Similarly, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, whose German titles passed eventually to the descendants of their youngest son Leopold, Duke of Albany.

In Parliament, beginning on 18 November 1914, Swift MacNeill, a Protestant Irish Nationalist and constitutional scholar and MP for South Donegal,[4] condemned the Duke of Albany and the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale as traitors and demanded to know "what steps will be taken to secure that [they] shall no longer retain United Kingdom peerages and titles and a seat in the House of Lords.

"[5] Despite meeting resistance from Prime Ministers Asquith[6] and Lloyd George,[7] MacNeil continued his campaign until he lost his seat in the 1918 election.

[10] On 13 May 1915, King George V struck the names of seven German and Austrian royals (some of whom had never been British) from the roll of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter;[11] but peerage titles cannot be withdrawn except by Act of Parliament.

The Viscounts Taaffe had emigrated from Ireland to Austria in the 1700s and had served the Austrian emperor since that time, even while their Irish title was confirmed as recently as 1860.