I can't find the original post asking for House of Windsor.

I typed up a synopsis but it's still long and may need to be broken into two posts

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House of Windsor

**Note: 1917 is the year they changed their name to Windsor

This co-incides with the cousin in Russia’s being forced from the throne - the couson was Nicholas II from the House of Romanov.

The House of Windsor is the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. In 1901, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a branch of the House of Wettin) succeeded the House of Hanover to the British monarchy with the accession of King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1917, the name of the royal house was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I.[

The House of Windsor is the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. In 1901, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a branch of the House of Wettin) succeeded the House of Hanover to the British monarchy with the accession of King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1917, the name of the royal house was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I.[

*Name Change when cousin Nicholas II Emperor of Russia was forced to abdicate. They changed name out of fear…

March 17, 1917: In the same year, on 15 March, King George's first cousin, Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The King and his family were finally persuaded to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

Proclamation:

“ Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor….”

House of Windsor Current Queen: Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926)[

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*Queen Elizabeth’s Parents: George VI, (born December 1895 ) and Elizabeth-Bowes Lyon

GEORGE V “First of the Windsors”

ABOUT GEORGE V * born June 1865 (son of Edward VII)

Short version: George V was 3rd in line to the throne. His brother, Albert, was older. Albert became engaged to “May” (his second cousin once removed Princess Victoria Mary of Teck). May’s parents were Prince Francis, Duke of Teck (a member of a morganatic, cadet branch of the House of Württemberg), and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a male-line granddaughter of King George III and a first cousin of Queen Victoria.

Albert got sick 6 weeks after engagement and died. Then George married Albert’s fiance “May” - aka Queen Mary - mother of Queen Elizabeth.

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**George V’s mother was- Alexandra of Denmark (b. 1 December 1844) (married to Edward VII b. 1863)

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD. more on part 2.

Part 2 of House of Windsors and connection to Russia

*** Alexandra of Denmark. Alexandra's family had been relatively obscure until 1852, when her father, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was chosen with the consent of the major European powers to succeed his distant cousin Frederick VII as king of Denmark.

Alexandra’s father was Christian IX of Denmark (b. 8 April 1818)

Christian married his second cousin, Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, in 1842. Their six children married into other royal families across Europe, earning him the sobriquet "the father-in-law of Europe". Among his descendants are Margrethe II of Denmark, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Philippe of Belgium, Harald V of Norway, Felipe VI of Spain, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Constantine II of Greece, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, Queen Sofia of Spain and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

As a young man, Christian unsuccessfully sought the hand of his third cousin, Queen Victoria

Christian's mother was a daughter of Landgrave Charles of Hesse, a Danish Field Marshal and Royal Governor of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and his wife Princess Louise of Denmark, a daughter of Frederick V of Denmark. Through his mother, Christian was thus a great-grandson of Frederick V, great-great-grandson of George II of Great Britain and a descendant of several other monarchs, but had no direct claim to any European throne.

Christian's father was the head of the ducal house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, a junior male branch of the House of Oldenburg. Through his father, Christian was thus a direct male-line descendant of King Christian III of Denmark and an (albeit junior) agnatic descendant of Helvig of Schauenburg (countess of Oldenburg), mother of King Christian I of Denmark, who was the "Semi-Salic" heiress of her brother Adolf of Schauenburg, last Schauenburg duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein.

Prince Christian had been a foster "grandson" of the "grandchildless" royal couple Frederick VI and his Queen consort Marie (Marie Sophie Friederike of Hesse). Familiar with the royal court and the traditions of the recent monarchs, their young ward Prince Christian was great-nephew of Queen Marie and descendant of a first cousin of Frederick VI. He had been brought up as a Dane, having lived in Danish-speaking lands of the royal dynasty and not having become a German nationalist, which made him a relatively good candidate from the Danish point of view. As junior agnatic descendant, he was eligible to inherit Schleswig-Holstein, but was not the first in line. As a descendant of Frederick III, he was eligible to succeed in Denmark, although here too, he was not first-in-line.

Four of Christian's children sat on the thrones (either as monarchs or as consorts) of Denmark, Greece, the United Kingdom and Russia.

Christian's grandsons included Nicholas II of Russia, Constantine I of Greece, George V of the United Kingdom, Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway.

