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Longest lines

From Alfred the Great to Prince George: the longest line

Forty generations, parent to child, across about 1,164 years — from Alfred the Great, born around 849, to Prince George, born in 2013.

  1. King Alfred the Great (c. 849–899)
  2. King Edward The Elder (c. 874–924)
  3. King Edmund (921–946) — 22 years to the next generation
  4. King Edgar (943–975)
  5. King Aethelred II The Unready (c. 966–1016)
  6. King Edmund II lronside (c. 990–1016)
  7. Edward the Exile (1016–1057)
  8. Margaret of Wessex (c. 1045–1093)
  9. Matilda of Scotland (1080–1118) — 22 years to the next generation
  10. Matilda the Empress (1102–1167) — 31 years to the next generation
  11. King Henry II (1133–1189) — 33 years to the next generation
  12. King John (1166–1216) — 41 years to the next generation
  13. King Henry III (1207–1272) — 32 years to the next generation
  14. King Edward I Longshanks (1239–1307) — 45 years to the next generation
  15. King Edward II (1284–1327) — 28 years to the next generation
  16. King Edward III (1312–1377) — 28 years to the next generation
  17. John of Gaunt (1340–1399) — 33 years to the next generation
  18. John Beaufort (1373–1410) — 31 years to the next generation
  19. John Beaufort (1404–1444) — 39 years to the next generation
  20. Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509) — 14 years to the next generation
  21. King Henry VII (1457–1509) — 32 years to the next generation
  22. Margaret Tudor (1489–1541) — 23 years to the next generation
  23. King James V of Scotland (1512–1542) — 30 years to the next generation
  24. Mary Queen of Scots (1542–1587) — 24 years to the next generation
  25. King James I (1566–1625) — 30 years to the next generation
  26. Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662) — 34 years to the next generation
  27. Sophia of Hanover (1630–1714) — 30 years to the next generation
  28. King George I (1660–1727) — 23 years to the next generation
  29. King George II (1683–1760) — 24 years to the next generation
  30. Frederick Prince of Wales (1707–1751) — 31 years to the next generation
  31. King George III (1738–1820) — 29 years to the next generation
  32. Edward Duke of Kent (1767–1820) — 52 years to the next generation
  33. Queen Victoria (1819–1901) — 22 years to the next generation
  34. King Edward VII (1841–1910) — 24 years to the next generation
  35. King George V (1865–1936) — 30 years to the next generation
  36. King George VI (1895–1952) — 31 years to the next generation
  37. Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) — 22 years to the next generation
  38. King Charles III (1948–) — 34 years to the next generation
  39. William, Prince of Wales (1982–) — 31 years to the next generation
  40. Prince George of Wales (2013–)

The span is approximate at its start: Alfred’s birth year is an estimate, as are several others in the Anglo-Saxon generations that follow, so most of the early gaps between them go uncounted. From Alfred the line runs through five more kings, ending with Edmund Ironside, whose infant son Edward was sent abroad after Cnut’s conquest in 1016. Edward the Exile passed most of his long exile in Hungary, where his daughter Margaret was born, and her marriage to Malcolm III took the line into the Scottish royal house.

From there the line changes house again and again, and it does so through women — ten times it passes from a mother to her child. Margaret’s daughter Matilda married Henry I, who sought her partly for her Wessex descent; their daughter, the Empress Matilda, married Geoffrey of Anjou and was mother of Henry II. Later the line passes through the Beauforts, John of Gaunt’s children by his mistress Katherine Swynford, legitimised in 1397. It then runs through Margaret Tudor into the Stuarts, and through Elizabeth Stuart to Sophia of Hanover, whose Protestant descendants have made up the line of succession since the Act of Settlement of 1701.

Where both birth years are exact, the gaps average 29.8 years across 32 steps. The narrowest, 14 years by birth year, belongs to Margaret Beaufort, who was 13 when Henry VII was born; his father had died months before. The widest, 52 years, separates Edward, Duke of Kent from his daughter Victoria. Princess Charlotte’s death in 1817 had left George III with no legitimate grandchild and the succession in doubt; Edward then married, and Victoria, born two years later, was his only legitimate child. From her the line runs through Edward VII, George V, George VI, Elizabeth II, Charles III and William to Prince George.

Computed from every recorded line in The British Royal Line on Kinlight; written 29 September 2026.

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