Our common ancestors - English Royal family - Contents

The English Royal family

This is (as explained here and here) not much more than just an extended Ancestors Chart for myself and my wife, included only to provide continuity with my later pages.

I do not research the genealogy of the English Royal family (and have no plans to ever research it). For the comprehensive Royal family tree, start at William the Conqueror in the Genealogy of the British Royal Family, into which I extensively hyperlink.

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The origin of western genealogies

• References:
  • The Genealogist's Encyclopedia, Leslie G. Pine, 1969.
  • Pedigree and Progress, Sir Anthony Wagner, 1975, [TCD] Research Area, Stall 91

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Descents From Antiquity, The Augustan Society:
    • A Key to Descents from Antiquity, T. Stanford Mommaerts, Journal Of Ancient And Medieval Studies, Issue Three 1984-1985.
    • Additions to "A Key to Descents from Antiquity", T. Stanford Mommaerts, Journal Of Ancient And Medieval Studies, Issue Four 1985.
    • Descents From Antiquity, The Augustan Society, 1986.
    • Journal Of Ancient And Medieval Studies, Issue 7 1988.
    • Descents From Antiquity - An Update, Augustaeum, vol III, issue 2, Mar 1996.

  • Egyptian Royal Genealogy by Chris Bennett
    • Bridging the Second Intermediate Period, Chris Bennett, Journal Of Ancient And Medieval Studies, Issue Twelve 1995.
    • Annotations To The Egyptian Descent In The Descents From Antiquity Charts, Chris Bennett, Journal of Royal and Noble Genealogy, 1996.

  • [Stuart, 1998] shows the possible ancient ancestry of John of Gaunt.

All the old Western lines really form one vast European family tree. How far back this tree can be taken is still a matter under investigation.

Biblical descents: For centuries genealogists tried to trace western descents back to Adam. These all however suffered from the flaw that Adam is a fictional character. For a factual account of humanity's origins, see here. Essentially, there was no first human. If you find this concept hard to grasp, start here.
Noah is fictional too (to understand why, see here).
Many later characters such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David and Solomon may also never have existed (see here and here).
Later biblical characters clearly existed, but there is so far no known descent from them.

Descents From Antiquity: In terms of real, historic descents, the challenge remains to get a proven western descent from the late Roman period. This is the problem of a "Descent From Antiquity" (DFA): "No DFA has been proven at this time. However, research has established the outlines of several possible or likely ancestries that could become DFAs. ... There are Irish and Welsh descents which are generally considered reliable to the early 5th century, .. But .. such ancestries are not usually considered DFAs .. Instead, an ancestry which reaches the later Roman Empire in the 4th century is often considered early enough for a DFA". [Pine, 1969] says: "No families, not even the Royal Houses, can make a sound claim to bridge the chasm of the Dark Ages and establish a proven connection with the period of the later Roman Empire. Efforts made to give Charlemagne a late Roman ancestor are not substantiated."

If ever a classical descent is established, it will probably be through the Kings of Armenia, as introduced in [Wagner, 1975]. The most distant descents that are even being considered are speculative connections to the Ancient Egyptian royal house (back to c.1600 BC) and the Assyrian royal house (back to the 17th cent BC). Again, these are very speculative and may never be proved.

• Ancient Egyptian family trees

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The English Royal line

The Romans left Britain by 410 AD. Cerdic, first King of the West Saxons (see here), who arrived in Britain 495 AD, is generally accepted as the historical start of the British Royal line in England. His descent from Woden and then from Bedwig is regarded as legend.

We begin the English Royal line with the Norman (Norse-men) invaders of England (1066) and Ireland (1169):

Eystein, Jarl of the Uplanders, of Norway, born 788 AD, had issue:

Ragnvald Eysteinsson, had issue:

Rolf the Ganger, 1st Duke of Normandy (also here), born 846, had issue:

William I Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy, had affair with Adela [descendant of Charlemagne] and had issue:

Richard, 3rd Duke of Normandy, born 933, had issue:

1. Richard, 4th Duke of Normandy, had issue:
   1. Robert the Devil, 6th Duke of Normandy, had affair with Harlotte of Falaise [tanner's daughter, the original Harlot] and had issue:
      1. William the Conqueror.

2. Godfrey, had issue:
   1. Gilbert, Count of Brionne, had issue:
      1. Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, born 1035.

3. William, Count of Eu, had issue:
   1. Robert, Count of Eu, had issue:
      1. William Hastings, Count of Eu.

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• Family trees
  • Royal family trees
  • English Royal line of descent