New-York tribune., 1901-01-25
THE KING AND HIS KIN.

The new sovereign OF tne Iulleu hIHSuOu
has elected to be known as Edward, name
borne as he says, by six of his ancestors, and
he was accordingly proclaimed yesterday as
King Edward VII. In speaking of the six Ed
wards as his ancestors he, of course, used
that word in its original sense of predecessors.
and not as synonymous with forefathers. for, as
matter of fact he is descended from only four
of the numbered Edwards, the fifth and
sixth Kings of that name having left no issue.
OF the two Edwards before the Conquest. who
are not numbered. he is descended from one
1t was said of Victoria that she was at the very
outset Of her reign strongly commended to her
people by the fact that she was the first really
English sovereign they had had for many years
We shall indeed. find few sOvereigns more
truly identified with their countries by long de-
scent than she was and her son Is. The King
English ancestry is actually older than the name
of England itself. dating away back to the time
, when the Saxon part of the island was still
known as Saxony. fact which gives peculiar
fitness 10 his choice of the fine old Saxon name
of Edward.
We may perhaps best begin the Kings geneal-
ogy with the early Saxon family of Cerdc.
member of which. Ealhmund. bore rule in Kent
in the eighth century. His son. Egbert. in the
last wear Of that century became King Of the
West Saxons. and in the year SOS became the
first king Of England. Egbert's son was
Ethelwolf. and his son in tnrn was that great
Alfred the millennal anniversary of whose
death is 70 he commemorated next October.
From Alfred the line of descent runs through
Edward the Elder Edmund l, Edgar, Bthelred
the Unready and Edmund Ironside Then IL
passes away from the reiGning line into the col
lateral line of Edward Atheling. who did not
reign; 81. Margaret the patron saint of Scot
land and wife of that King Malcolm III of Scot
land whose father. Duncan, was murdered by
Macbeth. and who himself avenged that crime
in the overthrow of the usurper at Dunsinane
Matilda. wife of Henry of England. and Geof-
frey Plantagenet 1t becomes the reigning line
again in Henry II, and thence proceeds through
King John. Henry III, and the three Edwards,
|. III and III. Then il becomes dual line. One
branch runs through John of Gaunt, 'time-hon-
Ored Lancaster; John, Marquis of Dorset John
Beaufort. Duke of Somerset; and Margaret,
Countess of Richmond 10 Henry VII The other
runs through Prince Edmund, son of Edward
III; Richard, Duke of York; a second Richard,
Duke of York, and King Edward " 10 Eliza
beth. wife Of Henry VII Thus in the first
Tudor reign the two are united into a single line
Thence it proceeds through Margaret, wife of
James N of Scotland; James of Scotland.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots; James I of Eng
land, Elizabeth, wife of King Frederick of Bo-
hemia; Sophia, wife OF Ernest Augustus. Eector
Of Hanover; George and George ii of England
Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales; George III of
England, Edward Augustus, Duke Of Kent, and
Victoria, Queen and Empress.
Edward VII is thus in the thirty-fifth genera
ton from Egbert the first King of England,
though he is the fifty-elghth sovereign in the
line. 1t will be observed that many famous
sovereigns are not among his progenitors, among
these being Edward the Confessor. all the Nor
mans. Richard the Lion Hearted Henry VIII
the two Charleses. and William and Mary The
line includes members Of the Houses OF Plan
tagenet, York. TudOr, Stuart and Hanover. and
non-reigning Lancastrians. In the Wars Of the
Roses it divided between the two sides. 1t
has been said that the name Of Edward will not
be pleasing 10 Scotland But il is exceedingly
doubtful that The Scots of to-day cherish any
animosty on account of what occurred six cen
turies ago, especially toward King who is de-
scended from their patron saint, Queen Mar
garet; from Mary Queen of Scots, and from
other purely Scottish sovereigns. The Kings
genealOgy includes descent from the then reign
ing houses of Scotland. France, Bohemia, Aqui-
taine. Angoultme Provence. Hainault CASTLE
Denmark, Hanover, Brandenburg. Anspach
Saxe-COburg- -Gotha and MeckIenburg- -Strelitz
The non-royal English families of Neville and
WOOdville are also included. To such descent
the King adds matrimonial alliances of the most
important and distinguished character through
which he is son-in-law OF the King of Denmark
brother-in-law Of the King of Greece and uncle
of the Emperor Of Russia If 10 this we add
that ne is an uncle of the German Emperor il is
apparent that in his kim past and present. Ed
ward VII enjoys a status second TO that Of no
other sovereign in the world