Today, most of Europe's reigning and ex-reigning royal families are direct descendants of Christian IX, and most current European monarchs are descended from him,

EDWARD VII (Edward VI’s Father…Queen Elizabeth’s paternal grandfather)

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) - wife: Alexandria of Denmark

Edward had mistresses throughout his married life. He socialised with actress Lillie Langtry; Lady Randolph Churchill;[c] Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; actress Sarah Bernhardt; noblewoman Lady Susan Vane-Tempest; singer Hortense Schneider; prostitute Giulia Beneni (known as "La Barucci"); wealthy humanitarian Agnes Keyser; and Alice Keppel. At least fifty-five liaisons are conjectured.How far these relationships went is not always clear. Edward always strove to be discreet, but this did not prevent society gossip or press speculation.Keppel's great-granddaughter, Camilla Parker Bowles, became the mistress and subsequent wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, Edward's great-great-grandson. It was rumoured that Camilla's grandmother, Sonia Keppel, was fathered by Edward, but she was "almost certainly" the daughter of George Keppel, whom she resembled.[31] Edward never acknowledged any illegitimate children.Alexandria was aware of his affairs, and seems to have accepted them.

MORE in PART 3

House of Windsor connection to Romanov

THE ROMANOVS and the HOUSE OF OLDENBURG

Queen Elizabeth’s great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra’s sister was Nicholas II’s mother and thus the grandmother of the Grand Duchesses. Nicholas was George V’s first cousin.

Alexandra, Nicholas’ wife was also George V’s first cousin through her mother, Alice who was the younger sister of Edward VII.

Philip is also related to the Grand Duchesses as his paternal grandfather was the younger brother of Nicholas’ mother and thus Philip’s father was Nicholas’ first cousin.

Philip’s maternal grandmother was Alexandra’s eldest sister to make the relationship more confused.

The direct male line of the Romanovs ended when Empress Elizabeth of Russia died in 1762, thus the House of Holstein-Gottorp (a cadet branch of the German House of Oldenburg that reigned in Denmark) ascended to the throne in the person of Peter III.[1] Officially known as members of the House of Romanov, descendants after Elizabeth are sometimes referred to as "Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov".

The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917 as a result of the February Revolution ended 304 years of Romanov rule and led to the establishing of the Russian Republic under the Russian Provisional Government in the lead-up to the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922. In 1918 Bolshevik officials executed the ex-Emperor and his family. Of the House of Romanov's 65 members, 47 survivors went into exile abroad.[3]

Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne.

On the night of July 16, 1918, a Bolshevik assassination squad executed Czar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children, putting an end to the Romanov family dynasty that had ruled Russia for more than three centuries.

Czar Nicholas II’s immediate family was executed in 1918. But there are still living descendants with royal claims to the Romanov name.

The Queen of England’s husband, Prince Phillip

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh - great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

The husband of Queen Elizabeth II is a grandnephew of the last czarina, Alexandra, as well as a great-great-grandson of Nicholas I. His two-part Romanov connection means that his son Prince Charles and his grandsons, Princes William and Harry, are all Romanov relatives. In 1993, after the unmarked graves believed to contain the remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra and three of their daughters were exhumed, Prince Philip even offered a blood sample to scientists seeking to identify the remains. His mitochondrial DNA matched that of the bodies believed to be those of Alexandra and the three girls, helping to confirm their identity.

Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff

A British socialite and organizer of London’s Russian Debutante Ball in London, Olga is the daughter of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, the eldest nephew to Nicholas II. Born in 1950, she is the only child from his second marriage (and a half-sister to Prince Andrew). In 2017, she became president of the Romanov Family Association, founded in 1979 to unite descendants. Olga Andreevna has four children, including Francis-Alexander Mathew, a photographer who appeared in the TLC show Secret Princes, where he was billed as Prince Alexander of Russia.

Prince Michael of Kent

A minor royal in Britain (he’s a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II), Prince Michael is celebrated in Russia for his connection to the Romanovs, and his resemblance to Czar Nicholas II, who was a first cousin of his grandmother. In July 2018, he joined Olga Andreevna and other Romanov descendants in St. Petersburg to mark the 100th anniversary of the royal family’s execution, and visited the cathedral where the remains of the czar, czarina and three girls are buried. (Two more bodies, uncovered in 2007 and identified through DNA comparison with living Romanov relatives as two of the murdered children, Alexei and Maria, have not been buried, as some within the Russian Orthodox Church have refused to accept the identification.)

