CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. The Pedigree of the SAXON Race from CERDIC

to EGBERT

II. The ANGLO-SAXON Line of Monarchs from

EGBERT to the NORMAN Dynasty

III. The Pedigree of the Dukes of Normandy from

ROLLO to WILLIAM the Conqueror .

IV. The NORMAN Dynasty from WILLIAM the

Conqueror to HENRY II.

V. The Pedigree of HENRY II. from PEPIN the

Old to the Counts of FLANDERS

VI. From the Counts of Flanders to MATILDA,

wife of WILLIAM the Conqueror

VII. The House of PLANTAGENET from the Acces-

sion of HENRY II. to the Death of HENRY

III.

VIII.

The House of PLANTAGENET continued from

the Accession of EDWARD I. to the Death

of EDWARD II.

IX. The House of PLANTAGENET continued from

EDWARD III.

Page

1

8

33

104

XI. The Descent of EDWARD IV. from EDMUND

116

XII. The Descent of EDWARD IV. and HENRY VII.

XIII. The Descent of JAMES I. of England from

XIV. The Pedigree of the House of TUDOR from

CADWALLADFR to HENRY VII.

167

CHAP. XV. From KENNETH MAC ALPINE in lineal descent

XVI. The Pedigree of the Family of BRUCE to

Page

XVII. The Pedigree of the STEWARTS to ROBERT II. 219

XVIII. The Succession of the STEWARTS, Kings of

XXI. The Descent of HENRY the Lion from the

276

287

296

XXII. The House of ESTE to HENRY the Lion

XXIII. The Descent of QUEEN VICTORIA from HENRY

the Lion of Saxony

XXIV. The Descent of FREDERICK the Grave of SAXE-

GOTHA from WITIKIND the Great, and from

XXV. The Line continued from FREDERICK the Grave

to H.R. H. PRINCE ALBERT

XXVI. The Houses of De CLARE, De BURG, and

MORTIMER

XXVII. Conclusion

Genealogical Tables

Appendix

CORRIGENDA.

P. 66, note 37, for "spousa" read "sponsa."

P. 137, line 15, read " to which he had no rightful claim."

P. 147, note 3, for "spousa" read " sponsa."

P. 331, line 3, insert "of" before MORTIMER.

THE ANCESTRY OF QUEEN VICTORIA

AND PRINCE ALBERT.

CHAPTER I.

The Saxon people did, as most believe,
Their name from Saxa, a short sword, receive.1
INTROD. TO CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA.

The Pedigree of the Saxon Race from CERDIC to EGBERT.

HE arrival of the SAXONS forms an important

THE

era in the history of Britain. 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

1 Quippe brevis gladius, apud illos Saxa vocatur, Unde sibi Saxo nomen traxisse putatur. ENGElhusius.

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. 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.

66

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 : "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.