British Royal Eras
Several time periods in British history are named for the first names of reigning monarchs of those times:
- Elizabethan: the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603
- Georgian: the reign of King George I from 1714 to 1837
- Victorian: the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901
- Edwardian: the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910
Other eras are named for family names:
- Tudor: 1485 to 1558
- Stuart: 1603 to 1714
- Windsor: 1917 to present
The “family eras” seem to be less well-known.
One of the reasons this naming style took place is that the eras corresponding to slow-moving changes in society. For example, the Victorian era is associated with the increasing modernization of the impending Industrial Revolution. The Georgian era is defined by the advancement of science during The Age of Enlightenment.
The current Windsor era has been dominated by the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 2022. If you consider the changes that happened solely during her lifetime, how would you define that era? The rate of societal change has increased so much that it’s hard to correlate it to a single familial reign. Also, it’s unlikely the House of Windsor will be toppled by war or invasion, so it could theoretically remain in power for hundreds of years to come.
Therefore, the current British reign will likely be too big to neatly correspond to societal changes. As such, it may not need a name.
Why I Looked It Up
I was reading a couple classics, and the name of the various eras came up in the introductions. It suddenly occurred to me that the names of eras (“Victorian”) corresponded to first names (“Victoria”) and these were likely the royal rules of those ages.