Many people assume that,

The British royal family is British,

The French royal family is French,

And the Spanish royal family is, naturally, Spanish.

But if you take even a brief look at the history of European royalty, you’ll discover a fact that seems absurd, yet is entirely true—

The core of the entire European royal system is almost entirely of German origin.

And not just a little bit. We’re talking about a systemic presence.

Many people will ask:

Why the Germans?

The answer is actually very pragmatic.

After the Fall of Rome, They Were the Only Ones Left Who Could Fight

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe didn’t immediately welcome a “new civilization.” Instead, it entered a long period of chaos:

  • The administrative system collapsed
  • The tax system disintegrated
  • Cities declined
  • Armies were no longer organized units

The world that had once run on the Roman system was suddenly empty.

And it was at this moment that the various Germanic tribes stepped up.

They weren’t sophisticated or romantic, but they had several crucial advantages:

  • Strong organization
  • Highly militarized
  • They could fight, and they could govern

To put it bluntly:

While others were still reminiscing about Rome, they had already begun to take control of reality.

So It Wasn’t That They “Claimed” to Be Rulers; Others Invited Them

This is a commonly misunderstood point.

It wasn’t the Germans who came out and said, “We are the heirs of Rome.”

Instead, the Church and local elites of the time discovered—

Without them, order simply couldn’t be maintained.

This led to a very pragmatic model of cooperation:

  • The Church provided “legitimacy” (You are approved by God).
  • The German warriors provided “force” and order.

This was the underlying logic of what later became the “Holy Roman Empire.”

It wasn’t about cultural inheritance, but a power exchange.

Then Things Started to Get Interesting

Because the German lands were long in a state of:

  • No unified country
  • Numerous princes and lords
  • Every house was a military power
  • Every house had a “legitimate bloodline”

What did this mean?

It meant that this region became Europe’s—

Royal Reserve Pool.

A dynasty in some country ended?

Go find a replacement in Germany.

A country’s situation is unstable?

Find a German noble to stabilize things.

Over time, almost all of Europe’s royal families were “contracted out” by this system.

The United Kingdom Is the Most Typical Example

Many people think the British royal family is very “native,” but it’s quite the opposite.

Until before World War I, the official family name of the British royal family was: Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Standard German.

Because anti-German sentiment was so strong during WWI, they were forced to change it to the very “British-sounding” name we know today—Windsor.

And you have to know something:

The mother tongue of early British kings was not English.

They were more accustomed to speaking German in their daily lives,

English was more the “language of their subjects.”

Hence the widely circulated phrase—

“The King of England can’t speak English.”

Other Countries Were the Same

🇪🇸 Spain

The House of Bourbon came from France, and the French royal system itself was heavily influenced by the German nobility structure.

🇧🇪 Belgium

The royal family comes directly from a German noble family.

🇳🇱 Netherlands

The ruling family also belongs to the German nobility system.

🇮🇹 Italy

The royal family after unification came from a noble house in the Alpine region, which was itself a German-Italian hybrid system.

No matter how you look at it, it all comes back to the circle of German nobility.

This is not a coincidence, but a structural outcome.

And Here’s the Real Irony

Later, when Europe entered the era of nation-states,

people began to talk about “national identity” and “state identity.”

But before that—

The royal families who ruled these countries were precisely the group of people who cared the least about nationality.

They recognized only bloodlines, not borders;

For them, a country was just a “place of work.”

Europe’s royal families were not symbols of their nations,

They were a small group of people who were the first to “go international” in the Middle Ages.