# I'm descended from Henry II of England! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 5, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911 "2007-06-05T23:09:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/21 "2007-06-06T08:59:57Z")
So, assuming you can establish a legal claim for your Plantagenet House to the English throne , how many people have to die before you become King? I can just see you in the Pit from now on - “Will no Mod rid me of this meddlesome troll?” mm ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/22 "2007-06-06T10:16:04Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] Not to mention that Henry II must be traceable for hundreds of years before that, going all the way to Hrolf the Dane, ancestor of William the Conqueror. [/QUOTE] Better than that - you can get back to the fifth century by following the ancestry of Henry’s grandmother Matilda (or Edith) of Scotland, who descended from the Saxon House of Wessex. Henry I married her in order to make the Norman Conquest more acceptable to the Saxon English. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/23 "2007-06-06T11:07:33Z")
Yeah well all this is nuffink I tells ya. I am a direct descendant of Baldrick, I also have a turnip of my very own ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/24 "2007-06-06T11:12:21Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Yeah well all this is nuffink I tells ya. I am a direct descendant of Baldrick, I also have a turnip of my very own [/QUOTE] So have I. One day I hope to be able to afford a large turnip in the country. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/25 "2007-06-06T11:15:56Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] So have I. One day I hope to be able to afford a large turnip in the country. [/QUOTE] Well then I suggest you get yourself down to the docks, I hear that horny sailors are paying upwards of sixpence for a good hard shag. Stories about bunnies are about 1d ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/26 "2007-06-06T13:50:56Z")
Pagans, the lot of you. English, which is worse. (Seriously, anyone able to figure out when that genealogy I posted goes fictional? I’m guessing somewhere after Gaodhal, who is the reason there are no snakes in Ireland, and before Rory Mor.) That said… so, me da’s planning a trip to Ireland to look up family members et al. And so, he goes and finds these tourist trips. One’s about ruined castles, and he signs up for it. So, then he starts looking up the castles, being the kind of man he is. And then he finds out that the brother-who-stayed-behind’s son burnt one of them down, with his mother-in-law still inside. Well, he told me that, and I thought about it for a while. “Yeah, that’s one of ours.” I’m not saying it was on purpose, but it’s clearly our family. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/27 "2007-06-06T15:57:55Z")
To be sure, to be sure, and wasn’t it St Patrick that naffed off the snakes, or am I thinking of Brian Boru ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/28 "2007-06-06T16:10:40Z")
To say nothing of Charlemagne! [The Royal We - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200205/olson) ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/29 "2007-06-06T16:10:55Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] Fuck! :smack: I rephrased that sentence a couple of times too, and never noticed the glaring error. [/QUOTE] You wouldn’t happen to be JK Rowling’s editor, would you? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/30 "2007-06-06T16:39:35Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] To say nothing of Charlemagne! [The Royal We - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200205/olson) [/QUOTE] Or even being heir to the throne of Minas Tirith. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/31 "2007-06-06T18:12:53Z")
> [@From the Stem of Ireland link](#): > > Gaodhal (or Gathelus), the son of Niul, was the ancestor of the Clan-na-Gael, that is, "the children or descendants of Gaodhal. In his youth this Gaodhal was stung in the neck by a serpent, and was immediately brought to Moses, who, laying his rod upon the wounded place, instantly cured him: whence followed the word “Glas” to be added to his name, as Gaodhal Glas (glas: Irish, green; Lat. glaucus; Gr. glaukos), on account of the green scar which the word signifies and which during his life remained on his neck after the wound was healed. And Gaodhal obtained a further blessing, namely–that no venemous beast can live any time where his posterity should inhabit; which is verified in Creta or Candia, Gothia or Getulia, Ireland, etc. The Irish chroniclers affirm that from this time Gaodhal and his posterity did paint the figures of Beasts, Birds, etc., on their banners and shields,[7] to distinguish their tribes and septs, in imitation of the Israelites; and that a “Thunderbolt” was the cognizance in their chief standard for many generations after this Gaodhal. 1571 BC, they say. … 'm pretty sure that’s mythical, but it’s entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/32 "2007-06-07T02:47:14Z")
A side note: I have always found it fascinating that my ancestor with my surname who emigrated from Switzerland to the New World was the 15th of 15 children. Talk about a fluke! If his parents had only stopped at 14 – and who could have blamed them?? – then I would not even be here. Stopped at 14? They could have stopped at 5 or 6 and no one would have batted an eye! True, about half of his siblings never survived infancy, so there weren’t 15 children running around the house, but still. I figure he emigrated because there just wasn’t anything left for him after the land or whatever had been apportioned after the parents’ deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/33 "2007-06-07T14:07:50Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] Or even being heir to the throne of Minas Tirith. [/QUOTE] ::glances down and modestly polishes fingernails on lapel:: Well, ahem, yes, there is that. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/34 "2007-06-07T15:25:00Z")
I’m 'enery the 26th great grandson I am 'enery the 26th great grandson I am I am ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/35 "2007-06-07T16:06:39Z")
So, that makes you 561437th in line for the throne? 🙂 :: jealous :: One of my cousins traced our ancestry, and it’s Sussex farmers, with the occasional blacksmith for variety, as far back as we can tell (1604). > [@Kythereia](#): > > (One of my great-great-somethings was a Governor General of Canada, and I apparently may or may not have a title, but I’m too lazy to go and find out. ) You should find out. 'Twould make for a nice plaque on the wall, at least. Which GG? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911/36 "2007-06-07T17:27:57Z")
I’m descended from Vaudreuil (sp?), the last governor of New France (Canada), as it happens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-descended-from-henry-ii-of-england/406911.md?page=1)