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On her wedding day, 29 April 2011, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton became H.R.H. Princess William, Duchess of Cambridge, to be known informally as Princess Catherine. Her family tree has been researched extensively over the last few years, principally by the late William Addams Reitwiesner and Michael J. Wood. They found that she had Fairfax ancestry. This tied in neatly with my own research, in conjunction with local historian Dora Kneebone, into the ancestry of my artist ancestor Perry Nursey, whose mother was Catherine Fairfax, who belonged to the East Anglian branch of the Fairfax family. I did all this work long before I had the slightest idea that another Fairfax descendant, Catherine Middleton, or 'Kate Middleton' as she was dubbed by the press, would become engaged to the future heir to the throne, H.R.H. Prince William.
Edward III, probable ancestor of the Duchess of Cambridge
The engagement was announced on 16 November 2010, a very pleasant day for those of us with Fairfax blood, and was followed by the wonderful celebration of their marriage on 29 April 2011. This is now the third out of the last four generation of our Great British Royal Family who have chosen to marry “commoners” rather than other royals. The old days, when international diplomacy was based on royal marriage alliances, are over: the First World War was proof enough that having all of Europe’s royals closely related to each other was no guarantee of peace in any case. The modern royal family is reverting to an older model, whereby monarchs, rather than being genealogically isolated from their people, are very much the head of the greater families of their nations. The marriages of George VI with Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, of Prince Charles with Lady Diana Spencer and Lady Camilla Parker-Bowles, and now the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, provide new royal links for countless people with “ordinary” British blood and create an exciting focus for many family trees.
The Fairfax information provided below was revised in October 2011. It differs to the version I had here before, a version which I realised, after much careful investigation, was partially incorrect. This revised material is based on the reworked pedigrees of the Fairfax family drawn up by the 19th century genealogist Charles Markham. The Duchess' descent from John Fairfax, Master of the Mospital in Norwich is certain. His links back to the people shown below (and following Markham) as his father and grandfather are supported by much strong circumstantial evidence, but I am still looking for 100% proof. This, the relationships shown for the Duchess to the Duke and other members of the royal family are correct only if the genealogical connections suggested here are indeed right. It seems beyond dispute, though, that all Fairfqaxes the same stock in Yorkshire, from which the Duke of Cambridge is descended trough his mother, so Duke and Duchess are unquestionably cousins.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, a mythical ancestress of Princess Catherine
Princess Catherine's very appropriate descent from the Greek goddess of love is explained below. More information on Perry Nursey can be obtained from Anthony Adolph. More information on the Fairfaxes is available at http://walter9.info/Society/ For information on working out cousinships, see Cousinship.
THE ROYAL ANCESTRY OF H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE
In the pedigrees below, each generation is listed in order: each person listed is the offspring of the one above, and parent of the one below.
Edward III (1312-1377) = Philippa of Hainault
Edward III started the Hundred Years War, to try to make good his claim to the French throne. Through his two daughters and six sons (including John of Gaunt) he is ancestor of most people alive in the world who have English ancestry. The lucky few who can prove it are still probably in excess of a million people. These include many Americans, via “gateway ancestors”, scions of the English nobility and gentry who settled in the new colonies of America, and who transmitted their blue blood to innumerable colonial descendants. His sons included:
Lionel Plantagent, Duke of Clarence (1338-1368) = Lady Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ulster
Lionel was guardian and lieutenant of England during his father’s absence abroad in 1345-6, and was later the king’s lieutenant in Ulster. He was father of:
Lady Philippa Plantagenet = Edmund Mortimer Earl of March (1351-1381
Edmund was marshall of England 1369-1377 and bore the sword and spurs at Richard II’s coronation. Edmund Mortimer provides Princess Catherine with a wonderful mesh of Anglo-Norman and Welsh ancestry, for his 4 x great grandfather Ralph Mortimer married Gwladys Ddu, one of the daughters of Llewellyn the Great. Llewellyn was of the male line of Rhodri Mawr, the unifier of Wales, to whom the bards gave a splendid line of descent, back to the Catuvellauni kings of south-east England (the family of Caratacus and Cymbeline), from whom they in turn deduced a line of descent from Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain, a great grandson of Aeneas, a member of the royal house of Troy. Aeneas, the subject of Virgil's epic poem The Iliad, was the son of Anchises, by the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Lady Philippa and Edmund Mortimer had a daughter:
Elizabeth Mortimer = Sir Henry Percy (1364-1403), nicknamed “Hotspur”.
