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The British Royal Family is the family group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. There is no strict legal or formal definition in the UK of who is or is not a member of the Royal Family, and different lists will include different people. However, those carrying the style Her or His Majesty (HM), or Her or His Royal Highness (HRH) are normally considered members. By this criterion, the Royal Family will usually include the monarch, the consort of the monarch, the widows of previous monarchs, the children and male-line grandchildren of the monarch and previous monarchs, the children of the oldest son of the Prince of Wales, and the wives or widows of the monarch's and previous monarchs' sons and male-line grandsons. Different terms may be applied to the same or similar group of relatives of the monarch in his or her role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms. For example, for Canada the family is known as the Canadian Royal Family. Some members of the Royal Family have official residences named as the places from which announcements are made in the Court Circular about official engagements they have carried out. The state duties and staff of some members of the Royal Family are funded from a parliamentary annuity, the amount of which is fully refunded by the Queen to the treasury.〔(Sovereign Grant Act: main provisions )〕 Since 1917, when King George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, members of the Royal Family belong, either by birth or marriage, to the House of Windsor. Senior titled members of the Royal Family do not usually use a surname, although since 1960 Mountbatten-Windsor (incorporating Prince Philip's adopted surname of Mountbatten) has been prescribed as a surname for Queen Elizabeth II's direct descendants who do not have royal styles and titles, and has also sometimes been used when required for those who do have such titles. ==Status== On 30 November 1917, King George V issued Letters Patent defining the styles and titles of members of the Royal Family; the text of the notice from the ''London Gazette'' is: In 1996, Her Majesty The Queen modified these Letters Patent, and this Notice appeared in the ''London Gazette'': On 31 December 2012, Letters Patent were issued to extend a title and a style borne by members of the Royal Family to additional persons to be born, and this Notice appeared in the ''London Gazette'': Members and relatives of the British Royal Family historically represented the monarch in various places throughout the British Empire, sometimes for extended periods as viceroys, or for specific ceremonies or events. Today, they often perform ceremonial and social duties throughout the United Kingdom and abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom. Aside from the monarch, their only constitutional role in the affairs of government is to serve, if eligible and when appointed by letters patent, as a Counsellor of State, two or more of whom exercise the authority of the Crown (within stipulated limits) if the monarch is indisposed or abroad. In the other countries of the Commonwealth royalty do not serve as Counsellors of State, although they may perform ceremonial and social duties on behalf of individual states or the organisation. The Queen, her consort, her children and grandchildren, as well as all former sovereigns' children and grandchildren hold places in the first sections of the official orders of precedence in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Wives of the said enjoy their husbands' precedence, and husbands of princesses are unofficially but habitually placed with their wives as well. However, the Queen changed the private order of precedence in the Royal Family in favour of Princesses Anne and Alexandra, who henceforth take private precedence over the Duchess of Cornwall, who is otherwise the realm's highest ranking woman after the Queen herself. She did not alter the relative precedence of other born-princesses, such as the daughters of her younger sons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Royal Family」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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