The British royal family comprises Queen Elizabeth II and her close relations. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the British royal family. Many members support the Queen in undertaking public engagements and often pursue charitable work and interests. The royal family are regarded as British cultural icons.

How Did the Royal Family Start?

The current Royal Family, the House of Windsor, originated in 1917 when King George V proclaimed the last name of the family to be Windsor. However, the roots of the English monarchy trace back to the eighth and ninth centuries. Centralized systems of government came into existence in England sometime between 700 and 900 A.D. Offa and Alfred the Great had begun to organize tribes under a single ruler, and Anglo-Saxon and Scottish kingdoms had monarchs by the time of the Norman invasion of 1066. 

William the Conqueror then became the English king, and his descendants ruled in the centuries that followed. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, in 1603, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were united. In 1801, Ireland was also included in the union to form the United Kingdom.Queen Victoria (married her first cousin Prince Albert, producing 9 haemophilia riddled children who span the globe spreading the disease to other royal families in Europe)

In 1917, King George V issued a royal proclamation that established the House of Windsor, giving family members an official last name. Previously, Royal Family members were only known by the kingdom or dynasty of their origin. The current Royal Family members all hail from the House of Windsor. Butter bing bada boom fast forward to jump to 1952 where Queen Elizabeth II begins her “reign”.

Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Head of the Commonwealth of Nations. Great Britain was formed 310 years ago by the Act of Union between England and Scotland on 1st April 1707. As well as the United Kingdom, she is Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, where she is represented by Governors-General. 

The sixteen countries of which she is Queen are known as Commonwealth Realms, and their combined population is 150 million. She is Head of the Commonwealth of Nations comprising 54 member states and over 20% of the Word’s land in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The aims of the Commonwealth include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace. The 2.4 billion people in the member states account for almost a third of the world’s population.

Interesting Fact: Prince Phillip and Queen Elizabeth are third cousins.

https://www.thoughtco.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-and-prince-philip-3530296

What power does the royal family have?

In a monarchy, the king or queen is the head of state. However, as the UK has a constitutional monarchy, the ability to make and pass legislation belongs to Parliament rather than the Queen. The monarch retains a symbolic role in government. She formally opens Parliament every year, and when the government passes a bill,