Yes, it’s come to that: the obligatory “I descend from British Royalty” post.

First off, I should say, I did not do exhaustive research for this piece. (The term “slap-dash” comes to mind.) For what it’s worth though, actual research uncovered quite a bit of disagreement among esteemed sources about the birth and/or death dates of some of our players… and some of the theories make zero sense (8-year olds having children, and the like). But the names seem not to be in question, so that’s good enough for me and my limited purposes. I apologize for any egregious historical errors.

My 2nd great-grandmother Lula Earl Ralston has one ancestral line that descends from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The line splits for several generations (6 in one, 7 in the other) then comes together again. Consequently, for the oldest four generations, the ancestors are one ordinal degree of great-grandparents on one line, and a different degree on the other. I made an editorial choice to go only as far back as Henry II for this post. His father was the Count d’Anjou – French – so there were no earlier Kings of England on his line.

William Denys/Dennis (from the Castile line) married Anne de Berkeley (from the Capet line). Moving right along…

15 Isabel Dennis (1509-1567) – John de Berkeley
14 Elizabeth Berkeley (1540-1615) – Henry Lygon
13 Elizabeth Lygon (1562?-1610?) – Edward Bassett
12 Jane Bassett (1584-1631) – John Deighton
11 Frances Deighton (1611-1703) – Richard Williams
10 Samuel Williams (1638-1697 – Mary Gilbert
9 Sarah Williams (1662-1707) – Benjamin Deane
8 Mehitable Deane (1697-1745) – Josiah Richmond
7 Josiah Richmond (1721-1785) – Elizabeth Smith
6 Nathaniel Richmond (1766-1841) – Abigail Wood
5 Allen Richmond (1793-1861) – Betsey Jones
4 Mary Gifford Richmond (1826-1891) – Joseph Brown
3 Mary Elizabeth “Libbie” Brown (1845-1890?) – George Earl
2nd Great-Grandmother – Lula Earl (1867-1964)

Some more interesting stuff (that is, stuff I find endlessly fascinating but usually bores others senseless):

• John of Gaunt (21st GGF), was made Duke of Lancaster at the time of his first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster. Their son was Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV (20th Great-grand Uncle). Gaunt’s brother was Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York. Lancaster… York… trouble is brewing.
• Katherine Swynford was Gaunt’s longtime mistress. He eventually married her, and their children were legitimized in 1396 by Pope Boniface IX who, at King Richard’s behest, added the proviso that none of these folks (the “Beauforts”, so-named for Katherine’s family place in France) would ascend to the English throne. Their son, Henry Beaufort (20th GGF), was Bishop of Lincoln, Bishop of Winchester, a Cardinal, an advisor to Henry IV (until he sided with Henry V against his father and was booted from court), then Lord Chancellor in Henry V’s brief reign, and part of the regency government of the child Henry VI.
• On Sep. 16, 1398, Thomas Mowbray (19 GGF) was banished for life by King Richard II (Gaunt’s nephew – so a 1st cousin of some sort). Richard banished Henry Bolingbroke (20 GGU) as well, but for just 4 years. Henry snuck back early in 1399 and finding his late father’s lands and fortune confiscated by the Crown, he turned on Richard and, without much fuss, deposed him and became Henry IV (often known as “The Usurper”). This is the meat of the plot of Shakespeare’s Richard II – Treachery! Betrayal! Ancestors!
• During – and because of – the reign of Henry VI, the House of Plantagenet split when the houses of Lancaster and York went to war against one another in the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). These stretched through reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VI again, Edward V (the elder of the Princes in the Tower), and Richard III (pictured above). With Richard’s death on Bosworth Field, the House of Plantagenet fell and was replaced by the Henry VII and the Tudors. Henry VII’s mother was Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt – so I’m a cousin to Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I as well.
• Honestly, watching the BBC “Hollow Crown” series of Shakespeare plays is like several evenings of home movies. Ohhh, look at how young Uncle Eddie looks!
• 11th GGPs Richard and Frances (Deighton) Williams were the immigrant ancestors on this line. They married in Gloucestershire in 1632, and came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony before the birth of their son Samuel in 1638. I’ve read the city of Dighton, Massachusetts, near Plymouth, is named for her family.
• I also have two royal lines on my dad’s side that piggyback on some of these same people. One through a sister of Edward I, the other an Irish line through a sister of Thomas Mowbray.

So where’s my castle?