Hotspur was captured by the Scots at the battle of Otterbourn, but was later released. He assisted in placing Henry IV on the throne and later defeated the Scots at Humbledon Hill in 1402. He then foolishly decided to promote his brother-in-law Sir Edmund Mortimer as a rival king to Henry IV, and was defeated and slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury, part of the Wars of the Roses that he had helped to instigate. Elizabeth and Henry had a daughter Elizabeth who married John de Clifford: they were ancestors of American President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). Elizabeth and Henry’s son, meanwhile, was:
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (1394-1455)= Lady Eleanor Neville
Henry was restored to his family’s dignities, and served Henry V as warden of the eastern marches, and then as a member of the council of regency after the king’s death. He was killed at the Battle of St Albans fighting against the Duke of York.
Lady Eleanor Neville was also of royal descent. Her father was Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and her mother was Lady Joan Beaufort. Joan's parents were John of Gaunt, Earl of Lancaster, son of Edward III, and Catherine de Roet, sister-in-law of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland (1421-1461) = Eleanor, Lady Poynings
Henry defeated and slew the Duke of York at Wakefield in 1460 and combined forces with Queen Margaret to defeat the Earl of Warwick at St Albans in 1461, before he was himself slain at the Battle of Towton.
Lady Mary (or Margaret) Percy = Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, Yorkshire
Lady Mary and Sir William had a daughter Dorothy Gascoigne, who married Sir Ninian Markenfield and was ancestor of American President William Howard Taft (1857-1930). Lady Mary and Sir William also had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir George Talboys: they were ancestors both of President George Washington and of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (and thus of Prince William himself): these lines of descent are given seperately, below. Finally, Lady Mary and Sir William had a daughter:
Anne Gascoigne = Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Walton, Yorkshire.
Sir Thomas Fairfax was the grandson of William Fairfax, son of Sir Richard Fairfax. Sir Richard was the 9 x great grandson of John ‘Fair-fax’, the fair-headed, who Fairfax family tradition makes the son of a Viking called Skarpenbok (more likely, they were simply descended from mixed Viking-Saxon or even Norman settlers at Skirpenbeck near York, but the old story is a more romantic one). Sir Richard Fairfax was also the father of Sir Guy Fairfax, ancestor of the Barons Fairfax who settled in the United States (see below). Anne Gascoigne and Sir Thomas Fairfax had two sons of note, Sir Nicholas Fairfax (see below), ancestor of the late Princess Diana: they also had a fourth son, William Fairfax, who is assumed (though as things stand, October 2011, firm proof of this is still lacking) to be identical with:
William Fairfax (d. 1588) = Anne Baker
William settled in Norfolk, at Bury and Walsingham. He married Anne in 1542.
John Fairfax (d. 1614) = Mary Birch
Please note that many older versions of the Fairfax pedigree (including the one I had originally posted here) make John a grandson of William and Anne, not a son. The revision made here is in line with the work of the 19th century genealogist Charles Markham. However, as things stand (October 2011), firm proof of this is still wanting. John was Master of the Great Hospital in Norwich in 1609. He wrote his will as “John Fayerfax now Master or Keeper of the Hospitall comonly called God’s howse, Scittuate & being in Hobnestreete within the Citty of Norwich” on 18 February 1614. His wife Mary Birch was daughter of John Birch, citizen and carpenter of Norwich, and sister of George Birch, Sheriff of Norwich in 1604 and Mayor of Norwich in 1621.
