The Last Empress

The Last Empress

arms of HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

The death of our much cherished Queen Mother has brought a mass of tributes, many of which have noted her love of Scotland and her role as the first Queen Scotland could call its own since Mary was executed in 1586. Although she was born in England, most of her childhood was spent at Glamis Castle in Angus, the seat of her father Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, as were the war years when she helped to care for the hundreds of Scottish soldiers recuperating there from their wounds between 1914 and 1918.

While most commentators stressed her “Scottishness”, a few observed that she had just as much English blood as Scottish. Actually she had very much more. Surprisingly, owing to the Lyon heir having married into English families for six successive generations, of her 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents the 49 we have identified include only one Scot, the 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. (The pronominal quarter of the canting Lyon arms with their royal tressure is illustrated on the right.) Of the remainder 34 were English, eight were Anglo-Irish, four were French, one was an English-born Huguenot, and one was a Virginian.

To illustrate the diversity of the ancestry of the last Empress of India, the Queen whose husband reigned over the largest empire known to world history, we list here her 49 known great-great-great-great-grandparents.

01. Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne ~ d. 1753
02. Jean Nicholson ~ 1778
03. George Bowes, of Streatham Castle ~ d. 1760
04. Mary Gilbert
05. George Carpenter, of Redbourne in Hertfordshire ~ d. 1760
06. Martha ? ? ? ~ d. 1760
07. John Walsh
08. Elizabeth ? ? ?
09. Valentine Grimstead, toyman in St Paul’s Churchyard ~ d. 1750
10. Elizabeth Langley ~ d. 1740
11. Joseph Creswick, of Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire ~ d.1772
12. Elizabeth Laujol, daughter of Huguenot refugee
13.
14.
15.
16.
17. Abel Smith, banker in Nottingham ~ d. 1756
18. Jane Beaumont ~ d. 1743
19. Thomas Bird, of Coventry and Barton, Warwickshire
20.
21. Nicholas Mosley, of Manchester ~ d. 1735
22. Elizabeth Parker, daughter of a lawyer
23. James Bayley, of Withington, Lancashire
24. Anne Peploe, daughter of the Bishop of Chester
25. Brian Hodgson, of Stamford ~ d. 1785
26. Elizabeth Alcock ~ d. 1806
27. Robert Porteus***, Rector of Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire ~ d. 1754
28. Judith Cockayne ~ d. 1789
29. Francis Tucker, of Dublin ~ d. 1730
30. Dorothy Smith, daughter of the Bishop of Limerick ~ d. 1766
31. John Baker, of Castle Eve, County Kilkenny
32. ? ? ? Bushe
33. Henry Bentinck, Earl and later Duke of Portland ~ d. 1726
34. Elizabeth Noel, daughter of the Earl of Gainsborough ~ d. 1767
35. Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford ~ d. 1741
36. Henrietta Holles, daughter of the Duke of Newcastle ~ d. 1755
37. William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire ~ d. 1755
38. Catherine Hoskins ~ d. 1777
39. Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork and Burlington ~ d. 1753
40. Dorothy Saville, daughter of the Marquess of Halifax ~ d. 1758
41. Richard Colley, later surnamed Wesley, Baron of Mornington ~ d. 1758
42. Elizabeth Sale, daughter of the Registrar of Dublin ~ d.1738
43. Arthur Hill, later Hill-Trevor, Viscount Dungannon ~ d. 1771
44. Anne Stafford ~ d. 1799
45.
46.
47.
48.
49. Arthur Burnaby, Vicar of St Margaret’s, Leicester ~ d. 1776
50. Hannah Beaumont ~ d.1757
51. John Edwyn, of Baggrave Hall, High Sheriff of Leicestershire ~ d. 1761
52. Mary
53. Gustavus Browne, Rector of Ropsley in Lincolnshire ~ d. 1737
54. Mary Burton
55.
56.
57. Edward Salisbury, of Marshfield, Yorkshire
58. Alice Leigh
59. Thomas Lister
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.

*** 27. Robert Porteus, born in Virginia, is the ancestor through whom the Queen Mother was related to George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

The Name of Lyon

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