Genealogy and Family
History
Extraordinary Women, Ancestors
of Helen Estes Seltzer
compiled by her son,
Richard Seltzer, Jan. 2011
My mother, Helen
Isabella Estes Seltzer, died Dec. 28, 2010, at the age of
90. She had a life-long interest in family history. In
her memory, I compiled profiles of powerful and strong-willed
women among her ancestors, thinking those women might inspire
her descendants.
These brief biographies are grouped according the lines of
descent, which are then shown, leading down to the present. In
a separate
document, you will find the raw historical facts, mostly
from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
Syagria and Papianilla -- the Most Splendid Women
Saints Itta and Begga --
Sainthood was Their Family Business
Alice of Jerusalem,
Constance of Antioch, and Agnes of Antioch -- Princesses of
Crusader Kingdoms
The
Line of Clovis
Basina -- the Woman Who
Knew What She Wanted and Got It
Clotilde -- the Vengeful
Saint Who Converted France to Christianity
The Line of
Bohemia and Hungary
Saint Ludmila --
Grandmother of "Good King Wenceslaus" and of His Murderer
The Russian Line
Saint Olga -- the Vengeful
Beauty Who Converted Russia to Christianity
The Welsh and
Scottish Line
Gormflaith -- Legendary
for Her Beauty and Her Wickedness
Joan, Lady of Wales -- an
Affair to Remember
Helen, Princess of North
Wales -- the Namesake
Joan, "the Fair Maid of
Kint" -- the Most Beautiful Woman in England and Her Two
Secret Marriages
The Anglo-Saxon Line
Edith the "Gentle Swan and
Her Love Bites
The Byzantine Line
Empress-Mother Anna
Dalassene
Empress Irene Doukaina
Elizabeth the Cuman -- a
Dash of Asian Wildness
Queen Dorothea --
Practical and Economical
The
Line of English Kings -- Plantagenet Dynasty
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Matilda of Flanders --
Englands Shortest (Least Tall) Queen
Empress Matilda -- First
Woman Ruler of England
Eleanor of Aquitaine --
the Lioness in Winter
Joan Sewart -- the Deaf
Princess
The Swedish and
Danish Line
Lady Ingrid Ylva -- the
White Witch
Sophia of Denmark -- the
Chess Player
The
Line of the Stewart Kings of Scotland
Marjorie Bruce -- the
Price of Being a King's Daughter
The Oldest Line
Syagria and Papianilla -- Most Splendid
Women
Mom's earliest known
woman ancestors were Syagria and Papianilla, a mother and
daughter-in-law in the later days of the Roman Empire
Born around 390 AD, 53
generations ago, 51 greats grandmother Syagria was the
daughter of a Roman noble, Flavius Afranius Syagrius. Her
father was proconsul of Africa in 379, praetorian prefect of
Italy in 380 and 382, prefect of Rome in 381, and consul in
382. Because of her father's status, she had the
honorary title "clarissima femina" which means "most splendid
woman".
Her son, Tonantius
Ferreolus, became the praetorian prefect of Gaul. He
married Papianilla, a niece of Emperor Avitus,who also had the
title "most splendid".
Saints Itta and Begga -- Sainthood was
their Family Business
Itta = three greats
granddaughter of Papianilla; Begga = her daughter
Saint Itta of Metz was
the sister of two saints (Saint Modaold of Trier and Saint
Severa. She also married a saint (Saint Pepin of Landen), and
was the mother of two saints (Saint Gertrude of Nivelles and
Saint Begga of Ardenne (our ancestor). Her saint's day
is May 8. Her "patronage" is: against erysilpelas (a
superficial bacterial skin infection) and against toothache.
She and her daughter
Begga earned their sainthood by founding churches, monasteries
and convents.
They lived after the
fall of the Roman Empire and before the founding of the Holy
Roman Empire and before France came into being.
Their home territory was
in what is now northeastern France, near the border with
Germany. In the 20th century Metz became the capital of
Lorraine, which along with Alsace was territory fought over by
France and German in the Franco-Prussian War and World War
I. In the time of Saint Itta it was the capital of
the Austrasia kingdom which evolved into the kingdom of France
under the rule of her descendants
Alice of Jerusalem, Constance of Antioch,
and Agnes of Antioch -- Princesses of Crusader Kingdoms
Alice married the 14
greats grandson of Saint Begga
Constance was her
daughter
Agnes was the
daughter of Constance
When the Crusaders
conquered the Middle East, they divided the territory into
kingdoms, with hereditary kings, on the European model,
including Antioch which included much of present-day Syria,
Edessa which included parts of present-day Syria and Turkey,
and Jerusalem which included much of present-day Israel.
Alice was the
daughter of Baldwin II King of Jerusalem and Count of Edessa,
and the wife of Bohemund II, Prince of Antioch.
