A royal descent is a lineal descent from a monarch. Royal descent is sometimes claimed as a mark of distinction and is seen as a desirable goal of genealogy research. Pretenders, impostors and those hoping to improve their social status have often claimed royal descent and, as a result, fabricated lineages are common. The importance of royal descent to some genealogists has been criticized.
Due to the incompleteness of records, the number of people who claim royal descent is much smaller than the number who can actually prove it it. Genealogists and geneticists have attempted to estimate the percentage of various populations that have a royal descent.
Read more about Royal Descent: Europe, United States, Africa, Proving Royal Descent, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words royal and/or descent:
“High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Show’rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence; and, from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue
Vain war with Heav’n, and by success untaught,
His proud imaginations”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“My life has been one long descent into respectability.”
—Mandy Rice-Davies (b. 1944)