Extreme family-treeing with the royals
Queen Victoria pops up from time-to-time in my presidential biographies and never in a boring way. To learn more about her, I read Becoming Queen Victoria: The Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch by Kate Williams. Somehow the more I learn about the royal family, the less I know.
I love a good family tree to help my brain sort out a confusing story. But sometimes, one family tree doesn’t cut it.
Like now.
I had no choice but to family-tree the bloody heck out of this bunch until it made sense. I couldn’t wait to dive in and actually show how that crown trickled down. (Or over, as the case may be.) Consider this post almost a primer for my next one, which is a bit of a deeper dive into some of the stuff I learned in this book.
Hey, wait a sec!
Yeah, I want you to read through all of this and be amazed by all the stuff that amazed me. But someone told me about Suzie Edge and her family trees! Like this one. If I’m being honest, hers are easier to understand. And she actually knows what she’s talking about. I won’t be offended if you head over there instead.
Here’s what happened:
George I to George II, skipping over the next generation to George III then George the IV, over to his brother William IV, to Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, down to Edward VIII who tossed the crown over to his brother George VI so he could marry a woman with two (count ‘em, TWO!) living ex-husbands [gasp!]. George’s daughter Elizabeth was next, followed by Charles III.
(You have no idea how giddy I am about Edward VIII throwin’ the crown onto his brother’s head.)
Here’s what was supposed to happen:
George I to George II, skipping over the next generation to George III then George the IV to his daughter Charlotte.
Her obstetrician, Sir Richard Croft, tragically thought pregnant Princess Charlotte (who was growing a human being!) was getting fat. He decided to empty her of blood. And put her on a starvation diet. He was also a lil’ bit jealous, so he fired the rest of her medical team. Weak from months of not eating enough and regularly being bled, she didn’t survive the birth. And neither did her baby.
Horrifying.
Oopsie.
After Charlotte died, there weren’t any heirs. Kinda bananas, considering that King George III and Queen Charlotte had 15 kids. Collectively, those 15 kids ran around creating 56 illegitimate kids … not a single legitimate heir in the whole bunch.
Luckily, Victoria was born a couple of years later.
You following along so far?
Now it gets trickier.
You’d think this is all like “This person was the King (or Queen) of England, then this person, then this.” But it’s more tangled than that, with any combination of [King/Queen] of England, Great Britain, Ireland, Hanover, British Dominions, [Emperor of] India, and/or Commonwealth realms.
This is far too advanced for me, so I’m just going to stick with one teensy part.
[keep going; I’ll get to it]
Albert and Queen Victoria
Princess Charlotte (who we just talked about) was married to Leopold*:
Leopold had a slew of siblings, but only two are important here: Ernest and Victoria (not that Victoria).
The siblings are highlighted in blue above.Victoria gave birth to Victoria (yes, that Victoria). A few weeks later, her obstetrician hightailed it over to Victoria/Leopold’s sister-in-law’s (Ernest’s wife) so she could deliver their baby.
That baby was Arthur.
Fast-forward … the younger Victoria becomes queen and marries her cousin Arthur.
*Leopold ended up being King of the Belgians, years after Princess Charlotte died.
Still with me?
Since George I’s reign, Hanover was part of the package (“King of Great Britain & Hanover”). However, Hanover had a strict “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” policy. Naturally, I wanted to draw this in an understandable way to clearly show how she became Queen of Great Britain, but Uncle Ernest became King of Hanover.
Predictably, I mucked it up!
Victoria had TWO uncles Ernest because of course she did:
Her mom’s brother, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coberg & Gotha.
(Prince Albert’s Dad and Leopold’s brother.)Her dad’s brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.
Ernest Augustus became King of Hanover — a “poor booby prize for the man who hoped Victoria might die and so enable him to be king,” according to author Kate Williams.
He was the first King of Hanover to actually live there in 123 years. But still! If Victoria pre-deceased him without makin’ any babies, he’d come back as King of Great Britain. And Hanover, of course.
This is a steaming pile of confusion, what with the minimal family tree forking and loads of people with the same name. Fun fact! Belgium, Hanover, & Saxe-Coburg are not interchangeable! In fact, Saxe-Coberg is a royal house (not a place) and ruled over a territory that included now-Germany (Hanover). Oh… and look at that. Coberg is a place. I give up.
Let’s back up a bit to Mary and William
I was thiiiiiiis close to drawing King William and Queen Mary’s family tree, zoomed in…
.. when I discovered that there’s not one but two sets of first cousins named Mary and William married to each other. The first cousins/spouses above were the Duchess and Duke of Gloucester.
Not to be confused with the other set of first cousins named Mary and William married to each other: Queen Mary II and her cousin/husband (cousband? husin?) King William III.
When Mary became queen, William was like “Oh, I’m gonna get me some of that” (more or less) and booked it to England (with the Dutch army). He invaded and “demanded to be co-regent.”
What a glorious chain of tangents this discovery lead to!
William & Mary (the cousins/co-regents) signed a royal charter to establish William & Mary (the college) in 1693:
It’s the second-oldest “institute of higher education” in the United States (second only to Harvard, though the William & Mary website is quick to point out that their “original plans date back to 1618 — decades before Harvard.” In your face, Harvard!).
It’s located in Williamsburg (named for the guy who invaded England and then his 15-year-old cousin*)… in Virginia, a state named for the (alleged) lack of relations (if you will) of another royal — Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
It’s also known as the Alma Mater of the Nation, boasting many esteemed attendees:
George Washington (well, surveyor’s license only)
Thomas Jefferson
James Monroe
John Tyler (to be clear: I’m not suggesting that this guy is worthy of esteem)
Benjamin Harrison V (Founding Father; Virginia’s 5th governor; one of a heap of Benjamins Harrison!)
I love Benjamin Harrison V. Learn more about him on Day 8 (8 Bens-a-benning) or check out his family tree.
(I since learned in Gallop Toward the Sun that Ben V argued with a professor and dropped out.)Henry Clay
*I’m making some assumptions here.
Zooming ahead to one last family tree…
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were both descendants of Queen Victoria. I knew this. And yet, it was still surprising.
I needed to move things around a bit and remove some clutter to show you:
For clarity, I removed the link between Queen Mary and Adolphus (her grandfather was one of King George III’s 15 kids). In retrospect, I could have been more chronological with the balls. Prince Philip was older than Queen Elizabeth.
I made a video.
You can flip through all of my doodles inspired by Becoming Queen Victoria. Check it out!
And that’s a wrap!
For now.
The next POTUS Notice/blog post will be full of things I learned in Becoming Queen Victoria: The Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch by Kate Williams.
Disclaimer: These family trees are incomplete. King George III and Queen Charlotte were too prolific to list all of their kids. I couldn’t fit all of their titles either. And for crap’s sake, the children born of affairs. I’m not convinced anybody could pull together a family tree that makes sense with all of the illegitimate children and the marriages between first cousins. Plus, throw in there that everybody was named after everybody? It’s chaos. I did my best. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
If you’re looking for more, I’ve started a little royal collection… not limited to British monarchs. It’s very much a work in progress. Or check out Suzie Edge’s stuff. It’s brilliant.
Died at 101 years old