Benjamin Fairfax (1592-1676) = Sarah, daughter of Roger and Joane Galliard, of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk.
Benjamin became Anglican Minister of Rumburgh near Halesworth, Suffolk, and was ejected under Cromwell’s Commonwealth to make way for a Presbyterian minister. His wife’s sister Abigail Galliard married the minister Theophilus Brabourne, who believed that the true Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday, and who was arrested for his pains, and only released when he had recanted his heretical point of view. Benjamin Fairfax had a daughter Sarah, who married Bartholomew Allerton, who had been a boy passenger on the Mayflower, but who returned in later life to be a nonconformist minister in Suffolk ((Allerton's own kin, to whom Kate is not related by blood, include two presidents: his sister Mary was a 5 x great grandmother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: and his half-brother Isaac Allerton was 3 x great grandfather of President Zachary Taylor). Benjamin also had three sons of note, Nathaniel, John and Benjamin. Nathaniel (1637-1690) became a Presbyterian minister at Willisham, and was ejected on the Restoration, after which he settled at Woodbridge, Suffolk, as a physician. Nathaniel’s brother John Fairfax (see below) was ancestor of the landscape painter Perry Nursey and genealogist Anthony Adolph: Nathaniel and John’s brother was Benjamin Fairfax, with whom we continue this line:
Benjamin Fairfax of Halesworth, Suffolk (b. 1625) = Bridget Stringer, daughter of Walter Stringer of Chester.
Sarah Fairfax (1654-1687) = John Meadows (1622-1697)
John was made Presbyterian minister of of Ousden, Suffolk and Cheveley, Cambridgeshire, but when Charles II was restored in 1660, he was summarily ejected. He became a Presbyterian teacher in Stowmarket, Suffolk and later at Bury St. Edmunds. His protégé was Joseph Priestley, the famous theologian and scientist, credited with the discovery of oxygen.
Philip Meadows (1679-1752), Mayor of Norwich in 1734 = Margaret Hall (1691-1765)
Sarah Meadows (1725-1800) = David Martineau (1726-1768)
Sarah and David had children including Peter Finch Martineau, ancestor of Guy Ritchie, and Thomas Martineau, with whom we continue the line:
Thomas Martineau (1764-1826) = Elizabeth Rankin (1771-1848)
Elizabeth Martineau (1794-1850) = Thomas Michael Greenhow (1792-1881)
Elizabeth's sister was the famous Harriet Martineau, deaf from an early age, whose political writings made her a leading voice in the campain against slavery: an avid cigar-smoker, Harriet is sometimes referred to as the world's first female journalist.
Frances Elizabeth Greenhow (1821-1892) = Francis Lupton (1813-1884)
Francis Lupton (1848-1921) = Harriet Albina Davis (1850-1892)
Olive Christine Lupton (1881-1936) = Richard Noel Middleton (1878-1951)
Peter Francis Middleton (b. 1920) = Valerie Glassborrow (1924-2006)
Michael Francis Middleton (b. 1949) = Carole Elizabeth Goldsmith (b. 1955)
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, b. 9 January 1982, married to H.R.H. Prince William of Wales, eldest son of the heir apparent H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
THE FAIRFAX ANCESTRY OF ANTHONY ADOLPH
Benjamin Fairfax (above), who died in 1676, was father of Benjamin Fairfax, ancestor of Princess Catherine and Guy Ritchie, and of:
John Fairfax (1623-1700) = Elizabeth Cowper, daughter of William Cowper of Mosborough, Derbyshire
John Fairfax decided to become a clergyman when his baby sister died. He became Presbyterian rector of Barking-cum-Needham, Suffolk, until he was ejected in 1662. He stayed in Barking as a Presbyterian preacher. In 1670 he and five other ministers were arrested for preaching without licenses and, being found to be ‘persons dangerous to the public peace,’ were flung into prison ‘till they should find sureties for their good behaviour.’ When finally released, he became a preacher at Needham Market and Ipswich too. He was succeeded in the Presbyterian ministry at Barking by Joseph Priestley (1733-1804).
