What do you know about royal families?
Meet the world’s other 25 royal families - The Washington Post
The Royal Forums | The Complete Royal Resource
Royalty.nu - The World of Royalty - History, News, Books
Sweden:
Royal Family - Sveriges Kungahus
Swedish royal family celebrate Crown Princess Victoria's 37th birthday in ponchos | Mail Online
Oman:
Oman Royals - The Royal Forums
Oman and Zanzibar
Thailand:
Thai King & Royal Family | Facebook
Thai Royal Family | Unofficial Royalty

What do you know about the British royal family?
Welcome to the official website of the British Monarchy

The First World War 'defined' the royal family:

WW1 was a defining period for the Royal Family

- last updated Tue 5 Aug 2014

Royal
WW1

The Royal Family, including King George V, Queen Mary and Princess Mary (left), pose for a picture in January 1916. Credit: PA/PA Archive

The First World War was a defining period for the British monarchy, transforming the Royal Family into a more modern institution.

While other monarchs abdicated or were removed across Europe, George V emerged from the Great War more popular, with a new symbolic family name and a secured place on the throne.

As war broke out in August 1914, anti-German sentiment steadily grew among the public and the press.

Even writer HG Wells described the monarchy's German heritage as an "alien and uninspiring Court," prompting George to say, "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien."

King George V visits the graves of British soldiers killed in battles at Ypres. Credit: PA/PA Archive

The monarchy's family name at the beginning of the Great War was Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which originated from the Bavarian-born Prince Albert when he married Queen Victoria in 1840.

Sensitive of his German background, George changed the family's surname to Windsor in 1917 and gave up its German titles.

The move, although symbolic, was aimed at putting any concerns people had about the King's loyalty to rest.

During the war George visited the troops more than 450 times - including a few trips to the Western Front - and made over 300 visits to hospitals to see wounded servicemen.

Queen Mary pictured visiting a convalescent camp in Eastbourne, where injured soldiers were treated. Credit: PA/PA Archive

In some respects he was the first monarch to embrace being the public face of the state and to be seen by his people.

Queen Mary also did her bit by visiting injured soldiers. When one princess was said to have moaned about another hospital trip, she replied, "We are the Royal Family, and we love hospitals."

WW1 was a defining period for the Royal Family - ITV News

But, actually, the British royal family is German:

By George: events mark tricentenary of Hanoverian's accession to UK throne

Anniversary of 'personal union' that gave Britain its first prime minister and constitutional monarchy marked in UK and Germany

Caroline Davies
The Guardian, Friday 1 August 2014

Detail from portrait of George I by John Vanderbank. Georg Ludwig was nicknamed the 'Turnip King' by his new subjects, who believed Hanover a rural backwater. Photograph: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013

Three hundred years ago on Friday, parliament called on an unremarkable, if not downright dull, German princeling and invited him to wear the British crown.

It had been a long quest. But the shy and ailing Stuart queen, Anne, would die leaving no surviving children despite enduring 17 pregnancies, and the list of her close relatives was inconveniently long on Roman Catholics – who were banned from the throne under the 1701 Act of Settlement.

Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, may have been 52nd in line, may have spoken little English, but he was at least a Protestant, and a great-grandson of James I to boot.

At a time of poignant commemorations of a far less auspicious chapter in Anglo-German relations – the centenary of the first world war – it is hardly surprising that the 300th anniversary of George I's succession on 1 August will not win front-page headlines.

By George: events mark tricentenary of Hanoverian's accession to UK throne | UK news | The Guardian
How Georg Ludwig became George I | OUPblog
What the German Georges did for Britain – Telegraph Blogs

Queen Victoria spoke German as her first language and married a German prince:

Raised by her governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen, from Hanover, Victoria was taught only German until she was three years old. She was subsequently taught French and English as well, and became virtually trilingual. Her mother spoke German with her. Her command of English, although good, was not perfect. Victoria maintained a close relationship with Baroness Lehzen for much of her life.

Did Queen Victoria of Great Britain Speak English with a German Accent? Did she ever visit Germany?

Her reign of 63 years and seven months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

Queen Victoria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But some don't particularly like the idea: