The ancestry of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of His Royal Highness Prince Albert

Front matter

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THE ANCESTRY OF HER MAJESTY ^ QUEEN VICTORIA, AND OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT.

COMPRISED IN THIRTY-TWO TABLES, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS AND HERALDIC NOTICES.

Preface

ON reading the title of this work, the question may probably be asked, does it contain any fresh information for the public ? To which it may be replied, that, to the great mass of the reading public, it is presumed, much of he information may be new. The genealogist aid herald will, with equal probability, be famiiar with the names and pedigrees herein brought brward; but it is to be hoped that they will not grudge the extension of that knowledge, upon a subject so interesting to an Englishman's enquiries.

, The Compiler (at first only for his own amusement) was led to his task by observing that the hitherto published charts of the genealogy of our Royal Family were really defective in their construction, and faulty in their detail : none have attempted to give much more than

Vlll PREFACE.

the direct ancestry of the English Sovereigns, commencing only with Egbert, and the line of the Scottish kings, into which all have committed the mistake of introducing Banquo and Fleance; whilst no intelligence is afforded of the alliances between Royalty and our distinguished Nobility, beyond the name of the individual so connected. Neither do we find the great (continental) Saxon family of Witikind given, nor the equally illustrious house of Este. Much of the substance of the following pages is to be found scattered over many volumes, nor can it be expected that every general reader should have the opportunity, even did he possess the patience, to compare one authority with another, when frequently those very works are, from the nature of their contents, of too expensive a form for general circulation.

In the course of a professional engagement, the Compiler has enjoyed the advantage of referring to the excellent genealogical and heraldic library collected by the late Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Baronet, and Bath King of Arms ; and in one work in this collection, whence the

PREFACE. IX data for heraldic descriptions are chiefly derived, the antiquary will recognize an invaluable authority, viz. the MS. of the indefatigable Robert Glover, Somerset Herald in the time of Queen Elizabeth; this work, 1 a monument of patient labour, as well as accurate knowledge, containing 8982 coats of arms drawn by his own hand, is attested to be authentic by the late Francis Townsend, Esq. Windsor Herald. 2

2 In page 18 is written in Mr. Townsend's own hand, " This volume is undoubtedly the genuine collection of that most learned and skilful Herald Robert Glover Somerset, and the sketches of arms and descriptions of the owners are drawn and written by himself. This he attests at page 498, and it may therefore seem not to require any farther authentication. But as there have been many MSS. lately passed upon the world as his, which in truth are only imperfect copies or poor imitations of his works, I gladly avail myself of an opportunity of vouching, from official experience of more than forty years, the authenticity of the present volume.

Francis Townsend, Windsor Herald,

Bury St. Edmunds, 27 Oct. 1812, at the House of Sir Thos. Gery Cullum."

X PREFACE.

Finding that his materials increased in interest as in bulk, and that much appeared likely to be unfamiliar to the public, the Compiler felt the hope, that the study which had afforded him pleasure might be welcome to others ; the result is therefore produced in its present form rather than in a chart, for although the latter presents at one view the connecting links of the great chain of pedigrees, yet it must be almost entirely restricted to names and dates, whereas in a volume more information can be conveyed, and in a more convenient, and probably more economical form. It is hoped that the method pursued of giving Tables, arranged in columns, to convey as much information as could be crowded into a comparatively narrow compass, will be considered to compensate as nearly as possible for the form in which pedigrees are given in charts. The method, it is believed, is now adopted for the first time.

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Introduction

THE Compiler of the following pages can aspire to receive no higher award of praise than that which would be accorded to the careful workman, whose task would be to select pearls from several caskets in order to place them in one setting. Diligence to find out the best clues, and patience to unravel the often complicated mazes of genealogy, have been the only talents called into operation.

It is hoped that this little work may prove not unacceptable to the readers of English History and lovers of their countrymen's fame, when, in the list of the illustrious ancestors of her present Majesty, they behold the names not only of Emperors and Princes, but those also of the scarcely less noble and distinguished of some of our celebrated English families, whose

" derivation was from ancestors Who stood equivalent with mighty kings."'

Pericles, act v. sc. i.

Xll INTRODUCTION.

thus whilst we find the imperial Charlemagne, the great Egbert, and the greater Alfred, and a long line of English and Scottish monarchs, stretching far into the obscurity of antiquity, with the princely Counts of Flanders, and the mighty Dukes of Normandy; we shall perceive also the generous De Clare, the high-born De Burgh, the noble Mortimer, the " well-skilled" Bruce, the " hardy" Douglas, and the valiant Stuart, names which belong, not merely to an individual whose prowess or conduct gained for him a place among the great ones of the land, but to Houses which had produced for ages " famous men, mighty men of valour, men of renown," who ranked as princes among the people, and who, in many cases, were as powerful as their sovereigns, who were often glad to purchase by alliances the support or submission of such dangerous subjects.

A Briton may feel some pride in recollecting that in the veins of his Queen there runs the blood of those who have helped to raise England to her pitch of greatness ; and it is peculiarly interesting to observe, that circumstances have brought about a union of several currents into one stream, in a manner more remarkable than was ever seen in the pedigree of other royal houses.

In the ninth century we find six contemporaneous Princes, viz. Charlemagne, Egbert, Witikind,

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

Kenneth M'Alpine, 2 Guelph, and Boniface, of whom it was utterly impossible for human eye to foresee, that at the remote distance of centuries, their blood would centre in one person. The relative position of some of these princes to each other was extraordinary. Charlemagne was the friend of Egbert, but the enemy of Witikind ; after few descents, the blood of the two former mingled in the person of Arnolf I. Count of Flanders; that of the great Saxon leader was added when his direct descendant, Henry the Lion of Saxony, wedded Matilda Plantagenet, sprung from the son of the Conqueror's Flemish Queen, and the niece of the last male descendant of the ancient Saxon princes. Another contemporary of the great Charles was Guelph, Duke of Bavaria, the first of that name so much to be distinguished in after history, whose daughter Judith married Louis, son of the imperial Charles, by which alliance Guelph was ancestor, through the Flemish Counts, of Matilda, the Conqueror's Queen, as he was through his lineal descendant the Lion of Saxony, of the House of

2 Perhaps a little indulgence must be claimed for introducing Kenneth in this list, who did not commence his reign until 836, twenty-two years after Charlemagne's death ; yet, although not ranking at the time as a reigning prince, Kenneth, from the active part he took in the lifetime of his grandfather Achaius, and his father Alpine, deserves a prominent notice, and hi^ name is more familiar than that of his predecessors.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

Brunswick. The blood of the Guelphs mingled with that of the House of Este, of which Boniface the Bavarian, the friend of Charlemagne, is the undoubted ancestor, in the person of Guelph V. paternal great grandfather of Henry the Lion of Saxony. The blood of Kenneth M' Alpine mixed with that of Egbert in David I. and this united stream flowed on till added in the person of James V. to the before united currents of Egbert and Charlemagne, whilst in George I. we behold blended the whole of these illustrious streams, and his great grandson George III. is descended, through his mother, from the great Witikind, by the second as well as by the elder son. It is also a remarkable coincidence, that each of these illustrious contemporaries was the founder of a new Family or Dynasty, — Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the West, Egbert as the first Monarch of all England, Kenneth, son of Alpine, as the first King of all Scotland; and although Witikind ceased to enjoy the title of King, yet in his new dignity of Duke of Saxony, we behold him as the first of a long and illustrious line of Princes. Guelph too was first of that name which even to the present day is known as the only patronymic of his descendants upon the throne of this country. In Boniface the Bavarian, Gibbon recognises the first probable ancestor of the Houses of Este and Brunswick.

It will be the object of the present work to show

INTRODUCTION. XV

how the many rich and royal streams of far-derived ancestral blood mingle in the young veins of our Queen, with the as ancient and as noble currents of the Tudors, Stuarts, Bruces, and other potent families, whose names have been

" familiar in our mouths as household words." 3

From the ties of kindred which existed between her Majesty and her illustrious consort, the task of proving the ancestry of Prince Albert is comparatively easy, and the Compiler believes that he may claim the satisfaction of being the first to point out the direct and unbroken descent of His Royal Highness from her Majesty's Anglo-Saxon ancestors, a descent which attaches additional interest to one whose destinies are now linked inseparably with those of his adopted country.

The Compiler trusts that he need not apologise for seeking to impart some interest to his pages by illustrations from Shakspeare, the truly English chronicler of some of the most interesting portions of our history ; and if in two or three instances a discrepancy is shown to exist between the poet's statements and the facts which, since his time, have been brought to light by the research of the nineteenth century, it must not be attributed to a want of reverence for the

3 Henry V.

XVI INTRODUCTION.

mighty Master, who drew his information from the best sources at the time open to his enquiry. 4

The following arrangement of the Tables has been adopted as that best calculated to convey a simple and clear sequence of the pedigree of their illustrious subjects. In Table I. is given the Anglo-Saxon race from Cerdic to Egbert, a period of more than three centuries. In Table II. the race is continued from Egbert to Henry the Second, son of the last of the royal Saxon blood of Cerdic. In the Illrd Table is shown the line of the Dukes of Normandy, from Rollo to Henry II. Table IV. gives the descent of Henry II. through his great grandmother, the Conqueror's Queen, from the Counts of Flanders, and through them from the great-great-great grandfather of Charlemagne. In the Vth Table, the Anglo-Norman line of monarchs commences with Henry II. who, born in England, unites in his own person the blood of the Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, Flemish, and Norman lines ; this Table is continued through Edmund Langley to Edward IV. whose descent from Lionel of Clarence is shown in the next Table, and from John of Gaunt in Table VII. In Table VIII. is exhibited the descent of Henry VII. from Edward III. through the Beau-

4 Well has Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "The Englishman, who without reverence, a proud and affectionate reverence, can utter the name of William Shakspeare, stands disqualified for the office of critic." Literary Remains, edited by H. N. Coleridge, esq. vol. ii. p. 62.

INTRODUCTION. XV11

forts, and continued through his union with the daughter of Edward IV. to James VI. of Scotland and First of England. The Tudor ancestry of Henry VII. is given in Table IX. In the next Table is deduced the line of Scottish monarchs, from Kenneth M'Alpine in the ninth century, to King Robert Bruce, and continued from him to James VI. whose lineal descendants are set forth in Table XI. to Her Present Majesty. In Table XII. the ancestry (so often misrepresented) of the House of Stuart, is given from the eleventh century to James VI. in the male line. In Table XIII. the rival House of Douglas is displayed, ending also in James VI. In Table XIV. the descent of the Bruces is shown, from the eighth century to King Robert the Bruce. In Table XV. the House of De Burgh is derived from a descendant of Charlemagne to Edward IV. who in the next Table is brought down from the House of De Clare, and in Table XVII. from the House of Mortimer, through which he claimed the crown, whilst his descent in Table XVIII. is deduced from the House of Wake through " Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent." In the XlXth and XXth Tables, the Kings of France in lineal descent are added, on account of so many alliances having taken place between them and the royal and noble individuals named in the preceding Tables. In Table XXI. is commenced the Germano- Saxon pedigree of the Queen, from Charlemagne to Henry the Fowler, who,

XV111 INTRODUCTION.

in the next Table, is derived from Witikind the Great, and the line continued to Henry the Lion of Saxony, whose descent from the House of Guelph is shewn in Table XXIII. and from the House of Este in Table XXIV. and from the House of Billing in Table XXV. The line of Henry the Lion of Saxony, in whose person so many streams unite, is continued in Table XXVI. through the house of Brunswick to Queen Victoria. In the XXVIIth Table the descent of Frederick the Grave is given from the great Witikind, through his second son, as in Table XXVIII. it is shewn from Alfred the Great, and in Table XXIX. it is brought down to Her Majesty ; who in Table XXX. is derived maternally from Ernest the Pious ; whence also Prince Albert's lineage, being so closely connected with Her Majesty's, is given. Table XXXI. is occupied by the lineal Kings of Denmark, who were frequently allied with the royal houses of England: whilst Table XXXII. is occupied by the House of Mecklenburg. It would not be difficult to increase the number of Tables, but it is conceived that a sufficient selection of the most interesting descents has been chosen, to gratify without perplexing the reader.

45, Great Marlborough Street, April 30, 1841.

Contents

Page Chapter I. The Pedigree of the Saxon Race from Cerdic

to Egbert 1

II. The Anglo-Saxon Line of Monarchs from

CHAPTER I. The Saxon people did, as most believe

Their name from Saxa, a short sword, receive. 1

The Pedigree of the Saxon Race from Cerdic to Egbert.

THE arrival of the Saxons forms an important era in the history of Britain. 2 The ill judged expedient of Vortigern in calling those hardy adventurers to his aid against the Picts and Scots, soon recoiled upon himself, when Hengist and Horsa, having made conquest of those enemies, determined

2 Although the term Saxon is the common name bestowed upon the Northern Germans who conquered Britain, the adventurers were in reality composed of three tribes; thus Hengist was a Jute, Cerdic was a Saxon, and Uffa was an Angle.

to fight in future for their own aggrandizement, and no longer in defence of their degenerate allies. The intelligence of the riches and fertility of Britain, and the prospect of readily subduing a people so little able to protect themselves, excited the countrymen of Hengist to flock over in great numbers ; and the result was the founding, by the self-styled descendants of Woden, of the several kingdoms known as the Heptarchy.

In the year 495 one of these leaders, called Cerdic, 3 " the most noble and powerful of the Saxon chiefs," 4 with his son Cenric, and a considerable force, landed in the south-west of England, and although he met with a more obstinate resistance from the Britons than the other tribes of Saxons had encountered, his persevering valour enabled him in the year 519 to establish the kingdom of Wessex, or West Saxony. The greatest opposition which Cerdic had to encounter was from the famous Arthur, Prince of the Silures, whose actions have been so magnified by the early British bards and chroniclers, one of whom asserted, " God has not made since Adam was, the man more perfect than Arthur," as to lead some modern writers to doubt his very existence. 5 But notwithstanding

3 The initial letter in Cerdic, Cenric, and Ceawline, has the sound of K.

4 Sir James Mackintosh.

5 King Arthur is said to have conquered the Saxons in twelve pitched battles ; and in an action against his own nephew the romance which surrounds the real achievements of this renowned Prince, there is no more reason to doubt his existence, than that of Hercules, Theseus, and other ancient heroes, whose actual identity is to be traced amidst all the fabulous glories which accompany their names.

Cerdic claimed a descent, in common with all the founders of the Heptarchy, from Woden, or Odin, " King of Men," who is placed by most genealogists between 200 and 300 years after Christ, and whilst the Icelandic documents would derive Woden from Memnon and a daughter of King Priam, the Saxon chroniclers present us with a pedigree of Cerdic from the patriarch Noah, in the following manner : 6 " Cerdic was the son of Elesa, who was the son of Esla, the son of Giwis, son of Wigga, son of Freawine, son of

Mordred, being mortally wounded, about 542, he was conveyed from the field, but the place of his burial not being known, the Britons long expected his return to lead them to conquest, and even as late as the reign of Henry II. the Welsh more especially did not abandon the hope, that this renowned hero would one day reappear, with his wounds healed, to reconquer Britain from the Normans. See Thierry's History of the Norman Conquest. A similar instance of a nation indulging a long and fruitless expectation of the return of a much loved sovereign is probably familiar, that of Sebastian of Portugal, whose restoration was fondly looked for after many generations had passed away.

6 Quoted from Playfair.

Freothogar, son of Brand, son of Beldeg, son of Woden (and Frea), son of Frithiwold, son of Freawine, son of Tsetwa, son of Beaw, son of Sceldwea, son of Heremod, son of Itermon, son of Hathra, son of Heotla, son of Bedwig, son of Sceaf, son of Noah, who was descended from Adam the first man." 7

This is not the place to enter into a history of the various states into which Britain was divided by the victorious sons of Woden, neither is it necessary here to enquire whether the word Heptarchy is a more appropriate term for such partition than Octarchy since it is clearly to be shewn that eight separate and independent states existed at one and the same time under their respective kings, the two kingdoms of Deiri and Bernicia having for some time continued distinct before they became united in the person of Ethelfrid under the new name of Northumbria.

