More tea, your Majesty?

Although some of this I already knew, I thought it interesting...


Queen Elizabeth II's husband actually *gave up* the title of Prince when he married her, rather than taking it. He was born Prince of Greece and Denmark but was required to renounce titles and allegiances to marry the Princess.

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, are twice cousins. Elizabeth is Phillip's second cousin, once removed (through Christian IX of Denmark), as well as third cousin (through Queen Victoria).

Until WWI, the British Royal Family actually didn't have a last name. The name House of Windsor was invented during WWI, because the House of Prince Albert, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was 'far too Germanic sounding'.

The Queen Mother was not actually Queen, she was Queen consort, which means she was the King's wife. Conversely, the husband of a Queen is a Prince or Prince consort, not a King. On the other hand, a Queen Regnant reigns in her own right on the death of a previous monarch and is much rarer. A Queen dowager is a widow of a king who reigned in his own right and a Queen mother is a queen dowager who is also the mother of a reigning sovereign.

No Queen regnant has ever reigned over France because Salic law excludes females from inheritance of throne or fief. This was at least one motive for the Hundred Years' War and one factor leading to the Battle of Agincourt. A side note - the Meiji Constitution in Japan similarly excludes women from the Chrysanthemum Throne since 1889.

In some countries, the female ruler is still called King.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, loathed being called a dowager queen.

Two of Henry VII's wives were also his cousins. Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, was his third cousin once removed and Catherine Parr, his sixth wife, was also a third cousin once removed.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first cousins.

Certain Middle Eastern countries have a cousin (1st and 2nd) marriage rate of over 50%... Qatar's is 54%.


It's still legal to marry your first cousin in 14 states. WV is not one of them.

About 55% of Pakistani immigrants to Britain marry a first cousin.


The concept of parallel and cross cousins is bizarre and confusing.