# Are all European royals closely related? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284 "2002-12-08T08:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/1 "2002-12-08T08:08:28Z")
For centuries royalty tended to marry royalty, and only in the last 20 years or so have many European royals married non-royal spouses. I would believe that Britain’s Prince Charles is probably a fairly close cousin to any other European royal (including deposed ones such as the Italian royal family) . Is this correct? Or are there any royal families that have remained somewhat aloof from the others? ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/2 "2002-12-08T08:44:46Z")
As far as I know ALL European Royal families are very closely related, though I’m not sure about Lichenstein or Monaco. For example the English royal family is related to the Belgium, Spanish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian royal families and also the defunct houses of Greece, Portugal, Russia and Serbia to name but a few. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/3 "2002-12-08T09:09:14Z")
Another interesting fact is the Queen of England can say that she is related in some way to almost every famous historical European monarch, for example she is the direct descendant of, Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Canute and William the Conquerer to name but a few. ---
**Author:** ![trader\_of\_shots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trader\_of\_shots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trader_of_shots)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/4 "2002-12-08T10:32:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MC Master of Cermonies \* > \*\*Another interesting fact is the Queen of England can say that she is related in some way to almost every famous historical European monarch, for example she is the direct descendant of, Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Canute and William the Conquerer to name but a few. \*\* Maybe i am wrong but … didn’t the royal family change several times due to the kings being over thrown or them losing a war ? ---
**Author:** ![Gerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Gerome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerome)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/5 "2002-12-08T11:17:57Z")
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but in the First World War, weren’t all the major monarchs involved closely related (like, cousins)? ---
**Author:** ![trader\_of\_shots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trader\_of\_shots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trader_of_shots)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/6 "2002-12-08T11:28:22Z")
Like China and Japan ? 😛 … nah prolly dude ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/7 "2002-12-08T13:02:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by trader\_of\_shots \* > \*\*Maybe i am wrong but … didn’t the royal family change several times due to the kings being over thrown or them losing a war ? \*\* I take it you mean the royal family of England? Since William the Conqueror at least, even though the dynasties have risen and fallen, the bloodline remained essentially the same. If one family fell (say, the Tudors), it would be cousins and the children of cousins who took over (in this case, the Stuarts). That’s very simplistic, but you’ll find Elizabeth II has descent from William the Conqueror, and due to the marriages of her ancestors, descent from the likes of Charlemagne, etc. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gerome \* > \*\*Forgive me if I’m wrong, but in the First World War, weren’t all the major monarchs involved closely related (like, cousins)? \*\* Queen Victoria’s children and her children’s children married into the royal families of Europe, so that Wilhelm II of Germany and George V of England were first cousins. Nicholas II of Russia bore a striking ressemblance to George V. (Sorry I can’t add more detail, it’s late here, and my brain’s shutting down for the night). ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/8 "2002-12-08T13:48:52Z")
As [this report](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/romanov/132464.stm) confirms, when bones were recovered from a grave in Siberia that were supposed to be those of the executed Romanovs, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was amongst those whose DNA was used for comparison. The report also contains a picture of Czar Nicholas II, and [here’s one](http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page423.asp) of Prince Michael of Kent (the Queen’s cousin). Spot the resemblance? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/9 "2002-12-08T23:35:22Z")
Nicholas II and George V were first cousins-their mothers were sisters and daughters of the Danish King Christian IX. And Nicholas’s WIFE, Alexandra was also George V’s first cousin-her mother and his father were brother and sister-both children of Queen Victoria. And Wilhelm of Germany was related to Nicholas through their grandparents. He was Alexandra’s first cousin-his mother was Queen Victoria’s first child. (And Nicholas and Alexandra were second cousins through the family of Hesse). They were all related. The Serbian family, which hadn’t been related to anyone except for the Montenegrin royals, joined when King Aleksander I married Princess Marie “Mignon” of Roumania-her mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and of Tsar Alexander II. Then their eldest son, Peter II, married Princess Alexandra of Greece, etc. Yeah, they’re all connected. And many monarchs who were elected when a newly independent nation wanted a King were from royal families-not natives. Thus, the Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Belgian royals. ---
**Author:** ![Gerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Gerome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerome)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/10 "2002-12-09T00:26:30Z")
Hence, a lot of royal families had (or have) incidences of haemophilia, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/11 "2002-12-09T02:52:58Z")
Incorrect. Hemophilia was NOT caused by inbreeding. However, since it ran in some of Queen Victoria’s descendents, then they would pass it on to their children-no matter who they married. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/12 "2002-12-09T03:14:37Z")
I always wondered how Prince Philip of Greece could have married the Anglican “Defender of the Faith.” How could the Anglicans allow marriage to a Greek Orthodox? If what you’re saying is correct, then the Greek royal family wasn’t Greek Orthodox? (Some sort of Protestant? Or what?) I wonder how well that went over with the Greek subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/13 "2002-12-09T03:45:09Z")
