Stories

Written from the records in the archive — every relationship traced, every marriage checked, every line measured.

The British Royal Line

  1. How were Elizabeth II and Prince Philip related? — Second cousins once removed through Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel, and third cousins through Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
  2. How were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert related? — First cousins: Victoria’s mother and Albert’s father were sister and brother, both children of Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf.
  3. How was George V related to Wilhelm II and Nicholas II? — First cousins to both — to Wilhelm II through Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and to Nicholas II through Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. With Wilhelm he was a third cousin as well, through Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss.
  4. How is Charles III related to Queen Victoria? — He is her great-great-great-grandson twice over — once through his mother’s line of sovereigns, and once through his father’s descent from Victoria’s daughter Alice.
  5. How were Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I related? — First cousins once removed: both descended from Henry VII and Elizabeth of York — Elizabeth as a granddaughter, Mary as a great-granddaughter.
  6. How were Richard III and Henry VII related? — Second cousins once removed through John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, and third cousins once removed through Gaunt’s parents, Edward III and Philippa of Hainault.
  7. Royal marriages between cousins — Among the 116 marriages recorded in this royal volume, seven joined people who already shared an ancestor: four between first cousins — from Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley to Victoria and Albert — and three between more distant kin.
  8. 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.

The Roman Emperors

  1. How were the Julio-Claudian emperors related to Augustus? — Only Tiberius was Augustus’s son, and that by adoption. Caligula and Nero were his great-grandson and great-great-grandson through his daughter Julia, and Claudius his great-nephew through his sister Octavia.
  2. How were Claudius and Agrippina the Younger related? — Uncle and niece: Claudius was the younger brother of Agrippina’s father Germanicus, both sons of Drusus the Elder and Antonia Minor — and in 49 he made her his wife.

The Byzantine Emperors

  1. The longest Byzantine line, parent to child — Sixteen generations, parent to child, over some 445 years — from Manuel Komnenos to the boy co-emperor Andronikos V Palaiologos, passing from the Komnenoi to the Angeloi to the Palaiologoi through three daughters.

The House of Habsburg

  1. How were Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria related? — Uncle and niece: Mariana’s mother, Maria Anna of Spain, was Philip IV’s sister. They were also first cousins once removed through Charles II, Archduke of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria — Philip’s grandparents and Mariana’s great-grandparents.
  2. Uncles, nieces and cousins: Habsburg marriages within the family — Of the 77 marriages recorded in this Habsburg volume, six joined people who already shared an ancestor: three between an uncle and his niece, two between first cousins, and one between first cousins once removed.
  3. The longest Habsburg line, parent to child — Twenty-three generations, parent to child, from Rudolf I of Germany, born in 1218, to Otto von Habsburg, born in 1912 — 694 years, every birth year in it exact.

The Olympians

  1. How are Zeus and Hera related? — Brother and sister, children of the Titans Cronus and Rhea — and, because Cronus and Rhea are themselves siblings, first cousins as well. Hera is also Zeus’s wife and queen.
  2. How are Hades and Persephone related? — Uncle and niece, twice over: Hades is the brother of both of Persephone’s parents, Zeus and Demeter, all three children of Cronus and Rhea.
  3. Gods who married their kin — Nearly all of them: of the 37 pairings this volume counts, all but two join partners already related by blood — 11 pairs of siblings or half-siblings, 10 of uncle or aunt with niece or nephew, and 8 of first cousins.