The kingdom of Wessex, or rather the royal

7 Whilst we may safely leave the pedigree from " the first man," or as Hardyng calls him " the first olde creatur," as far as Woden to speak for itself, there is no reason why the descent from Woden to Cerdic should not merit attention. Almost all the chroniclers agree in giving the descent/rom Woden as it is stated above, some however omitting Beldeg from the list. Among the early tribes and nations of the North, the want of written language was supplied by oral tradition, and we are told by Gerald Barry, that among the ancient Britons even those of the lowest rank retained in their memory their entire lineage with the same care which in other nations was peculiar

AND PRINCE ALBERT. O

family of that state, is the more immediate object of our attention, as it is from this branch of the great Saxon family that the kings of England derive their descent.

Wessex, as founded by Cerdic, comprised the counties of Dorset, Wilts, Hants, and Berks, with the Isle of Wight, which island was chiefly subdued by the valour of Porte, 8 a chieftain of Cerdic's army, to whose assistance he arrived with large succours, and whose name is traced in Portsmouth and Portland. Cerdic made Winchester the capital of his state, (and it continued long to be the capital of the whole kingdom, even in the time of the Anglo-Norman rulers), and was crowned there in the year 519, and buried there in 534. The historian Gibbon calls Cerdic " one of the bravest of the children of Woden." Cerdic was succeeded by his son, the brave Cenric, who had been the companion of his father's toils, and had been

to the rich and great, quoting promptly, "not only their grandfathers and great grandfathers, but even to the sixth and seventh generation, and far beyond them." It is therefore quite possible that the descent from so famous a personage as Woden, may have been carefully preserved through seven or eight generations ; and although some may affect to consider him only as the great deity of the Saxons, yet there is no doubt that he actually flourished about two centuries after the Christian era. 8 " For Port, thike grete duk, com up here by Southe, Me cleputh y t, ther he first com up, after hym Portesmouthe."

ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, p. 164.

associated with him in the kingdom; 9 he died in 560, and was succeeded by his son, Ceawlin, an enterprising and ambitious prince, who added the counties of Devon and Somerset to his dominions, and from his supremacy held the title of Bretwalda ; 10 but, carrying his projects of aggrandizement too far, he provoked the jealousy of the other Saxon rulers, who formed a conspiracy against him, headed by Ethelbert King of Kent, by whom Ceawlin was deprived of his dominions in 591, in which, however, he was succeeded by his sons Cuichelme and Cuthwine, who reigned jointly for a short time, till the latter was expelled, and on the death of the former in 593, the throne of Wessex passed to Ceolric, son of Cuthulph the second son of its first founder Cenric.

The line of Egbert's ancestry, however, is to be found continued in the person of Cuth, or Cutha, second son of Cuthwine 11 before mentioned, and his son Ceowald, or Chelwald (Speed), was father of Cenred, whose eldest son was the famous law-giver Ina, the eleventh, or according to some (as Heylin and others), the twelfth King of Wessex ; he ascended

9 The Saxon Chronicle under the date of 519 states,

" Her Cerdic and Cynric West Saexna rice onfengun."

10 Bret-walda, wielder or ruler of the Britons, a title assumed by the most powerful monarchs of the Heptarchy.

11 Ceadwalla, third in descent from Cuthwine, was tenth King of Wessex, and was a Bretwalda.

the throne in 690, and reigned thirty-five years, when resigning his crown he retired into a monastery. Cenred, who was one of his son Ina's counsellors, had a second son, Ingils, 12 who was the father of Eoppa, whose son Eta, or Eafa, begat Alchmund, father of the celebrated Egbert, who, when called upon to fill the throne of his ancestors, was the sole surviving male representative of the blood-royal of Cerdic.

The father of Egbert, Alchmund, called also Ethelmund, is stated by the Saxon chronicle, by Higden, Rudborne, Sharon Turner, and Sir Francis Palgrave, to have been a King of Kent, but to whom he was tributary does not appear.

No information has descended to us of the consorts of the ancestors of Egbert. 13 Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, in his " Catalogue of the Kinges of England, ever since it was so called," styles Egbert " the sonne of Alchmund, a petty prince, the sonne of Offa, of the blood of Ina, King of the West Saxons."

12 The old chronicler Hardyng makes Ingils share the sovereignty with his brother :

" But Ingils and Ine his brother dere

In Westsex reigned, which Conrede his sonnes were."