Nathaniel Fairfax (1661-1722) of Barking-cum-Needham, Suffolk = Frances
John Fairfax (c. 1710-1758) = Mary Hayward of Framlingham
John became a grocer and draper in Coddenham, Suffolk, and also had land at Kettleburgh, Suffolk, and Boxtead, Essex
Catherine Fairfax (1742-1827) = John Nursey, surgeon of Coddenham, Suffolk and later of Stonham Aspall, Suffolk.
Perry Nursey (1771-1840) = Elizabeth Simpson
Perry Nursey trained as a surgeon, but longed to become a landscape painter. He went to Scotland, to train under the great painter Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840), and became great friends with the artist Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841). Perhaps at the instigation of their contemporary the poet Robbie Burns, Nursey returned to Suffolk to woo his sweetheart Elizabeth Simpson, and ran away with her back to Edinburgh to be married. They settled at her family farm in Little Bealings, which they landscaped and gentrified as a mansion called The Grove. He followed the new trend of painting out of doors, as opposed to in a studio, and was a great friend of John Constable (1776-1837). Wilkie wrote once of Constable’s “large picture of Willy Lott’s house, which Mr Nursey says promises uncommonly well in masses &c... and tones” – the subject of Constable’s most famous painting, The Haywain. Though a talented artist, and picturesque landscape gardener and architect, Perry Nursey grew too used to the lifestyle of a Suffolk gentleman and, whilst his family (some of whom he named after artists) grew large and expensive, he neglected to make enough money: the result was debt, bankruptcy, and a sad end in a dingy house in Marylebone, far from his beloved Suffolk countryside. His artistic legacy, however, was not inconsiderable: “There is a genuine feeling of Nature in one of Nursey’s sketches”, wrote his friend Edward FitzGerald (translator of the Rubáyat of Omar Khayyám, “as in the Rubenses and Claudes here [in London]: and if that is evident, and serves to cherish and rekindle one’s own sympathy with the world about one, the great end is accomplished”. Perry’s daughter was:
Rosalba Violante Nursey (1812-1895) = Thomas Howell, solicitor’s clerk
Jessie Howell (1849-1921) = Thomas William Waters, commercial traveller
William Thomas Waters (1875-1955), button manufacturer = Winifred Emily Coleman
Beryl Ivy Waters (1912-1994) = Major Joseph Albert Stanislaus Adolph, M.C., T.D. (1910-1995) (who married 2ndly Gwendolen Mary Stepney)
Peter Joseph Adolph (b. 1937), marine engineer = Jane Patricia Collingwood Rietchel (b.1937)
Anthony Adolph (b. 1967), genealogist.
Anthony Adolph is Princess Catherine's 11th cousin once removed, and she his 10th cousin once removed.
This is a picture of Perry Nursey, ancestor of Anthony Adolph, and 4th cousin to Princess Catherine’s 5 x great grandfather, Thomas Martineau.
THE FAIRFAX ANCESTRY OF GUY RITCHIE
Sarah Meadows (see above) the wife of David Martineau was mother of Thomas Martineau, the ancestor of Princess Catherine, and also of:
Peter Finch Martineau
Edward Martineau (d. 1862)
William Martineau (d. 1905)
Edith Jane McLaughlin (d. 1950)
Doris Ritchie (d. 1935)
John Vivian Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie, film director = Madonna Ciccone, the rock star “Madonna”.
Rocco Ritchie b. 2000
Guy Ritchie is Princess Catherine's 7th cousin once removed, and Princess Catherine is his 6th cousin once removed.
THE FAIRFAX ANCESTRY OF H.R.H. PRINCE WILLIAM
Sir Thomas Fairfax who married Anne Gascoigne (see above) was father of William Fairfax, ancestor of Princess Catherine, Anthony Adolph and Guy Ritchie, and also of:
Sir Nicholas Fairfax (d. 1570) of Gilling Castle, Yorkshire, Sheriff of Yorkshire.
