - Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia - Thyra, Crown Princess of Hanover - Prince Valdemar Among his current descendants are: - King Frederik X, - King Philippe of Belgium, - King Harald V of Norway, - Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, - King Charles III of the United Kingdom, - King Felipe VI of Spain. You may as well ask why European royals don't speak Danish!

William brought an army with him and gave the Norman aristocracy land in England. So it wasn't just one single foreign family taking the crown, but many Norman's taking over key positions all other the country

Queen Victoria was born in Britain, because her father wanted to make sure the potential heir to the throne was borne there. He had been living in Germany with his wife and stepchildren, because of cheaper living costs.

German was victoria's first language. She and Albert spoke to each other in German too

One question I've always had (about royals from a bit earlier) is, how is it that Catherine of Aragon was betrothed to Arthur Tudor since she was about three years old, but in all the time before she actually was sent to England no one bothered to teach her English? Like she and her husband-to-be literally could only communicate in Latin. She must have learned very quickly after that though.

A big part of the difference is that in the middle ages the King was the state and the absolute ruler, by the 18th century the state of England was more than a monarch and the role of the king became far more than that, a king must reflect a state rather than a state reflecting a king

"Germany"'s main export product throughout the 16th to late 19th century was nubile aristocrats, which makes sense considering the vast amounts of more or less sovereign principalities across the Holy Roman Empire.

The late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, was quite fluent in German and you can find him speak it in a few interviews on youtube.

Everybody expects The German Imposition

“Huns” was how my grandmother spoke of the royals. Mind ya, shed turn 100 in a bit, and never got too political until after jfk. She was neat.

Here in New Zealand we have had a foreign royal family since 1947 when we stopped being British citizens.

"Why are we so keen to see the British royal family as a foreign power" as Commonwealth citizen...

"Why are we so keen to see the British royal family as a foreign power?" Damn girl. Excellent question.

The obsession with language is pretty funny when monarchs have been learning multiple languages from early childhood for centuries, it seems to be part of their basic education. Latin has been ingrained in the country since the Roman invasion. The English monarchy has gone through so many crazy twists and turns. But I always look at it that if we didn't recruit a German (protestant) king then the chances are there wouldn't be a monarchy today as they would have been Catholic and had too much power when the revolutions were happening, like in France. The whole of society would be different.

You could have continued on beyond Queen Victoria to the Royal Family’s later connections to Germany between the 1920’s to 1950’s namely their Nazi sympathisers. Edward VIII’s story is well known but not that of some other Royals. One of Victoria’s grandsons, Prince Charles Edward sided with Germany at the beginning of WWI. He had inherited the Dukedom of Sax Coburg Gotha some years earlier when still in his teens. After the war he joined the nascent Nazi party and rose through its ranks in the inter war years and held a senior position during WWII. Two of Prince Phillip’s sisters married Nazi officers.

Albert and Victoria most likely spoke German to each other. And Albert's English most probably had a heavy German accent. King Charles III surprised the Germans on his visit to Germany last year by holding a speech in perfect, fluent German. His pronunciation was sometimes slightly off, but otherwise. That said, historically nearly all European royalty has it's roots in some way or form in German royalty. They're all related to each other.

"Look, I'm as British as Queen Victoria!!" "So your father's German, you're half German, and you married a German?"