13 Hardyng however says of Egbert,

" Syster's sonne he was to Kyng Sygbert, Also men sayde he came of Ingils' bloude And uery heyre he was to hym and Ine." P. 191.

CHAPTER II. "Egbright of alle the londe Lad the regante

" Alfred, Engle hirde, Engle darling, On Englond he was king." spelman.

" To shake the Saxons' mild domain,

From frozen wastes, and caverns wild,

To genial England's scenes beguil'd." t. warton.

Hie Anglo-Saxon line of Monarchs from Egbert to the Norman Dynasty.

TN the }^ear 787, to avoid the persecution of Brith- -*- ric 1 , then in possession of the throne of Wessex, who was jealous of the better right of Egbert, the latter fled to the court of Charlemagne, at that time the greatest prince in Europe, who received Egbert with kindness, giving him a command in his armies.

1 Brithric was seventh in descent from Ceoluph, third son of Cenric, son of Cerdic, and was grandson of King Adelard, to whom the lawgiver Ina resigned the crown of Wessex. Speed states that Egbert held a command of some part of Wessex, and that he was " neither the last nor the least in the opinion of the people, or suspect of his prince."

AND PRINCE ALBERT.

In the year 800, on the death of King Brithric, by the poison which his infamous queen Eadburga 2 had prepared for another, Egbert was called to fill the throne of Wessex by the voice of his countrymen; 3 and he soon gave proofs that his years of exile had well prepared him for the arduous part he was about to perform. By his prudence, superior abilities, and valour, aided by the mutual dissensions of the rulers of the neighbouring states, he succeeded in reducing all the kingdoms of the heptarchy to own his sway ; and although many of these states continued to be governed as separate kingdoms by name, he was in reality considered the Bretwalda, or Wielder of the Britons, a title denoting the paramount Lord, and which had been usually given to the most powerful

2 So great was the disgust excited by the conduct of this woman, that the nation would not allow the succeeding consorts of their kings to be crowned. Retribution awaited Eadburga upon earth ; after fleeing from her outraged country, she became reduced to extreme poverty, and led a life of wandering misery, dying in the streets of Pavia a common beggar. " Sicut a multis videntibus earn audivimus quotidie mendicana in Pavia miserabiliter moreretur." asser.

3 Egbert was at Rome, attending his Imperial friend's coronation, when summoned to the crown of Wessex ; at his departure for England, Charlemagne presented him his own sword.

" Egbrygt was kyng y mad, as other byfore him were, Of Westsex in the yer of grace eygte hondred yer."

ruler of the time. By some modern historians, Egbert, is called the first king of all England, whilst other writers refuse him that style for the reason above stated, that several parts of the kingdom still continued under the rule of nominal kings, though it cannot be doubted but that Egbert had the power to remove them. The title thus denied to him is generally bestowed upon Athelstan (and among other authorities by Mr. Collen), as he certainly enjoyed more uncontrolled power than any of his predecessors, as well from his own vigorous capacity, 4 as from the total annihilation of the descendants of all the early royal Saxon houses, except that of Cerdic. Thus we find that the great Alfred speaks of himself, " I, Alfred, 5 of the West Saxons, King," in his public documents. Even as late as the time of the Confessor, we find Harold, son of Earl Godwin, called the sub-regulus of Kent. 6

The Danes gave great annoyance to Egbert, whose exertions could only check, during his life-time, that tide of invasion which afterwards rolled so heavily upon Britain.

6 Until the Conquest, the kings of England were in fact little

Egbert, according to most historians, died in 838. Glover says 837, but according to the Saxon chronicle, and Mr. Turner, in 836, 7 leaving by his consort, the Lady Redburga, who died 855, his son Ethelwolf, to succeed him, another son, Athelstan, who had Kent and Essex, and a daughter Editha. 8

The Danes, not having to fear the vigorous arm of Egbert, poured in their destructive hordes in great numbers, and for the space of many years, harassed the kingdom, committing the greatest ravages ; and burned or pillaged Canterbury, London, Rochester, and other towns. Ethelwolf in resisting these Northmen was ably supported by his sons Athelstan and Ethelbald.

more than kings of Wessex, with a superior authority in name over the other portions of the realm, which under the rule of earls, were hardly less independent than when under the sway of their separate kings.