Monday, September 15, 2014

On this occasion of Prince Harry’s 30th birthday

...yahoo.com is breathlessly reporting to the world that Prince Harry is not his real name.

If you’re not shocked, I suppose yahoo.com thinks you should be.

Harry’s real name is Henry Charles Albert David.

Here endeth the reading from yahoo.com -- the remainder of this post is of my own making.

Eight kings of England were named Henry and two were named Charles, but they were not part of the House of Windsor-Mountbatten neé Windsor neé Saxe-Coburg-Gotha neé Hanover.

However, Charles (the current Prince of Wales, whose full name is Charles Philip Arthur George) is Harry’s father; Albert was (a) what the family called King George VI (Harry’s great-grandfather) and (b) Queen Victoria’s husband (Harry's great-great-great-great grandfather) ; and David was what the family called King Edward VIII (Harry’s great-great uncle) .

[Editor’s note. Whoopi Goldberg’s family called her Karen, but that fact has nothing to do with this post. --RWP]

On this auspicious occasion, I thought I would share with you the full names of several current and former members of the British royal family.

Prince William (the Duke of Cambridge) is William Arthur Philip Louis. His little son, thanks to Kate Middleton, is George Alexander Louis.

William’s and Harry’s father’s siblings are Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise (the Princess Royal) , Andrew Albert Christian Edward (the Duke of York) , and Edward Antony Richard Louis (the Earl of Wessex).

Isn't this fun???

William’s and Harry’s grandmama, Queen Elizabeth II, is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.

George VI was Albert Frederick Arthur George.

Edward VIII was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David.

George V was George Frederick Ernest Albert. His wife (Queen Mary) was Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes.

Edward VII was Albert Edward. His wife (Queen Alexandra) was Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia.

Queen Victoria was Alexandrina Victoria. Her husband (Prince Albert) was Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel.

I find all of this utterly fascinating.

And now for the big finish, the pièce de résistance, the sine qua non.

William’s and Harry’s grandpapa, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip is -- wait for it -- Philip.

All of this must mean something, but I’ll be darned if I know what.

Carry on, monarchists.

6 comments:

  1. You know far more about them than I do.
    There is often debate in our press as to who sired Prince Harry.

    Happy Birthday to him whoever his father is. He has been a good boy lately.

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  2. lol... reminds me of something my father said when we visited England. All the phone booths and mailboxes were painted with "ER2" for Elizabeth Regina II. And my father pointed out that when Charles becomes king, if he wants to take his time deciding on a name, in the meanwhile he could call himself, "Charles the Third, Pending Other." Then they could paint the mailboxes, etc with "C3PO".

    My father's a laugh a minute. :) Twenty-five years later, that still makes me roll my eyes and giggle.

    You'd like my father. You two are cut from the same impressive cloth.

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  3. Happy birthday Harry. And lots more of them - out of the limelight.

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  4. I used to have a girlfriend who only needed about 40 people to die in one plane crash before she became Queen of England.

    Actually, I used to go out with three girls with the same qualifications. That takes it down to 37, so long as at least one of them wasn't on the same plane.

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  5. Mr RWP, I am sure your loyal readers will be surprised to know that your full name is Robert Calvin Barack Lindbergh Elvis Brague though when you were a young boy your Sunday school teacher always called you "Stop that immediately!" What were you doing?

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  6. I did not know that about Whoopi Goldberg, and think she made the right choice for her. The rest...well I'm no monarchist as you know so I'll be polite and leave with a royal wave *smiles.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...