<p>“Sarah, Duchess of York (Sarah Margaret Ferguson) born 15 October 1959, is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York. She is a <em>former</em> member of the British Royal Family and the mother of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who are respectively fifth and sixth in line to the British throne. The Duchess is known for being at the centre of a number of tabloid scandals, as well as for her charity and commercial work.”</p>
<p>I recall a documentary about WWI that I think we had to read for a European history class. In the film, the narrator recounts letters exchanged between the Czar of Russia and the Kaiser of Germany, who were grandchildren of Queen Victoria (and thus, cousins). The letters were surreal and hilarious, demonstrating a full ignorance of the carnage that the warring cousins were wreaking upon their subjects (“…hope to see you soon Willy; love, Nicky.”)</p>
<p>^^Not quite. Battenburg and Saxe-Coburg-Gothe were (and still are) two different branches of the extended family. Saxe-Coburg-Gothe was the main branch that included the British monarchs. Battenburg was mostly a bunch of German princes and English nobles. In WWI, Saxe-Coburg-Gothe changed its name to Windsor, and British Battenburgs changed their name to Mountbatten. Both of which because they wanted to sound less German.</p>
<p>Things stayed like this until Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth of the House of Windsor married Phillip of the House of Mountbatten. Thus, after she became Queen she combined the two into Mountbatten-Windsor, which is the current royal name.</p>
<p>And she was stripped of it when they divorced.And she was stripped of it when they divorced."
No, she is still recognized by the Crown as a member of the royal family.<<</p>
<p>Sure, she was still a member of the family in the sense she was still the mother of a future king. It wasn’t somehow decreed that she was no longer a member of the family. But what was decreed was that she was no longer royal. She wasn’t “born into royalty” (to your original point), and she wasn’t royal when she died. But she was for a time in the middle while she was married to Charles.</p>
<p>coureur - You may be right. One thing, though, Battenberg is spelled with and “e” not a “u”, as “berg” means mountain – or in the Anglicanized version of their name – “mount”, as in “Mountbatten”, while “burg” means town or village.</p>