Sir William Fairfax (d. 1597)
Thomas, 1st Viscount Fairfax of Emmeley (d. 1636)
Mary Layton
Mary Foulis
Sir David Foulis (d. 1694)
Honora Chaloner
Edward Chaloner
Edward Chaloner (d. 1737)
William Chaloner (d. 1754)
Anne, Lady Harewood (d. 1805)
Frances Douglas (d. 1817)
Harriet, Lady Aberdeen (d. 1833)
James, 1st Duke of Abercorn (d. 1885)
James, 2nd Duke of Abercorn (d. 1913)
James, 3rd Duke of Abercorn (d. 1953)
Cynthia, Lady Spencer (d. 1972) (married Albert, 7th Earl Spencer)
Edward, 8th Earl Spencer (d. 1992)
Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
H.R.H. Prince William of Wales (b. 1982), married to Catherine Middleton.
Because this line seems to have bred rather faster than the others, we have the rather odd outcome that Princess Catherine is a direct 15th cousin of Prince William’s great grandmother: she is his 18th cousin three times removed and he is her 15th cousin three times removed. Prince William is Anthony Adolph’s 14th cousin four times removed, and he is Prince William’s 18th cousin, four times removed.
However, Prince William actually has another line of descent from the Fairfaxes, and through that line he and Princess Catherine are direct 15th cousins. The line is as follows:.
Sir Thomas Fairfax who married Anne Gascoigne (see above) was father of William Fairfax, ancestor of Princess Catherine, Anthony Adolph and Guy Ritchie, and also of:
Sir Nicholas Fairfax (d. 1570) of Gilling Castle, Yorkshire, Sheriff of Yorkshire.
Lady Margaret Belasyse
Sir Henry Belasyse (married Ursula Fairfax of Denton (see below)
Thomas Belasyse, 1st Viscount Fauconberg
John 1st Lord Belasyse
Barbara, Lady Webb
Mary, Lady Waldegrave
James, 2nd Earl Waldegrave
Anne Seymour
Horace Beauchamp Seymour
Adelaide, Countess Spencer
Charles, 6th Earl Spencer
Albert, 7th Earl Spencer (married Cynthia, daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn)
Edward, 8th Earl Spencer (d. 1992)
Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
H.R.H. Prince William of Wales (b. 1982), engaged to Catherine Middleton.
It is through this line that Catherine and William are cousins, assuming her connection back to Sir Thomas, as posited by Charles Markham, holds water. It would make Kate a direct 14th cousin of the late Princess Diana, and thus Prince William's 15th cousin, once removed.
THE FAIRFAXES IN AMERICA
Sir Richard Fairfax of Walton, Yorkshire, was father of William Fairfax of Walton, who married Catherine Neville, of a younger branch of the family of the Earls of Westmorland. They had a son Sir Thomas Fairfax who, in 1495, successfully proved his right to inherit Gilling Castle, on the southern flanks of the North Yorkshire Moors. He married Elizabeth Sherburne of Stonyhurst (note that Burke's Peerage, usually very reliable in these matters, omits this important generation by mistake). Sir Thomas and Elizabeth were the parents of Sir Thomas Fairfax who married Anne Gascoigne, whose royal descent is described above. Thomas and Anne were the ancestors of Princess Catherine, H.R.H. Prince William, the genealogist Anthony Adolph and Guy Ritchie. Sir Richard was also the father of:
Sir Guy Fairfax (d. 1495) of Steeton
Sir William Fairfax (d. 1514)
Sir William Fairfax d. 1558
Sir Thomas Fairfax (d. 1599) of Denton
Thomas, 1st Baron Fairfax of Cameron (d. 1640) (his sister Ursula married Sir Henry Belasyse (see above). They had an eldest son Ferdinand, 2nd Baron Fairfax (d. 1648), father in turn of Sir Thomas Fairfax (d. 1671), 3rd Baron Fairfax, who sided with Parliament in its rebellion against Charles I, and rose to become a leading Parliamentarian general, under Oliver Cromwell. The 1st Baron was also father of:
Rev. Henry Fairfax (d. 1665)
Henry, 4th Baron Fairfax (d. 1688)
Henry was father of Thomas, 5th Baron Fairfax (d. 1710), who married Catherine, daughter and heiress of the 2nd Lord Colepeper, Governor of Virginia, whose family had been granted 300,000 acres there. This was inherited by the Fairfax family. Thomas was father of two sons, the 6th and 7th Barons Fairfax, both of whom died without male heirs. It was from the 7th baron that the great estates in Virginia were conficated after the War of Independence. Henry was also father of:
Henry Fairfax (d. 1688)
William Fairfax (d. 1757), who also settled in Virginia, America.
