Prince William, Duke of Cambridge - Ancestry

Ancestry

William is a male line descendant of Elimar I, Count of Oldenburg, and as such a member of the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe's oldest royal houses, and more specifically the cadet branch known as the House of Glücksburg, founded by his paternal ancestor Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. William belongs to the Royal Family of Windsor. His male line ancestors include five kings—Christian I of Denmark, Frederick I of Denmark, Christian III of Denmark, Christian IX of Denmark and George I of Greece—and also 11 counts of Oldenburg, two dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, five dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and one duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

William is also a descendant of William the Conqueror, who was crowned the first Norman King of England in 1066.

Among his other recent, cognatic ancestors on his father's side are notable members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the House of Battenberg, the main line of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, the House of Hesse-Kassel and the House of Hohenzollern. Among his distant cognatic ancestors are also Henry IV and James II and VII. Should he become king, William would be the first monarch since Queen Anne to be descended from Charles I, and the first to descend from Charles II, as his mother was descended from two of Charles's II illegitimate sons, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond. Through his father's royal family, William is of German, English and Scottish descent, and through his mother's family, the noble Spencer family, the Earl Spencer and the Baron Fermoy families, William is of English descent and of remote Irish, Scottish and British-American descent.

He is also descended from many of the pre-Union monarchs of Scotland and the pre-Conquest monarchs of England, and many notable foreign monarchs including, Peter I of Russia ("Peter the Great"), Catherine II of Russia ("Catherine the Great"), Nicholas I of Russia, Afonso I of Portugal, Andrew II of Hungary, Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Isabella I of Castile. From the House of Stuart, by side of his mother, Prince William is a descendant of the House of Bourbon from the line Henry IV of France and of the House of Medici from the line of Marie de' Medici. He is also a descendant of powerful Italian noble families such as that of the House of Sforza who ruled as the Dukes of Milan from the line of the legendary Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì, and through her of the House of Visconti.