Quizzes & Puzzles11 mins ago
Latin on the side of coins
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.decus et tutamen - an ornament and a safeguard. (This is a reference to the milling round the edge of a coin, which was invented as a way of preventing thieves from clipping trimmings off the edge of coins when they were made of silver or gold)
Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad - I am faithful to my country (this is a line from the Welsh national anthem)
This made the way clear for the crowning of George I, the Elector of Hanover, a region of Germany. He was a German who did not speak English and sired a crazy clan that continues today.
Whilst Victoria was a Hanover monarch, she had to renounce the official rulership of Hanover in favour of Britain, and Edward VII took the real family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
This became an embarrassment during the First World War, and the more homely sounding "Windsor" was favoured by George V who changed the name to try to become more British. Edward VIII only lasted a few months in 1936 before abdicating for the love of Mrs. Simpson, and Bertie his brother became the reluctant and stuttering George VI. Note he still chose the official name to reflect the Hanover origin of his family. He died in 1952 and our present Queen became ruler. This inbred and dysfunctional family stagger on, but German they certainly are.
"Highly respected"...not anymore, the last member of the royal family that was held in any esteem by the public was the old gin swilling matriarch who has gone to the bookies in the sky....the rest all hideously blotted their copy books through the 90s and the whole diana scandal.
"Well worth the money..." your having a laugh aren't you? As for that old chestnut about tourism...rubbish...loads of european countries no longer have a monarchy and still pull in the tourists.
"A vital constitutional safeguard....." now I know your on mind altering drugs...tyranny? What threat has there been to the constitution in the past 150 years? Apart from the 2 world wars which would have been fought and more likely better so than having sympathisers as the head of state.