When her husband died in
battle, her father tried to assume control of Antioch, but
Alice stood in his way. She tried unsuccessfully to make
an alliance with the Muslim ruler of Mosul and Aleppo,
offering her daughter in marriage. Eventually, she made
peace with her father, giving up Antioch and going into exile.
When her father died, she
tried repeatedly to regain control of Antioch, first by war
and then by marriage. She formed an unsuccessful
alliance against her brother-in-law, Fulk V, King of
Jerusalem (also an ancestor). Then she tried
unsuccessfully to arrange a marriage for her daughter, Constance,
with Manuel Komnenos, heir-apparent to the Byzantine Empire.
As it turned out,
Constance married Raynald of Chatillon instead of Manuel, and
Raynald by that marriage became Prince of Antioch.
Later, Maria, a daughter
of Raynald and Constance, married the Byzantine Emperor --
that same Manuel Komnenos, who was to have been her mother's
husband. And Agnes, another daughter of Raynald
and Constance, went to Constantinople, where she lived at the
court, under the patronage of her sister the Empress. On the
Emperor's request, Agnes married a Hungarian prince, who
eventually became Bela III King of Hungary.
Line of Descent
This line of descent
includes Charles Martel (commander of the European armies
that defeated the Moors at the Battle of Tours in 1732),
Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor, kings of France,
kings of Hungary, and a king of Scotland.
1) Syagria (b. 390)
2) Tonantius Ferreolus,
praetorian prefect of Gaul (405 - 475) md. Papianilla
(b. 415)
3) Tonantius Ferreolus,
Gallo-Roman senator (440 - 511) (md. Industria)
4) Ferreolus of Rodez, Senator
of Narbonne (b. 470) (md.Saint Dode of Reims)
5) Ansbertus, Gallo-Roman
senator (md. Blithidle)
6) Arnoald, Bishop of
Metz and Margrave of Schelde (560 - 611) (md. Oda)
7) Saint Itta of Metz (592 - 652) (md.
Saint Pepin of Landen the Elder, Mayor of the Palace of
Austrasia)
8) Saint Begga (615 - 693) (md. Ansegiel)
9) Pepin II, "the
Middle", Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (635 - 714) (md.
Alpaida)
10) Charles Martel, "the
Hammer", Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, commander of
the European armies that defeated the Moors at the Battle of
Tours in 732 (688-741) (md. Rotrude of Tier)
11) Pepin the Short, King
of the Franks (d.768) (md. Bertrada of Laon)
12) Charlemagne, Holy
Roman Emperor (742 - 814) (md. Hildegarde of Vinzgouw)
13) Pepin, "Carloman", King
of Italy (777 - 810) (md. Bertha)
14) Bernard, King of
Italy (797 - 818) (md. Cunigunda)
15) Pepin, 1st Count of
Vermandois, Lord of Senlis Peronne and Saint Quentin (b. 815)
16) Herbert I, Count of
Vermandois, Lord of Senlis, Peronne and Saint Quetin (848 -
907) (md. Bertha de Morvois)
17) Beatrice of Vermandois
(880 - 931) (md. Robert I, King of France and Marquis
of Neustria)
18) Hugh Capet, "the
Great", Duke of France, Count of Paris, in the Divine
Comedy Dante meets the soul of Duke Hugh in Purgatory,
lamenting the avarice of his descendants. (898 -
956) (md. Hedwige of Saxony)
19) Hugh Capet, King
of France (939 - 996) (md. Adelaide of Aquitaine)
20) Robert II, King of
France (972 - 1041) (md. Constance of Arles)
21) Henry I, King of
France (1008 - 1060) (md. Anne of Kiev)
22) Philip I, King of
France, "the Amorous" (1052 - 1108) (md. Bertha of
Holland)
23) Constance of France
(1078 - 1124) (md. Bohemond I, Prince of Taranto, Crusader)
24) Bohemond II, Prince
of Taranto and of Antioch, Crusader (1108 - 1130) (md.
Alice of Jerusalem)
25) Constance of Antioch (1127 - 1163)
(md. Raynald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch, Crusader)
26) Agnes of Antioch (1154 - 1184) (md.
