Ancestry charts of the current British Royal Family

All people are necessarily descended from antiquity, but for most, records of their ancestry do not exist that far back. The British Royal Family is one of the few families for whom ancestry can be traced to many notable lineages of antiquity. They can be traced from Saxon, Scottish (Stuart dynasty), Welsh (Tudor dynasty), Irish, German (Hanover and Windsor), French (Norman and Angevin), Russian, Frank and perhaps even Byzantine lineages.

Saxon and Scottish descent

Descent from the Franks

Irish connection

Viking-Norman descent

George I of Great Britain had descended, through both of his parents, from Rollo, the Viking founder of the ducal lineage of Normandy. Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, had a descent from King Henry II of England through his daughter Matilda.

Diana Spencer and Catherine Middleton

Byzantine connection

One established connection is given below, starting with Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos (for his descent, see Descent from antiquity#Caucasian route).

Other possible connections are as under:

• As seen from the first chart (detailed), Prince Philip descends from the Romanov dynasty of Russia through his paternal grandmother. The first Romanov Tsar's mother, Xenia Shestova, was possibly sired by Ivan the Terrible, who, in turn, descended from Sophia Palaiologina, granddaughter of Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.
• Lady Calinica (w/o Radu I of Wallachia, see below), possible ancestress of Francis, Duke of Teck [shown in the first chart (detailed)], also had a Byzantine descent.
• Both Charles and Diana are also direct descendants of first Polish king Mieszko I, through Anne of Denmark, Christian I of Denmark, who in turn descend from Estrid Svendsdatter, sister of Canute the Great and daughter of Sweyn Forkbeard and Sigrid the Haughty, Mieszko I's daughter.

Eastern Connections

Connections are also traced by enthusiasts to Arabic—Moorish and even Biblical lineages.^[6][7][8] (For Biblical lineage, see List of legendary kings of Britain#Tea Tephi).

• A purported connection from Emperor Suzong of Tang dynasty of China^[9] enters the British line through Mary of Guise (shown in the first chart). The connection goes through the emperor's daughter Ninguo (w/o Bayanchur Khan, Khagan of Uyghur), Bavand Dynasty of Tabaristan, royalty of Vaspurakan Kingdom (descent of this family from the Bavandis and link between two branches of this family, as required for this connection, are unestablished^[10]), the Lampron Hethumids (starting with Gaday Arcruni, w/o Oshin of Lampron), Lusignan dynasty of Cyprus and Margaret of Savoy, niece-in-law of Jacquetta of Luxembourg (shown in the Frank lineage chart above).

• A connection from Muhammad,^[11] entering the British line through Infanta Isabella of Castile (shown in the first chart), has been endorsed by Burke's Peerage, as per a letter written by them to the Prime Minister of the U.K. in 1986.^[12] The connection hinges on Zaida of Seville, who, for this connection to be true, needs to be daughter, wife and mother, respectively, of King Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad of Seville, King Alfonso VI of León and Castile and Sancha Alfónsez (wife of Rodrigo González de Lara). This line goes through Maria of Portugal (shown under Byzantine connection above). Other lines of descent from Muhammad go through María de Padilla (shown under Byzantine connection above), Isabella of Barcelos (shown under Ancestry of Diana Spencer and Catherine Middleton above) and the wife of Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn and Taxis (father-in-law of Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, patrilineal ancestor of Mary of Teck).
• A descent from Genghis Khan was proposed by Iain Moncreiffe in Royal Highness that requires descent of Thocomerius, Voivode of Wallachia, from Jöchi (presuming parentage from Mengu-Timur, possibly identifying Thocomerius with Toqta, Khan of the Blue Horde^[13] or one of his brothers), which is controversial. However, further on, this connection leads to Francis, Duke of Teck (shown in the first chart) through the half-brother of Dracula as proposed by Moncreiffe and Gerald Paget.^[14][15] This connection moves through Radu I of Wallachia. Another line through his sister Elisaveta (w/o Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole), as proposed by William Addams Reitwiesner^[16] leads to Magdalene of Brandenburg (shown in the Viking lineage chart above). The Paget-Moncreiffe line has several uncertainties in between Mircea the Shepherd and Baroness Ágnes Kendeffy de Malmoviz (great-grandmother of Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde).^[17] (also see Descent from Genghis Khan#Basaraba). However, the lineage proposed by Reitwiesner is easily verifiable, as under:

Notes and references