THE QUEEN’S NAME.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 76, 20 March 1880, Page 2

THE QUEEN’S NAME.

At a dinner in London, the conversation lapsed, as it sometimes will lapse with the best of hosts, into questions hardly distinguishable from conundrums. A celebrated historian was present, and I put a question to him which I know has puzzled a great many people at different times : “ What is the surname of the Roral Family 1” “Guelph, of course. is the usual answer, and it was torian’s. I ventured to suggest that, although the Royal Family are Guelpha by descent, her Majesty’s marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg must have the effect which a marriage of a lady has in all other cases, and that the surname of the present house must' be the Prince Consort's. “ But what is the surname of the Prince Consort’s family I” Simple, but staggering. No one knew. All guessed, and all were w r i oag. I happened to have looked up the subject a few months ago, so I knew that the name was “ Wettin,” Of course, no one had heard it before. Every one smiled at the horrible idea of the Guelphs being reduced to Wettins ! Ihe point was referred to Theodore Martin. “You are quite right,” said the graceful biographer of the Prince Consort, “Wettin is the family name of the House of Saxony, to whom the dominion of Saxony came in the year 1420. The King of Saxony and the minor Princes of the house are, therefore, all Wettins ; or, in German, Wettiner.”