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Royalty for Commoners: The Complete Known Lineage of John of Gaunt, Son of Edward III, King of England, and Queen Philippa
This is the revised edition of the first book ever to document the complete known genealogy of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III and Queen Philippa. Since this is the usual lineage through which a commoner can enter the domain of European royalty, anyone who can connect his lineage to that of John of Gaunt can now be shown to share the same basic royal heritage as the most noble knight--the complete heritage, not just the Plantagenet ascent. Intended for the general reader as well as the specialist, this work draws together the massive labors of about 600 prominent genealogists and historians. Genealogists interested in royal and noble ancestry should search this exhaustively researched work for many new and interesting names to add to their pedigree charts.
- GenresHistory
Hardcover
First published April 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2017
Great information. Poorly proof-read, many conflicts between index and page content including many names spelled differently in index than on page. A real challenge to use, but still great information if working on medieval genealogy.
January 13, 2015
The publishing history of this book has almost a soap opera flavor. The 1st Edition was excoriated by specialist reviewers and ordinary readers alike, which brought mea culpas from the author. Among other things, my own judgment in an earlier published review of that edition was: "Information provided on relationships seems semi-trustworthy — until you come across a linkage you know is wrong, and then you begin to wonder about the others. Stuart’s sloppiest point is dates, about which he seems to have a casual disregard. Use this with great caution, and only as a starting point."
The 2d Edition was a complete do-over, and was rather more successful, but the specialists, having been burned once, were reluctant to approve Stuart’s revised methods. In its Preface, Stuart commented that he corresponded with about fifty "generally supportive" readers and that "their concerns have been noted and incorporated into the fabric of the Second Edition. . . ." Moreover, "rather than try to revise the imperfect First Edition," he went back to his original manuscript and started over, spending three summers in Salt Lake City studying the IGI and analyzing discrepancies.
Readers familiar with Weis will recognize the format, but Stuart follows the possibly unsettling practice of numbering generations back into the past (the opposite of Weis). Weis also includes about 300 ancestors of John of Gaunt, compared to about 5,000 entries in Stuart. And where Moriarty’s Plantagenet Ancestry compiles the forebears of Edward III, Stuart begins one crucial generation later, allowing the inclusion of many more minor French, German, and Balkan lines.
This edition, again, is described as "a nearly complete re-write." Did he get it right this time? He makes no bones about this being a synthesis from secondary sources, the additional sixty-odd pages being the result of perusing the new literature since the last edition. And certain older sources of poor reputation have been dropped, too. Stuart doesn’t provide a list of these, but a comparison of the bibliography — now comprising about 860 "Sources" rather than 650 "Authorities" — between this and the previous edition will tell you what they are. However, I’m aware of the extreme rarity of some of the titles he lists — I’ve been looking for them for years myself — so I have to wonder if he has actually read all of them. Especially those in 18th century French, Germany, and Italian. In addition to the general index of persons, there is now also an index of titles (usually geographic), which is an excellent idea.
Some lines have been dropped altogether since the previous edition, but there still are some iffy lineages: Charlemagne is given a descent from Clovis the Riparian, which is highly questionable, having been invented long ago for political reasons. (One can’t legitimately go back farther than Charles’s great-great-grandfather, St. Arnulf, before running out of good sources.) But the purported lineages that will (and should) raise eyebrows are those taken from the Bible, especially Genesis and Chronicles. For example, William III Taillefer, Count of Toulouse, is given a direct, sixty-generation descent from Abraham, which is ludicrous. Another claimed ancestor of Edward III is Darius the Great, King of Persia in the early 5th century B.C. Another is Emperor Tiberius II in the 6th century, which depends on Settipani’s Ancestors from Antiquity — itself a body of work guaranteed to start loud arguments. At least Stuart doesn’t include Adam and Eve.
The best thing I can say is that, if one sticks to those lines for which the research on which they are based is known to be reliable — and you can tell which lines those are by reading the annotations in this bibliography — then this might be a useful adjunct to Weis and similar compilations. Just ignore those lineages which seem too good to be true, because they almost certainly are.
The 2d Edition was a complete do-over, and was rather more successful, but the specialists, having been burned once, were reluctant to approve Stuart’s revised methods. In its Preface, Stuart commented that he corresponded with about fifty "generally supportive" readers and that "their concerns have been noted and incorporated into the fabric of the Second Edition. . . ." Moreover, "rather than try to revise the imperfect First Edition," he went back to his original manuscript and started over, spending three summers in Salt Lake City studying the IGI and analyzing discrepancies.
Readers familiar with Weis will recognize the format, but Stuart follows the possibly unsettling practice of numbering generations back into the past (the opposite of Weis). Weis also includes about 300 ancestors of John of Gaunt, compared to about 5,000 entries in Stuart. And where Moriarty’s Plantagenet Ancestry compiles the forebears of Edward III, Stuart begins one crucial generation later, allowing the inclusion of many more minor French, German, and Balkan lines.
This edition, again, is described as "a nearly complete re-write." Did he get it right this time? He makes no bones about this being a synthesis from secondary sources, the additional sixty-odd pages being the result of perusing the new literature since the last edition. And certain older sources of poor reputation have been dropped, too. Stuart doesn’t provide a list of these, but a comparison of the bibliography — now comprising about 860 "Sources" rather than 650 "Authorities" — between this and the previous edition will tell you what they are. However, I’m aware of the extreme rarity of some of the titles he lists — I’ve been looking for them for years myself — so I have to wonder if he has actually read all of them. Especially those in 18th century French, Germany, and Italian. In addition to the general index of persons, there is now also an index of titles (usually geographic), which is an excellent idea.
Some lines have been dropped altogether since the previous edition, but there still are some iffy lineages: Charlemagne is given a descent from Clovis the Riparian, which is highly questionable, having been invented long ago for political reasons. (One can’t legitimately go back farther than Charles’s great-great-grandfather, St. Arnulf, before running out of good sources.) But the purported lineages that will (and should) raise eyebrows are those taken from the Bible, especially Genesis and Chronicles. For example, William III Taillefer, Count of Toulouse, is given a direct, sixty-generation descent from Abraham, which is ludicrous. Another claimed ancestor of Edward III is Darius the Great, King of Persia in the early 5th century B.C. Another is Emperor Tiberius II in the 6th century, which depends on Settipani’s Ancestors from Antiquity — itself a body of work guaranteed to start loud arguments. At least Stuart doesn’t include Adam and Eve.
The best thing I can say is that, if one sticks to those lines for which the research on which they are based is known to be reliable — and you can tell which lines those are by reading the annotations in this bibliography — then this might be a useful adjunct to Weis and similar compilations. Just ignore those lineages which seem too good to be true, because they almost certainly are.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews