Maybe it's the Queen's visit that has me thinking about royalty. I remembered the old tale about U.S. Presidential races coming down to royal ancestry, and I began to wonder about the 2008 candidates.
It happens every four years. Someone remembers that there's a company called
Burke's Peerage in the United Kingdom which traces the bloodlines of all the major noble families in England and Scotland. Then someone else recalls that even George Washington himself was a direct descendant of England's King Edward III, and suddenly the fate of America's Presidency is cast as a battle between blue bloods.
I'd say it's complete urban myth, except that seven U.S. Presidents are indeed direct descendants of English or Scottish kings. Burke's Peerage was interviewed for an ABC segment in 2000 and predicted President Bush as the winner solely, they say, on the fact that he had a greater amount of royal ancestry than Vice President Gore.
In fact, Burke's claimed that the candidate with the bluest bloodlines has triumphed for the last 200 years. They must have skipped the 1828 contest, when King Edward III's descendant John Quincy Adams lost re-election to Andrew Jackson.
So who's royal this year? According to the website of William Addams Reitwiesner, Genealogical Services, you can take your pick. Romney, Edwards, Obama, Richardson, and McCain are all descendants of colonial ancestors who were descendants of Europeans monarchs. Maybe we can get the Queen to come back in January 2009 and do a coronation.