William Fairfax had a daughter Anne Fairfax, who married Lawrence Washington, half-brother of George Washington, first President of the United States of America. William Fairfax also had a son:
Brian Fairfax, 8th Baron Fairfax (d. 1802)
Brian Fairfax was father of Thomas Fairfax, 9th Baron Fairfax, from whom the present Barons Fairfax are descended. Brian also had a relationship with one of the slaves on his plantation and had a son:
Thornton Fairfax
Charles Fairfax
Matthew Lawrence Fairfax, a black Baptist preacher.
Frankie Fairfax (d. 1972), civil rights activist and jazz trombonist, whose jazz band in Philadelphia launched the career of Dizzie Gillespie.
Princess Catherine is Frankie Fairfax’s 14th cousin three times removed, and he is her 17th cousin three times removed
PRINCESS CATHERINE'S COUSINSHIP WITH PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON
Princess Catherine's descent from Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Anne Gascoigne is described above. Anne had a sister Elizabeth:
Elizabeth Gascoigne, sister of Anne Gascoigne, ancestress of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and of Anthony Adolph. Elizabeth married Sir George Talboys.
Ann Talboys = Sir Edward Dymoke
Frances Dymoke = Sir Thomas Windebank (parents of Sir Francis Windebank, Secretary of State to Charles I)
Mildred Windebank = Robert Reade
Sir George Reade who settled in Virginia = Elizabeth Martiau
Mildred Reade = Col. Augustine Warner (junior, d. 1681).They were ancestors of the late Quen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (see below) and also had a daughter:
Mildred Warner = Lawrence Washington
Augustine Washington = Mary Bell
George Washington, 1st President of the United States, d. 1799.
This makes Princess Catherine George Washington's 8th cousin, 7 x removed and Anthony Adolph his 8th cousin 6 times removed.
PRINCESS CATHERINE'S COUSINSHIP WITH THE LATE QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER
Mildred Reade and Augustine Warner, in the pedigree above, were also parents of:
Mary Warner = John Smith
Mildred Smith = Robert Porteus d. 1758
Rev. Robert Porteus d. 1754
Mildred Porteus = Robert Hodgson
Robert Hodgson, Dean of Carlisle d. 1844
Henrietta Mildred Hodgson = Oswald Smith of Blendon Hall
Frances Dora Smith = Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore
Claude, 14th Earl of Strathmore d. 1944
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother = George VI
Elizabeth II
Charles, Prince of Wales
H.R.H. Prince William of Wales
This rather unexpected American connection makes Princess Catherine a direct 16th cousin of Her Majesty the Queen thus a 16th cousin twice removed of Prince William. It makes Anthony Adolph a direct 15th cousin of the late King George VI.
OTHER INTERESTING LINES
Princess Catherine's great great grandmother Harriet Albina Davis was descended from the Davenport family. It has been suggested, but not proved conclusively, that these Davenports descended from the marriage of Henry Davenport of Hollon, Shropshire and Elizabeth Talbot. Elizabeth was descended from Sir Thomas Leighton, Governor of Guernsey and his wife Elizabeth Knollys, who were also ancestors of Princess Diana, and there is a possible descent for the Knollyses from Henry VIII, but again this is far from proven. It is through the Fairfaxes that the absolutely certain royal conections of Princess Catherine are derived.
