A Family Tree of Prince William Lineage

We thought, in honor (or should it be honour?) of Prince William, on the occasion of his wedding to his now Princess, Catherine Middleton, that we would create a special family tree. To be honest, this is more of a lineage chart than a complete tree; but since it goes back to William the Conqueror of 1066-and-all-that fame, there would just be way too much information for a single chart.

To be clear, we believe that the correct title for Prince William is, in fact, His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. The title of Duke of Cambridge was bestowed on the occasion of his wedding, April 29, 2011.

On William’s father’s side, he is of the House of Glücksburg, but this in itself might not earn him a right to the British throne. It is descent from Queen Elizabeth that counts. In this case, he is of the House of Windsor, formerly the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the name of Windsor having been adopted by a decree of King George V in 1917. Prince Albert, husband to Queen Victoria, had been of this House, a branch of the House of Wettin. From the time of George I to Victoria, the name of the British royal family had variously been given as Hanover, Brunswick, and Guelph (also known as Welf). Victoria has asked the College of Heralds in England to determine the correct family name for her son when he ascended the throne, and the answer was apparently, ‘Wettin’. However, this name was never adopted, instead Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was used in practice by her son, Edward VII, and grandson, George V; until, as we noted, the latter changed it to Windsor. Ah, but what’s in a name? Later, in the case of the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II, the question arose of whether they would adopt the family name of their father, Prince Philip; that is, Mountbatten (formerly Battenberg); but the family has decided to stick with Windsor. Although one learns that apparently those off the line of descent may use “Mountbatten-Windsor” if they wish.

But I digress. Anyone interested in the entire list of English monarchs can look here. It is an amazing story, truth be told.

Now frankly, there’s already a wee bit on the too much side in terms of detail. If this lineage were printed at full resolution, it would be around 2 feet by 9 feet (22″x100″). It has been illuminated with images beginning with the Bayeux Tapestry circa 1066 and ending with an image of the Beatles circa 1966; 900 years worth of history in one swoop. Well, one chart anyway.

In order to present this degree of detail, we have had to do some slight of hand with the presentation on the web here. To view this in all its glory, you’ll have to have a recent version of the Adobe Flash viewer installed. Click on the thumbnail of the image below, and a viewer will open that will allow you to pan and zoom around the chart to check out our handiwork, and of course, to check out HRH the Duke of Cambridge’s quality. Interestingly enough, this line traces from William I (the Conqueror) to the current William who will become William V as and when he ascends to the throne of the United Kingdom.

If anyone is actually interested in a print of this, please contact us. It would be such a special job to print and ship, even at half-size, that we’d need to discuss details with you. For now, anyone can enjoy checking out this piece on our site.

Please note that depending upon your Internet speed, it may take a few moments for the full resolution of the image to reveal itself as you pan to a new location or zoom in for more detail. You can also go into a full-screen view that will give you the highest possible resolution on your device. You exit full-screen with the control bar at the bottom of the page. If it’s slow, be patient, it will update. There are controls to zoom in or out, and to move around at the bottom edge of the image. There will also be a navigator icon in the upper left that you can use to move around the image as well (by grabbing the small blue window and shifting it to a new position). You can also just grab the image by clicking with your mouse and moving your cursor.