For the rest of you, I will explain.
In my previous post (Three Lists), I included a list beginning with King George V (1865-1936) that showed his descendants who have been British monarchs or are in the current line of succession to become the British monarch. There were 59 names of people who are currently in the line of succession.
True to form, blogger Yorkshire Pudding of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, left the following comment:
Shame you missed Number 60 from the third list or was it simply an act of peevishness?
60 Lord Pudding of Yorkshire (b.1953 d.?)
to which I replied, possibly also true to form:
Lord Pudding of Yorkshire, I must admit that you do bear an uncanny resemblance to Sophia, Electress of Hanover.
I can hear some of you asking, “Who in the name of all that’s holy is Sophia, Electress of Hanover?”
I will tell you.
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, is the person who, had she lived for two more months, would have become Queen of England after Queen Anne died in 1714. But since she couldn’t because she was dead, her son became George I instead. Put another way, if you work your way backward from George V through Edward VII and Victoria and William IV and George IV and George III and George II and George I you will finally reach Sophia, Electress of Hanover (1630-1714), the mother of the House of Hanover line of British monarchs. The House of Hanover morphed into the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha when Victoria married Albert, morphed again into the House of Windsor when George V decided Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sounded too German when Germany became the enemy during World War I, and morphed yet again into the current House of Mountbatten-Windsor when Elizabeth II married Philip.
What I am about to say now may seem obvious to many, but I hear it being confused by Americans all the time. A person is a descendant of those who came before him or her and an ancestor of those who come after him or her. Elizabeth II is a descendant of Victoria. Victoria is an ancestor of Elizabeth II. Your grandfather is your ancestor; you are his descendant. Your grandchildren are your descendants; you are their ancestor. Let’s all try to get those two words straight in the future, shall we?
Continuing with what I was saying, I was just being snarky to Yorkshire Pudding. However, he responded to my comment with this:
Being a humble fellow, I have never previously alluded to this royal connection over at my blog but yes there is a familial link to Sophia through her grandson, King George II.
This could well be true, of course, but I am more inclined to think Lord Pudding is pulling my leg, the giveaway phrase being “Being a humble fellow”. On the off-chance that Neal (for that is his name) really is one of the more than 5,000 living descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, through her grandson, King George II, I decided to produce this post.
For the record, I really don’t think he looks anything at all like Sophia.
I told you I was being snarky.
This seems to be the perfect time to reveal that I have a familial link to U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
Gee. I'm not related to a royal,,, that I know of.
ReplyDeleteEmma, most people aren't, I would guess.
DeleteI think Sophia, Electress of Hanover looks a little like Milton Berle, or I guess it would actually be the other way around. But who knows, she could be an ancestor of Mr. Pudding.
ReplyDeleteAs far as famous ancestors, the only one I know for sure I am related to would be Stonewall Jackson.
Bonnie, I'm impressed! My familial link to Grover Cleveland is very tenuous, as it is through my dad, who was not my biological father, so maybe there is no familial link at all now that I think about it.
DeleteThe position of president of the U.S. is not hereditary, at least not yet.
ReplyDeleteTasker, no, it isn't, but I never said it was. What are you getting at exactly? It's still true nevertheless that my dad's grandmother, Bloomy Jane (Cleveland) Johnson, and President Grover Cleveland, who were contemporaries, were eighth cousins, which makes me his eighth cousin three times removed if you ignore the fact that my "dad" was really my stepdad, not my biological father. So being Cleveland's eighth cousin three times removed and $1.70 will buy me a cup of coffee at Waffle House.
DeleteWell that is interesting. I had never heard of Sophia, electress of Hanover. I didn't know that England had electors. So that is where the electoral college came from, and the US elected our current want to be monarch? ;p
ReplyDeleteKathy, England did not have electors. Germany had Electors and the wife of an Elector was an Electress. Dictionary.com defines an Elector as one of the German princes entitled to elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Sophia and the first couple of Georges were all from Germany. George III was the first of the Hanoverian monarchs to be raised in England. Later, he became mad. I'm not implying anything. Finally, that is not where the electoral college came from.
DeleteHa thanks for the history lesson.
ReplyDeleteI was being a tad sarcastic. Sorry about that. I've been told that I have a dry sense of humor, maybe too dry.