THE EARLIEST TRACEABLE ANCESTORS OF PRINCESS CATHERINE
Genealogists have long sought proven lines of descent from antiquity for Medieval royalty and their millions of non-royal descendants, but have been defeated by lack of reliable records, caused in part by the violent end of the Roman empire. The internet is awash with ancient lines that are based on pure supposition. The following is the longest line of descent that is generally agreed by responsible genealogists to be likely: it is based itself on some suppositions, but these are reasonable ones, to which the most prominent names in the professional have been willing to put their names.
Pharnabazus I, King of Iberia (approximating to modern Georgia in the Caucasus) d. 234 BC. His real origins are not known: the early Medieval Georgian Chronicle deduces him back to the mighty "T’orgom, son of T'iras, son of Gamer, son of Japheth", son of Noah himself.
Sauromaces I, King of Iberia d. 159 BC
Wife of Meribanes I, King of Iberia
Wife of Artaxias I, King of Iberia
Artaces I, King of Iberia d. 63 BC
Pharnabazus II, King of Iberia d. 30 BC
Wife of Kart‘am
Pharasmenes I King of Iberia d. 58 AD
Mithradates I, King of Iberia (d. 106 AD)
Amazaspus I, King of Iberia (d. 116 AD)
Pharasmenes II King of Iberia (who married Ghadana, daughter of Vologaeses I, King of Armenia) d. 132 AD
Radamistus, King of Armenia, d. 135
Pharasmenes III, King of Iberia d. 185
Wife of Vologaeses IV Great King of Parthia (who was himself a probable, though unproven, of the ancient Great Kings of Persia, and possible descent from Alexander the Great)
Chosroes I King of Armenia d. 216/7
Chosroes II the Valiant, King of Western Armenia, slain in 287
Tiran Tiridates IV King of Armenia (converted to Christianity by St Gregory) d. 330
Chosroes III King of Armenia d. 339
Bambishin of Armenia
St Narses the great, Hereditary Bishop and primate of Armenia d. 373
St Isaac the Great, hereditary bishop and primate of Armenia d. 438
Sahakanoysh, wife of Hamazasp I, prince of the Mamikonids
Hamazaspian, Mamikonid prince [there intervening seven or eight generations the names of whom are not known, but scholars of the period do not doubt the descent down to Hmayeak. This and the following question marks in the next couple of generations are from the groundbreaking work of Prince Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz, who were none the less very sure the line of descent was accurate. This line of ancestry was described by the late Anthony Wagner, Garter King of Arms, as a ‘bridge to antiquity… that will bear weight’], ancestor through seven or eight generations of:
Hmayeak, a prince of the Mamikonid dynasty
Artavzd, Strategus of the Anatolians (778), probable father of:
Hmayeak, known to have been of Mamikonid descent, who married a daughter of Emperor Leo V, Emperor of the East, thought to have been father of:
Constantine
Basil I Emperor of the East d. 813
Leo VI Emperor of the East d. 866
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Emperor of the East d.905
Romanus II Emperor of the East d. 940
Empress Theophano d. 991, wife of the western Emperor Otto II
Matilda d. 1025, wife of Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lorraine
Richenza d. 1063 wife of Mieczislav II King of Poland
Casimir I King of Poland d. 1016
Vladislav I King of Poland d. 1043
Boleslav III King of Poland d. 1138
Vladislav II King of Poland d. 1159
Richilda wife of Alfonso VII King of Leon and Castile
Sanchia, wife of Alfonso II King of Aragon
Alfonso Count of Provence d. 1209
Raymond Berengar Count of Provence d. 1245
Henry III King of England d. 1272
Edward I King of England d. 1307
Edward II d. 1327
Edward III d. 1377 (see above)
These pedigrees only scratch the surface, of course, of the many and varied genealogical connections that Princess Catherine derives through her Fairfax ancestry. Our sincere congratulations and good wishes for all future happiness go to their Royal Highness on the occasion of the wedding, 29 April 2011.
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