Firstly, the “Defender of the faith” title wasn’t originally meaning the monarch defended the _Anglican_ faith, but rather the _Catholic_ one (it’s a hangover from the days of Henry VIII, before his dispute with the Pope over Catherine of Aragon.) That aside, [this site on the Felixstowe Orthodox Church](http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/church.htm) claims Prince Phillip as Greek Orthodox, although he lapsed for around 40 years. There is nothing in the 1701 Act of Settlement, which banned heirs to the throne marrying or becoming Roman Catholic, that deters heirs to the throne from marrying those of Orthodox faith – just so long as their children remain Church of England. This is an interesting point, though – how did the marriage of (then) Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece go ahead without any murmer of disapproval? Seems the bete noir was Roman Catholicism, rather than the older, Orthodox, church. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/14 "2002-12-09T03:56:19Z")
Just found [this site.](http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/hrh.htm) It answers a few questions. > [@](#): > > When in 1948 HRH Princess Elizabeth, the present Queen, married the Greek Orthodox Prince Philip, the present Duke of Edinburgh, he was officially required to cease to be Orthodox (although he never ceased to make the Orthodox sign of the cross in public). His devout mother had become an Orthodox nun on being widowed, and she can be seen dressed as an Orthodox nun on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in photographs on various public occasions in the 1950’s. Inside the palace a small Orthodox chapel was set up for her use. This was dismantled after her death in 1969 and her remains were buried at a Russian Orthodox convent in Jerusalem, as she had wished. > > After many years of not practising his faith, HRH Prince Philip returned to Orthodoxy in the early 1990’s. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/15 "2002-12-09T10:56:25Z")
I believe that Prince Philip’s family would have originally been Protestent and had to convert to Orthodoxy in order to get the Greek job. There is quite a history of royals converting in order to take a new position or marry- think of all the German princesses absorbed into the Russian family. ---
**Author:** ![Blueapple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blueapple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blueapple)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/16 "2002-12-09T23:51:45Z")
[Here](http://members.aol.com/JENCCHS/line.html) are the first 348 persons in the line of succession for the British royal thrown. Note the various countries that some of the royals are from. The following is a list of people that I have found that are all related. At that bottom I will provide a few links. (note: some are by marriage) [ul]Orson Welles Lewis Caroll Winston Churchill Princess Di Charles Darwin Napoleon Celine Dion Nancy Reagan Walt Disney General Colin Powell Bob Dole Nelson Rockefeller Brooke Shields Robert E Lee FDR, U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, U.S. President George Washington, U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, U.S. President James Garfield, U.S. President Franklin Pierce, U.S. President James Buchanan, U.S. President William Howard Taft, U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.S. President James Madison, U.S. President William Henry Harrison, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, U.S. President Grover Cleveland, U.S. President Zachary Taylor, U.S. President Gerald Ford, U.S. President George H.W. Bush, U.S. President George W. Bush, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President John Quincy Adams, U.S. President James Monroe, U.S. President Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia Sarah Ferguson Charlemagne Every French monarch from Louis IV, King of France (succ 936) onwards. Every English monarch from William the Conqueror (acceded 1066) onwards. Every Scottish monarch from Malcolm IV, King of Scotland (succ 1153) onwards. David, King of Israel [/ul] [http://www.winstonchurchill.org/fh111despatch.htm](http://www.winstonchurchill.org/fh111despatch.htm) [http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm297678.html](http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm297678.html) [http://members.tripod.com/~ntgen/bw/sp\_engl\_pres.html](http://members.tripod.com/~ntgen/bw/sp_engl_pres.html) [http://www.dagobertsrevenge.com/index.html?articles/royalpres](http://www.dagobertsrevenge.com/index.html?articles/royalpres) [http://asis.com/~stag/uspres.html](http://asis.com/~stag/uspres.html) [http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/Royal/famous.descents.html](http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/Royal/famous.descents.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jerevan\_Somerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@Jerevan\_Somerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerevan_Somerville)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/17 "2002-12-10T00:39:32Z")
The Grimaldis of Monaco appear to be relatively isolated (no pun intended) from the other royal families of Europe. I don’t recognize all of the names in the Grimaldi family tree I have (from the late 11th-c. to present), but none of them appear to be major royals from other European royal houses. However, in 1999 Princess Caroline of Monaco married (he as her third husband, she as his second wife) Ernest Augustus von Hanover, Prince of Hanover, a descendant of King George III of Great Britain and thus fifth cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. You can learn more about his genealogical descent at the following link: [http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal01040](http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal01040) This marriage required the approval of Queen Elizabeth because Ernst Augustus is an heir to the British throne, according to the same Act of Succession (1712) which put George I on the throne. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/18 "2002-12-10T03:56:12Z")
The royal family of England (and thus most other royal houses, since most have had an English progenitor in the past 7 centuries) can also trace their direct ancestry to Satan through his daughter Melusine. She married into the noble house of Angou of which Count Geoffrey, father of Henry II and ancestor of QE2, was a member. Ironically, some members of this line became kings in the Holy Land even though at that time the alleged Satanic bloodline was only a few generations old, and the monarch of England today is of course the Defender of the Faith. Does explain Prince Charles’ ears, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/19 "2002-12-10T11:08:42Z")
Sounds a bit like you’re going all _Holy Blood, Holy Grail_ on us, there, **Sampiro**. “Melusine’s” story is related in summary [here](http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/1725/plantagenet.htm) – but you’ll find that the story you relate is debunked as a confusion between that name, and Melesand, Queen of Jerusalem, who married Falk V (but was unrelated to Geoffrey Plantagent and all the so on and so forths that came after him.) ---
**Author:** ![mrcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@mrcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrcrow)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284/20 "2002-12-10T11:14:10Z")
some of the british royals have recanted to rome.🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-european-royals-closely-related/141284.md?page=2)