Charlemagne to the Mughals

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Charlemagne to the Mughals is a genealogical route connecting Charlemagne with the Mughal dynasty of India. According to this route, numerous oriental rulers, including those of Brunei and the Maldives, should be counted among Charlemagne's descendants.

Charlemagne's great grandson, Emperor Louis II, was the father-in-law of Boso of Provence, whose grandson was Rudolph II of Burgundy. The latter's grandson, Emperor Otto II, was the father-in-law of Ezzo and grandfather of Richeza of Poland. Her grandson, Ladislaus I of Hungary, was the father of Saint Eirene, the only wife of Emperor Ioannes II, who forms a key gateway between early medieval Europe and Byzantium.

Ioannes II and Saint Eirene are thought to have been matrilineal ancestors of Eudokia Palaiologina, Michael VIII's daughter and the only wife of John II of Trebizond. The latter's male-line descendant, John IV of Trebizond, had a natural daughter, Theodora Megala Komnene, who was taken as a wife by Uzun Hassan of White Sheep Turkmen. Shah Ismail I of Persia was their grandson. His Safavid descendants, particularly those governing Kandahar, frequently married the Mughal dynasts and emperors, who passed Charlemagne's blood to other families of oriental royalty. That offspring includes and starts with Shah Jahan.

[edit] References

  • M.L. Bierbier. The Descendants of Theodora Comnena of Trebizond. The Genealogist, 1998, vol. 12 no. 1.