Prince Rostislav Romanov

The great-grandson of Grand Duchess Xenia, Rostislav was born in Chicago and grew up in London. Unusually among Romanov descendants, he has also lived and worked extensively in Russia. An accomplished artist, he also works with the Raketa Watch Factory in St. Petersburg, founded by his ancestor Peter the Great. In 2017—the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution—he designed a special watch stained with a drop of his own blood to commemorate the bloodshed and sacrifice of the revolution and the violent end of Romanov rule in Russia.

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PART 4 Romanov’s and their murder

Remains of Romanov family members are not discovered for 61 years, but it takes until 2007 for Alexei and Maria’s bodies to be located

In the 1970s, a geologist named Alexander Avdonin, who had heard rumors about the site of the Romanovs’ grave his entire life, began asking others for information about its location. In 1979, with the help of Yurovsky’s son, he finally found the grave near the site of the mansion in Yekaterinburg, Russia where the family had been imprisoned. They began to exhume bones from the site. Fearing reprisals from the Soviet government, they reburied the bones. But in 1988, after the Soviet Union began to loosen its stance on discussing the Romanovs, Avdonin approached Gorbachev’s government and asked for an investigation.

It was finally carried out in 1991, after the Soviet Union’s collapse. The state’s investigative team found thousands of bones and other relics from the imperial family, and DNA analysis soon confirmed they were in fact the Romanovs. The remains were buried in St. Petersburg cathedral in 1998, and the buried Romanovs were declared saints in the Russian Orthodox church.

But two of the children’s remains were missing: Maria and Alexei. Rumors about their possible survival swirled until 2007, when Sergei Plotnikov, a builder who was part of a club that looked for the missing Romanovs on the weekends came across bone fragments. It was the missing children. “It was clear they didn't die peacefully,” Plotnikov told The Guardian.

It would seem that the discovery of the missing Romanovs would put the rumors and mysteries to rest, but that didn’t happen. Though DNA confirmed the bones were Alexei and Maria’s, the Russian Orthodox church didn’t acknowledge the discovery, and historians worried the dispute was political, not historical.

It’s unclear why the church dragged its feet, but some commentators believe it was an attempt by the church to court Vladimir Putin and his government, who have suggested rehabilitating the Romanov monarchy. In 2015, Nicholas’ remains were exhumed for further testing, and this year, new DNA tests corroborated the original DNA findings.

But Alexei and Maria’s remains are still being held in a Russian state archive—not buried along with the rest of their family. It’s unclear when, or even if, that burial will occur, even with the new DNA results. A century after the Romanovs’ grisly murder, their story remains as mysterious and politically fraught as it was the day they were killed.

The gruesome details of their imprisonment and murder can be found at

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a8072/russian-tsar-execution/

Yurovsky and his killers later wrote detailed, boastful, and confused accounts for the Cheka, a precursor to the KGB. The reports were sequestered in the archives and never publicized, but during the 1970s renewed interest in the murder site led Yuri Andropov, the chairman of the KGB (and future leader of the USSR), to recommend that the House of Special Purpose be bulldozed.

Most Kremlin observers agree that the final decision regarding the remains of the Romanovs will be Putin's. Somehow he has to reconcile the 1917 Revolution, the slaughter of 1918, and contemporary Russia. Will there be ceremonies to commemorate both? A reburial ritual with royal honors or a religious ceremony to revere saints? No one knows exactly how he will try to pull it off.

Members of the Russian public, particularly those who are either ultranationalists or Orthodox believers, are fascinated by the story of the Romanovs. And almost everybody is willing to embrace the tsars as part of Russia's magnificent past. Stalin promoted a few of them, such as Peter the Great, as rigorous reformers, but Putin's new textbooks present many as heroic leaders. So, even if there's little support for a restoration of the dynasty, there is huge enthusiasm for the restoration of the glory and prestige and power that the dynasty represented.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian whose latest book is The Romanovs, 1613-1918.