Tag: genealogy

  • How “German” is the new king?

    Because I saw this on Twitter, and it really exemplified something I’d been wanting to do, just about every time English media call the royal family German… (I’m using where the birth place is located today – since the further out we get, the more the borders of Europe changes.)

    King Charles III:

    Born in: ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ

    Parents born in: ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘ ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท

    Grandparents born in: ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ – ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ

    G grandparents born in: ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ- ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ- ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ- ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ

    G g grandparents born in: ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ- ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช- ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ- ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ- ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช- ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช- ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ- ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ’‘๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ – First generation with people born in what is today’s Germany.

    When we get to the 6th step backwards, we’re also repeating people, and we’re also getting the same people on different steps. I was originally going to go back to I got to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but:

    One: Prince Philip’s great grandfather was Christian IX of Denmark (incidentally, born in Germany). But, because his daughter Alexandra married into the British Royal family, she and her parents are on the same step of the g g grandparents, and it would really be a mess going even further back.

    Two: The first flag on the last line of flag emojis, and the last flag – the two English flags, are two of Victoria and Albert’s children – and going another step back there would also mean they would be repeated both in the start and the finish of the line. (And then my head started to hurt.)

    In addition to that, once we get further and further back – the birth places of the less royal people in the line-up, become more difficult to track and verify.

    Eh, it amused me enough to write the post anyway. (Which isn’t anything to scoff at since it has been a whole pandemic since the last time I posted anything here.)

  • British succession – what if…

    An interesting question came up by Jane on The British Royal Message Board (I love โ€œwhat ifsโ€ scenarios, or counterfactual history, ย when it comes to historic events, and let my geek come out often)

    Jane writes: โ€œAll this talk of changing succession rules in the UK leads me to ask: just who exactly would be this person, under the law of fully cognatic (“absolute”) primogeniture?โ€ She goes on to say that neither the current monarch nor the Stuart pretender, currently the Duke of Bavaria would qualify.

    A fully cognatic primogeniture would give the oldest child, regardless of sex, rights to the throne.

    Since the Act of Settlement 1701 is saying that the rights go to descendants of Sophia of Hanover, who aren’t Catholic or married to a Catholic, we start with her.

    Sophia was not the oldest child of Elizabeth Stuart, but since the others either died long before the Act of Settlement came to, without offspring or were Catholic… and though the current suggestion for amendment would possibly alter it so that those married to Catholics can ascend, the current point is that the monarch would still have to not be Catholic (if I have understood it correctly). Therefore, Sophia would still be the starting point for this evening’s little excision into royal genealogical geekery.

    Prepare for some tedious genealogical rambling of almost biblical proportions.

     

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  • Mette-Marit not queen yet?

    Picture credit: Sรธlve Sundsbรธ / Det kongelige hoff

    Bild has a story about the new official portraits the Norwegian court released last week. They put forward the query whether this is the year Mette-Marit will become queen. On their side in the evidence cluster is the Grand Tour trip the family took these past months, but they also cite that she is wearing a “crown, sash and an order with the King’s picture on it” as an introduction to the question.

    Although, King Harald has had his share of health problems, he seems to be in okay enough shape today that any sort of prediction on the matter as to when his son will take overโ€ฆ is equally difficult as to any other person at his age.

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  • First royal book

    In 1996, I received my first copy of a book that would prove to give ample fruit to the interest in future investigations on the subject. The city was London, with its many bookshops, and in one of thoseโ€ฆ I received my first copy ofย Kings and Queens of England and Great Britain, byย Eric R Delderfield.

    The edition of the book, which I acquired, may not be quite up to date today – after all, Charles and Diana are no longer married; the Queen has two more grandchildren; Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother have passed away, et cetera. However, it is still an interesting book to rummage through, for the longer historic lines, and detailsโ€ฆ even if the more current history is not quite up to date.

    Today, for basic information, I suspect one would just go to Wikipedia, instead of to an actual book.