Gene of Thrones, and a Merlin’s Prophesy

Many people are aware that Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Henry VII via his eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor, who was the sister of King Henry VIII and the Queen of Scotland upon marrying King James IV of Scotland. Not as many people, however, are aware of the convoluted history that lies behind that genetic legacy.

Margaret Tudor and James IV had a son who survived to adulthood and became James V, King of Scotland. The only legitimate child of James V was Mary, Queen of Scots. When she grew up, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and bore him a son … the future King James VI of Scotland .  Darnley was Mary’s first cousin, and they were both the grandchildren of Margaret Tudor. A few months after James was born, his father was murdered. Suspicion fell on Queen Mary, and she fled to her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, for succour. That didn’t go well, but it was Mary’s son who became the heir to the English throne as well as the Scots crown, and he later ruled as James I of England as well as James VI of Scotland.  His son, Charles I, also reigned — albeit not successfully. King Charles I was beheaded during the English Civil War as a traitor after being tried by Oliver Cromwell’s government.

For the next nine years Cromwell would save England from the tyranny of Kings by being a uncrowned tyrant.

The English people, after putting up with Cromwell’s puritan crap and attempted genocide against Scots and Irish Catholics, decided that having a king wasn’t so bad after all. Or decided that at least a king couldn’t be worse than Cromwell and kings were, unlike Cromwell,  at least entertaining — they almost always had notorious mistresses to gossip about. Thus, the eldest son of Charles I was invited back to be Charles II of England. Charles II was something of a hound dog, in that he had at least a dozen kids by various special lady friends. Unfortunately for him, his wife to did not match his fertility and they produced no legitimate children. Thus, when Charles died his younger brother became the new king, and ruled as James II.

James II wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, since he tried to impose his Catholicism on the Protestant-loving English population and got dethroned for his shenanigans. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. William was also a grandson of Charles I by his eldest daughter, and was thus both James’ son-in-law and nephew. The royal family tree more like a topiary, really. Anyway, William and Mary ruled together until Mary died, after which William reigned alone. When he passed away his throne went to his sister-in-law, Anne, who was also the daughter of James II, and a grandchild of Charles I. It was under Anne that England/Scotland/Wales became “Great Britain”.

In spite of Anne’s seventeen pregnancies by her husband, Prince George of Denmark, she died without any living children. The crown now went to her cousin, who reigned as King George I. Even though there were much closer relations, both physically and biologically, who could have inherited Anne’s throne, they were Catholic and the English wouldn’t have any of them. Instead they went with George, the eldest of Sophia of the Rhineland Palatinate and her husband. Although he was German as wienerschnitzel in his heart of hearts, George was still a direct descendant of Mary Tudor; his mother was the daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia, and thus the granddaughter of King James I of England.

George was married his paternal first cousin, Sophia of Celle, and although they hated each other they did manage produce a son  — the future  King George II. The second King George and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach, actually liked each other and had several sons. Alas, their eldest boy, Frederick, predeceased them. Frederick’s son therefore became King George III after his grandfather George II’s death.  George III was famously ‘mad’, and when he finally went bonkers for good his son, the future George IV, became Regent and ruled in his father’s stead.  The time when Prince George was the de facto ruler of Great Britain is called the Regency Period, and nowadays it seems as though 1/3 of all romance novels written are set during this decade.

The family tree get’s complicated again when George IV’s only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, died delivering a stillborn baby. After George IV died, his crown was inherited by his younger brother, the last Georgian monarch, King William IV. Like his  older brothers, King William had no legitimate children. He named the only child of his deceased younger brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, as heir to the throne. In 1847 the eighteen year old granddaughter of King George III became Queen Victoria when her uncle William died.

