Read Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy Online

Authors: Alison Weir

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Royalty, #History, #General, #Historical, #Reference, #Genealogy & Heraldry, #Non Fiction

Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy

Contents
About the Author
Alison Weir was born in London and now resides in Surrey. Before becoming a published author in 1989, she was a civil servant, then a housewife and mother. From 1991 to 1997, whilst researching and writing books, she ran a school for children with learning difficulties before taking up writing full-time. Her non-fiction books include
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
,
Lancaster and York
,
Children of England
,
Elizabeth the Queen
,
Eleanor of Aquitaine
,
Mary Queen of Scots
,
Henry VIII: King and Court
,
Isabella
and, most recently,
The Lady in the Tower
. She is also the author of three best-selling novels,
Innocent Traitor
,
The Lady Elizabeth
and
The Captive Queen
.

Alison Weir

 

BRITAIN’S ROYAL

 

FAMILIES

 

The Complete Genealogy

 
To Rankin, John and Kate
Also by Alison Weir
Non-fiction
Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The Princes in the Tower
Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses
Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547 – 1558
Elizabeth the Queen
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Henry VIII: King and Court
Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley
Isabella: She Wolf of France, Queen of England
Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn
Fiction
Innocent Traitor
The Lady Elizabeth
The Captive Queen
Foreword
In 1965, when I was fourteen, I read for the first time an adult historical novel. It was about Katherine of Aragon, and was entirely forgettable, except for the fact that it left me with a thirst to find out more about its subject. Subsequently, I read many more novels, and then many history books, and my interest expanded from the Tudor period to encompass the whole sweep of British, indeed, European, history. But from the first, my chief fascination was with the British monarchy, and it became my ambition to produce a book that would provide the reader with a complete genealogical record of all the royal families of England, Scotland and Great Britain.
It has taken me more than 22 years to research this book. Throughout this time I have consulted countless books and articles in various libraries, visited sites of interest, and revised the manuscript at least eight times. It may seem strange, but despite the fact that there are numerous and detailed books on the British monarchy, and even on royal genealogy, there is not one that gives a complete record of all the members of the various royal houses and families. To obtain such a record, I have had to research each person individually, cross-checking the facts where possible from alternative sources, and re-checking against new works as they were published. I have used original, contemporary sources for verification wherever possible.
The result is
Britain’s Royal Families
, which I am convinced will prove an invaluable aid to the student of royal history, and will provide much of interest for even the most casual of royalty watchers.
Alison Weir
London, 1989
CHAPTER ONE
The Saxon and Danish Kings of England
There have been kings in England for more than 2,000 years, and yet this realm has been a monarchy for little more than half that time. Up until the Dark Ages, kingship was basically tribal, invested in chieftains of Celtic or Romano-British stock. Then, in the middle of the 5th century, England began to feel the impact of the Barbarian invasions that were changing the face of Europe. Angles, Saxons and Jutes came to these shores, settled, and then colonised the land. There then evolved 7 kingdoms, known to historians as the Heptarchy. The earliest kingdom was established in Kent by Hengist, son of a Germanic chieftain, in around A.D. 455. The other kingdoms were Essex (the East Saxons), Sussex (the South Saxons), East Anglia (the East Angles), Lindsey, Bernicia, Deira, Mercia and Wessex (the West Saxons). Lindsey was centred around Lincoln; the names of its kings are not known to us, and it was very soon swallowed up by neighbouring kingdoms. Bernicia and Deira combined later on to form the kingdom of Northumbria, the first of the biggest three kingdoms to establish supremacy over the rest.
