-   Royal Descents of famous people
  Introduction

The List

Descents not from Charlemagne

Descents claimed but not specified

Other lists of descents

Unproved and Disproved Royal Descents

Common ancestors of all humans

The "Bush and Strongbow" controversy

The "McCain and Robert the Bruce" controversy

Royal Descents of famous people

by Mark Humphrys. 1995 to date.



Please contact me if you know of a Royal descent for a famous person who is not listed here. Or if you know of a better descent (i.e. from a more recent monarch) for anyone listed here.

Note that I do not research the people on this list myself. I mainly just reference and link to other people's work. My contribution is really compiling a list in this particular nested format - not actually researching the genealogy of famous people. So asking me detailed questions about people here is probably a waste of time. In particular, for many people below I merely link to their entries in other lists of descents of famous people.

Introduction

Why a page of Royal Descents? I am not actually interested in Royalty per se. Rather, I am interested in showing the common relationship of all humanity. Royal Descents are simply a convenient way of doing this.

All humanity is interrelated many times over (contrary to what an endless procession of racists and tribalists throughout history have claimed). For any two humans in history or today, it is not a question of do they have a common ancestor, it is only a question of when was the most recent one. If we had full genealogical records for all history, then any 2 living people on earth could identify their closest relationship to each other. Or indeed any 2 living organisms on earth, since DNA probably did not evolve twice. One could also pick any famous person, alive or dead, and show your closest relationship to them. For they are all related. See pre-historical estimates for Common ancestors of all humans.

Since we don't have such records, we have to make do with what is documented. As we travel far enough back in time, what is documented continuously is of course only the royalty and nobility - the ruling elite, if you like. Lines from major religious figures are also sometimes preserved, but usually only because the ruling elite ends up descended from them.

Showing descents from successive English monarchs is probably the most convenient way of tying the West together. You will be aware, of course, that later monarchs are descended many times over from earlier ones. So it allows us show short descents from the most recent monarch (rather than every descent needing a long tail going up to some very remote common ancestor). Some continental descents, though, may have to go all the way up to Charlemagne, from whom all English monarchs since William the Conqueror descend.

The non-Western world

As far as non-Western genealogy goes, somebody in the Islamic world needs to make a list of Descents of famous people from the Prophet Muhammad (e.g. see The Aga Khan). These may then share Abd Manaf as a common ancestor with many (but not all) of the people on this page. There is some remote possibility of linking in Jewish descents as well, and some chance of expanding to include Indian, Chinese, and even Aztec descents.

Most of the world's genealogies have been lost, of course. In many parts of the world, a succession of tyrants have destroyed people's connection to the past by burning the country's genealogies. Communists did this deliberately, as part of their ideology. The burning of libraries lists examples such as:

The reconstruction and inter-linking of past world genealogies is still ongoing. But really unifying the world will have to depend now on ongoing marriage rather than further historical discoveries. With the massive rate of intermarriage between different cultures (or at least, people with different ancestral cultures) there will eventually develop a World Family Tree, outside of which very few people will lie. In a few centuries' time, the entire world will be provably descended from Charlemagne (or perhaps some non-Western common ancestor) at birth. Everyone will be provably related to everyone else.

Ancestors and Descendants

Some people think these kind of descents are contrived, in that, say, Elizabeth II is the "real" descendant of William the Conqueror, and all these are rather artificial descents. This betrays a lack of understanding of history. The House of Windsor is an arbitrary subset of the millions of proven, legitimate, direct descendants of William the Conqueror. The Royal line is the product of a long series of political decisions over the years, rather than the result of following any unvarying rule. (And there's nothing wrong with that. After all, it makes it more democratic.)

To make it clear, everyone on this page is a direct descendant of Charlemagne in the same sense that any member of modern royalty is. I only ever use "ancestor" or "descendant" to mean "direct ancestor" or "direct descendant". If someone is a brother or cousin of your direct ancestor, some people would call them a "collateral ancestor", or even just an "ancestor". To me they are not your ancestor at all, but just a blood relation.

I have written some more on What is the point of genealogy.

Gary Boyd Roberts has written on this:

Descents from the High Kings of Ireland

Once you connect to the English Royal family, you connect to the royalty and nobility of many other European countries. Many other descents of the people below from other royal houses can easily be worked out.

For instance, it can easily be seen that, of the people below, almost all of them after Edward I (and all of them after Henry VII) are descendants of the High Kings of Ireland.

Descents from the Prophet Muhammad

Similarly, it can easily be seen that, of the people below, many of them after Edward III (and all of them after Henry VII) may be descendants of The Prophet Muhammad.

The List

Many people here have multiple Royal Descents. I show the most recent monarch they descend from.

Exponential growth (going backward):   Consider that you need 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, and so on. Assuming an average of about 25 years per generation, you only need to go back to about 1200 AD, quite within historical times, to need more separate ancestors than the entire population of the world. The solution to this paradox is of course that ancestors are duplicated. All of us descend from a massive amount of intermarriage even within the last few hundred years.

See estimates for Common ancestors of all humans, and in particular see Exponential growth (going forward). Restricting ourselves just to Europe (and those of European descent abroad) it is quite possible that the most recent common ancestor of the West lies within historical times. It is possible, for example, that every single westerner descends from Charlemagne.
Some more figures it would be interesting to estimate:
Some more figures it would be interesting to estimate:
Edward III is "often described as the ancestor of the British upper-middle class" [Burkes Presidential]. Some more figures it would be interesting to estimate:

Royal descents not ultimately from Charlemagne

All of the above descend ultimately from Charlemagne. Other Royal descents:

Royal descents not fully specified

The following apparently have Royal descents, but I have not yet found out who is the most recent monarch they descend from.


  1. Stephen A. Douglas, born 1813, US Presidential candidate.

  2. Adlai Stevenson, born 1900, US Presidential candidate.

  3. Bette Davis, born 1908, actress.

  4. Vincent Price, born 1911, actor.

  5. Roy Rogers, born 1911, actor.

  6. Thomas Pynchon, born 1937, writer.

  7. Brian Wilson, born 1942, lead singer of "The Beach Boys".

  8. Richard Gere, born 1949, actor.

  9. Alec Baldwin, born 1958, actor.

  10. Maggie Gyllenhaal, born 1977, actress.

  11. Jake Gyllenhaal, born 1980, actor.

Many other royals and nobles could be listed above


It can be taken as read that almost all of European royalty, except the very earliest ones, are on this family tree.

It can also be taken as read that much of European nobility is also on this family tree. Basically, almost anyone with an old title.

Other lists of descents of famous people

U.S. Presidents


Please contact me if you know of a Royal descent for a famous person who is not listed here. Or if you know of a better descent (i.e. from a more recent monarch) for anyone listed here.

"To nationalists, shared blood is everything: for them, history is made in bed. Biology is the test of their ideas, and usually it proves them wrong."
- [Jones, 1996].

Unproved and Disproved Royal Descents


Common ancestors of all humans
Return to Home page.