Stirpes, Volume 34, Number 1, March 1994 Page: 37

CI1T'D Dpi W

their daughter Matilda of England who married Geofrey Plantagenet and began the Plantagenet
line in England.
Royal roots are easier to trace than commoners since they have been the historians'
province for many years. From a library book about William the Conqueror, I was able to get
the pedigree of William's wife, Matilda of Flanders, back to Charlemagne.
King John Lackland was known for his romantic interest in his barons' wives and
daughters, and that probably offended them as much as his trampling on their rights. The
barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. King John's interest in a
daughter of the Earl of Warrenne produced Grandpa's 20th great-grandfather, Richard Fitz
Roy.
I found that one of Grandpa's distant great-grandmothers was Isabel de Vermandois, a
daughter of Hugh Magnus (Capet) who was the son of King Henry I of France. Hugh Magnus
married Ana Agnese Yaroslauna who was born in 1036 in Kiev, the Ukraine. She was the
daughter of Ingegerda, a daughter of Olag III, King of Sweden and Yaroslav I, "The Wise," of
Kiev, the Ukraine.
A second branch of Grandpa's Cope ancestry had royal roots. Sir Anthony, the son of
Stephen Cope, married Anne Stafford. Grandpa's 13th great-grandfather, Sir Humphrey
Stafford, Knight of Grafton, was executed at Tyburn Hill, now the site of Marble Arch in
London, on July 8, 1486. He was married to Catherine Fray, daughter of Sir John Fray, a
Baron and Chief of the Exchequer.
The War of the Roses ended in 1485, so possibly Sir Humphrey was on the losing
side, supporting King Richard III, and the House of York. Since Sir Robert Harcourt carried
the standard for Henry VII and the Lancastrians at the deciding battle of Bosworth Field. I
wonder if he heard King Richard III's reportedly famous cry, "My kingdom for a horse!"
Grandpa's Stafford pedigree includes his 19th great-grandmother, Margaret de Clare.
Margaret's parents were Joan Plantagenet, a daughter of King Edward I "Longshanks" and his
queen, Eleanor of Castile. Margaret was born in 1292 and died in April of 1342. She was the
second wife of Hugh, Lord Audley, the 8th Earl of Gloucester and the Ambassador to France
in 1341. Joan married Sir Gilbert de Clare, a Knight and the 9th Earl of Clare, also Earl of
Hertford and Gloucester. The Staffords also descend from King John "Lackland" and his wife,
Isabella de Angouleme, the grandparents of King Edward I.
The pedigree of Grandpa's distant great-grandfather, Edward I, was printed in a
booklet, Britain's Kings and Queens by Sir George Bellew, delineating Queen Elizabeth II's
pedigree. Queen Elizabeth II, descended from Edward I's son, Edward II, and Grandpa,
descended from Edward's sister, Joan Plantagenet. She is also called Joan of Acre after her
place of birth.
The pedigree of Queen Elizabeth II, and Grandpa go back to Edmund "Ironsides,"
Alfred the Great, Ealhmund the under-king of Kent (786), back through his father Eaba,
Eoppa, to Cenred, under-king of Sussex (692), back to Cuthwulf, his father Cuthwine who
died in 584. The earliest of our ancestors shown on Queen Elizabeth's pedigree chart is our
very distant great-granddad, Cerdic, who died in 534. He was the first king of the West
Saxons.
Yet this isn't all. Queen Matilda of Scotland, the wife of Henry I, was descended from
Duncan I, who died in 1040. Duncan married Aelflaed and they produced Malcolm III, the
King of Scotland who married Margaret (called Saint). She was a daughter of Edgar the
Atheling, an early king of England.
Duncan's pedigree really goes into the mist of time, through the ancient King of
Scotland, Kenneth McAlpin, who died in 859. McAlpin united the Picts and Scots. His greatgrandfather
was Alpin Mac Eochaid. He was the King of Kintyre, and he was called the King

37

a I t lrI~d '3Kr1lr

MARCH 1994