Victoria married one of her German first cousins, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had nine kids, and ruled for almost 64 years. Under her husband’s influance she became a killjoy, and after his death she reigned alone as a sourpuss old biddy. The court wasn’t lively again until her son, Edward VII, became the king. He, happily for the gossips and scandalmongers, took after his ancestor Charles II, the “Merry Monarch”. When Edward died he was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, George V. George, unsurprisingly, had married his cousin (at least it was a third cousin this time) Mary of Teck. Like his grandmother, George was an excellent spouse and a horrible parent (although he was probably doing the best he could). When he passed away his throne went first to the emotionally fragile — yet deeply racist and pro-Nazi — King Edward VIII. Edward abdicated the throne; in theory so he could marry Wallis Simpson, but it might have been to hide the fact he was a traitor. Some historians defend Edward as misguided rather than traitorous, but his sympathy for poor white people does not mean he wasn’t a Nazi monster as well. After Edward’s abdication, his younger brother became King George VI.

George (know as Bertie to family and friends) was married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, a reformist like her father, Claude Bowes-LyonLord Glamis, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne . Claude Bowes-Lyon is a personal hero of mine, and it is thanks to his unwavering concern for the poor and oppressed that his daughter transformed the monarchy into the charity powerhouse it is today.

George and Elizabeth had two daughters, the eldest of which is the current monarch of Great Britain. Queen Elizabeth II’s oldest son, Charles, married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, and their son William is next in line to the throne after Prince Charles. When William eventually takes the crown, there will be even more Tudor blood on the throne than before. You see, even though the press liked to call his mother a “commoner” back when she married Prince Charles, she was an earl’s daughter and her bloodlines are blue as a smurf. Her father, (Edward) John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, was a direct descendant of two of the illegitimate sons sired by Charles II, Charles Lennox and Henry Fitzroy.

Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Aubigny (29 July 1672 – 27 May 1723), was the offspring of Charles’ mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth.  Charles Lennox’s grandson, General Lord George Henry Lennox (29 November 1737 – 25 March 1805) was the father of Charles Lennox, who became 4th Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox, 4th Duke of Aubigny, when his General Lennox’s older brother died without legitimate male heirs.  The 4th Duke married Lady Charlotte Gordon and had several children, the eldest of whom was Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond (3 August 1791 – 21 October 1860). The 5th Duke married Lady Caroline Paget, daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and Lady Caroline Villiers, on 10 April 1817. They had ten children, the youngest of whom was their daughter Lady Cecilia Catherine Gordon-Lennox (13 April 1838 – 5 October 1910). Cecilia married Charles George Bingham, 4th Earl of Lucan (8 May 1830 – 5 June 1914), and they had seven children. One of their daughters, Lady Rosalind Cecilia Caroline Bingham (26 February 1869 – 18 January 1958) wed the 3rd Duke of Abercorn, James Hamilton. One of their children was a daughter they named Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton (1897–1972), and she married Albert Edward John Spencer, the 7th Earl Spencer (1892–1975). Cynthia and Albert’s son,  John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924–1992) was Lady Diana’s father.

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton (28 September 1663 – 9 October 1690) was the son of King Charles II by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine. One of Charles Fitzroy’s daughters was Lady Isabella FitzRoy (1726 – 10 November 1782), who married Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford.  Francis and Isabella’s fifth son was named Hugh, and he eventually became Vice-Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour (29 April 1759 – 11 September 1801). One of Hugh’s sons,  Sir Horace Seymour, had a daughter named Adelaide Horatia Seymour (1825–1877).  Adelaide married Frederick Spencer, the 4th Earl Spencer on 9 August 1854.  Their son, Charles Robert Spencer, became the 6th Earl Spencer, who was the paternal great grandfather of Lady Diana.

Thus Lady Diana, like her husband Charles, is a biological descendant of Margaret Tudor.

Basically, future King William is connected to Charles II (and therefore to Margaret Tudor) six ways to Sunday. Despite his desperate attempts, King Henry VIII was unable to found a dynasty, but nevertheless a Tudor descendant sits on the throne.  Merlin was claimed to have foretold that the native British (the Welsh), lead by Y Mab Darogan, would one day conquer the Anglo-Saxons. Welsh belief in Merlin’s predictions was the reason that King Edward I sent the severed head of the last Prince of Wales,  Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, to London to be displayed “crowned with ivy  … in mockery of the ancient Welsh prophecy, which said that a Welshman would be crowned in London as king of the whole of Britain”.

The last laugh, however, was Merlin’s, since the royal family all carry the blood of the Son of Destiny foretold to the Welsh.

Wales, for the win.