Ancestry charts of the current British royal family (Descent from the Franks)

All people are descended via various racial or ethnic lines of antiquity, but in the case of most, records do not exist. The British Royal Family is one of the few familiar to the for whom ancestry can be traced to many notable lineages of the antiquity. They can be traced from Saxon, Scottish (Stuart dynasty), Welsh (Tudor dynasty), Irish, German (Hanover and Windsor), French (Norman and Angevin), Russian, Frank and perhaps even Byzantine lineages.

Descent from the Franks

Descent from the Franks (detailed)

• There are multiple descents from Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor, some of which are shown below.

• Note: Parentage of Aeda (m/o Oda, w/o Liudolf, Duke of Saxony) is disputed. Her identification with Adélaïde, known daughter of Pepin of Italy, is based on three primary sources. As per Vita Hathumodae^[3] and Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim,^[4] her daughter Oda was of Frankish descent. As per a statement of Fasti Corbeienses^[5] under the year 885, duke Liudolf's wife Oda was a neptis through a daughter of Pepin of Italy. The last was shown by Eduard Hlawitschka to be a fabrication.^[6]

• The above chart is not exhaustive for descent from Charlemagne. It can be shown in other ways too. For example, the Byzantine descent shown later through Irene Angelina is also valid for descent from Charlemagne through her husband Philip of Swabia. His descent is shown in the second Saxon descent chart above. Three members shown in that chart, Charles the Simple, Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, and the latter's sister Gerberga of Saxony, had descended from Charlemagne. The descent of Gerberga of Saxony is shown in the above chart. Charles the Simple was a grandson of Charles the Bald, brother of Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious, shown in the above chart. Adelaide of Paris, mother of Charles the Simple, had also descended from Charlemagne.

References