Christianity came to Kent in the late 6th century, and soon spread to the rest of the Heptarchy, although there were pagan influences still prevalent until the late middle ages. Not so welcome were the raids of the Vikings from Scandinavia, which were the scourge of England (and other countries also) from the 8th to the 11th centuries, and which attained their ultimate achievement in the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Northumbria was the first kingdom to achieve supremacy, and during the 7th century it was a centre for the arts and religion. Unfortunately, the light of learning was extinguished during the
following century because of the Viking raids. At that time, Mercia was in the ascendant. This kingdom comprised the Midlands and some of the southern counties. At its peak of supremacy, Mercia was governed by King Offa (
d
.796), who established firm government and overseas alliances. However, after his death, the kingdom declined because of ineffective leadership, leaving Wessex in the ascendant.
The kingdom of Wessex had been founded in A.D. 519 by a chieftain called Cerdic, who came to Britain from Germany in 494/5. His descendants, proud to bear his name, called themselves ‘Cerdingas’. H.M. Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Cerdic. Later Saxon chroniclers would boastfully trace Cerdic’s descent from Adam and Eve, via a mythical son born to Noah in the Ark, but of course this is pure fiction, for Cerdic’s ancestors were in fact obscure tribal chieftains and elders.
Anglo-Saxon kingship was a blend of the mystical and the practical. The function of the king was to protect his people, by making war if necessary, and by giving them laws to obey. He was also sanctified by holy rites, which evolved into the coronation as we know it, the modern form of which dates from the crowning of King Edgar in 973. Anglo-Saxon kings of the House of Wessex had from time immemorial been crowned upon the ancient coronation stone at Kingston-upon-Thames, in a simple ritual which was not as complicated as the European ceremony adapted for Edgar by Archbishop Dunstan. Hence, the king, set apart by his anointing and crowning, and thereby invested with priestly attributes, was a champion of the Christian Church, who was deemed to hold his office from God.
The king was also expected to father sons for posterity, to ensure the succession and the stability of the kingdom. His wife was rarely accorded the title of ‘Queen’ in Wessex, but was usually styled ‘Lady’. Succession was by primogeniture, supporting the right of the eldest son, although on several occasions the right of conquest prevailed over this.
As late as the 11th century, the Danes were still attempting to invade and conquer a by then united England, and they were ultimately successful, which is why our line of Anglo-Saxon monarchs is broken by four Danish interlopers. As a result of this, the succession in the 11th century was an ongoing problem, which was not finally resolved until 1066. In 1100, when Henry I married a princess of
Saxon descent, the old and the new royal houses at last joined in blood.
This handbook is about the monarchy, and it begins with the first ruler who properly may be accorded the title of monarch, Egbert of Wessex. Egbert was acknowledged in his time as an outstanding sovereign, who, by the end of his reign, was recognised by other, lesser, kings as overlord of most of England. For this reason, we must begin with Egbert. Unfortunately, his supremacy did not long survive his death, and the authority of his immediate descendants, the great Alfred included, was more or less confined to Wessex. It was not until more than a century after Egbert’s death that the monarchy was properly established in England under King Athelstan.
 
King Egbert
F
ATHER
:
Ealhmund, King of Kent.
He was the son of Eafa of Wessex by a Kentish princess, whose identity is unknown. Ealhmund is known to have been reigning in Kent in 784 or 786. He died in 786 (?).
M
OTHER
:
Unknown
.
S
IBLINGS
:
St Alburga
.
She was either the daughter of Ealhmund by his unknown wife, or the daughter of that wife by another husband. She is called the half-sister of Egbert.
Alburga married Wulfstan, who was perhaps Ealdorman of Wiltshire. Upon her widowhood, she entered her husband’s religious foundation at Wilton, which she is said to have converted into a nunnery. She died and was buried there in
c.
800 or
c
.810. Egbert did not have any brothers.
EGBERT
He was born around 769/80. He became ‘Subregulus’ of Kent in 790/96, and succeeded Beorhtric as King of Wessex in 802. There is no record of his coronation. From 825 onwards, he had established his supremacy over all other rulers in England, and was effective overlord of all the south-eastern kingdoms. In 829, he succeeded Wiglaf as King of Mercia, although he was expelled the following year.

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