Bela III, King of Hungary AKA Caesar Alexius of the Byzantine
Empire)
27) Andrew II the
Jerosolimitan, King of Hungary, Crusader (1177 - 1235)
(md. Gertrude of Merania)
28) Bela IV, King of
Hungary and Croatia and Duke of Styria (1206 -
1270) (md. Maria Laskarina)
29) Stephen V, King
of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia,
Lodomeria, Cumania, and Bulgaria, also Duke of Styria
(1239 - 1272) (md. Elizabeth the Cuman)
30) Mary of Hungary
(1257 - 1323) (md. Charles II, "the Lame", King of Naples
and Sicily, King of Jerusalem, Prince of Salerno)
31) Eleanor of Anjou AKA
Eleanor of Naples (1289 - 1341) (md. Frederick III, King
of Sicily)
32) Elisabeth of Sicily
AKA Isabel of Aragon (1310 - 1349) (md. Stephen II, Duke of
Bavaria)
33) Frederick, Duke of
Bavaria (1339 - 1393) (md. Maddelena Visconti)
34) Elizabeth of
Vabaria-Landshut (1383 - 1442) (md. Frederick I, Hohenzollern,
Elector of Brandenburg an Burgrave of Nuremberg)
35) John Hohenzollern, "the
Alchemist", Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1406 -
1464) (md. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg)
36) Dorothea of
Brandenburg AKA Dorthea of Hohenzollern, AKA Dorthy Achilies
(1431 - 1495) (md. Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, also Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst)
37) Margaret of Denmark
(1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of Scotland)
38) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart
39) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
40) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
41) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
42) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
43) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
44) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
45) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
46) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
47) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
48) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
49) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
50) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
51) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
52) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
53) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Line of Clovis
Basina -- the Woman Who Knew What She
Wanted and Got It
Basina was a
queen. She was married to the King of Thuringia.
But her husband was neither powerful nor ambitious, and their
little kingdom was insignificant. Nothing important ever
happened there.
She wasn't happy, and
she wasn't going to settle for the life she saw ahead of
her. So one day, she just left.
Reportedly she said, "I
want to have the most powerful man in the world, even if I
have to cross the ocean for him."
This was around 450 AD,
in the days when the Roman Empire was crumbling. The
greatest man of the day was Childeric I, King of the Franks,
who had recently invaded the Roman Empire and conquered much
of Gaul. So she went to Gaul. She asked him to marry
her. And he accepted.
She is now best remembered
as the mother of Clovis, who succeeded his father as King of
the Franks and is credited as the founder of modern
France. Contrary to the tradition of that time and
place, she, not her husband, gave their son his name.
By the way, her name in
Low Franconian means "female boss".
Clotilde -- the Vengeful Saint Who
Converted France to Christianity
daughter-in-law of
Basina
Clotilde's grandfather,
King Gondioc, ruled a kingdom that extended from Lyon to
Vienna to Geneva. When King Gondiocdied, his three
sons -- Gundobad, Godesgisel, and Chilperic
(Clotilde's father) -- divided the realm among them.
Chilperic became Duke of Burgundy. But soon thereafter,
Gundobad murdered both of Clotilde's parents, took control of
Burgundy, and exiled Clotilde.
In exile, Clotilde
married Clovis, King of the Franks, who, had just conquered
northern Gaul.
At the instigation of
Clotilde, Clovis converted to Christianity and forced his
entire kingdom to do likewise. That's what earned
Clotilde her sainthood.
Clovis went down in
history as the founder of modern France. And in the novel "The
Da Vinci Code" he is named as a descendant of Jesus Christ and
Mary Magdalene
Eventually, Clotilde took
revenge for the murder of her parents, inciting her sons
against her cousin King Sigismund of Burgundy, the son of
Gundobad. That was the cause of the Burgundian War,
which led to Sigismund's deposition, imprisonment, and
assassination.
The poetry of that time
portrayed her as "a type of a savage fury."
Line of Descent
1) Basina, Queen of Thuringia (md.
Childeric I, King of the Franks)
2) Clovis I, King of the Franks
(466-511) (md. Saint Clotilde (475-545)
3) Clothar I, King of
the Franks (496-561) (md. Waldrada of Lombardy)
4) Blithilde (538-603)
(md. Ansbertus, Gallo-Roman Senator
5) Arnoald (560-611)
Bishop if Metz and Margrave of Schelde
6) Saint Itta of Metz
(592 - 652) (md. Pepin of Landen the Elder, Mayor of the
Palace of Austrasia)
7) Saint Begga
(615 - 693) (md. Ansegiel)
8) Pepin II, "the Middle",
Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (635 - 714) (md. Alpaida)
9) Charles Martel, "the
Hammer", Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, commander of
the European armies that defeated the Moors at the Battle of
Tours in 732 (688-741) (md. Rotrude of Tier)
10) Pepin the Short, King
of the Franks (d.768) (md. Bertrada of Laon)
11) Charlemagne, Holy
Roman Emperor (742 - 814) (md. Hildegarde of Vinzgouw)
12) Pepin, "Carloman", King
of Italy (777 - 810) (md. Bertha)
13) Bernard, King of
Italy (797 - 818) (md. Cunigunda)
14) Pepin, 1st Count of
Vermandois, Lord of Senlis Peronne and Saint Quentin (b. 815)
15) Herbert I, Count of
Vermandois, Lord of Senlis, Peronne and Saint Quetin (848 -
907) (md. Bertha de Morvois)
16) Beatrice of Vermandois
(880 - 931) (md. Robert I, King of France and Marquis
of Neustria)
17) Hugh Capet, "the
Great", Duke of France, Count of Paris, in the Divine
Comedy Dante meets the soul of Duke Hugh in Purgatory,
lamenting the avarice of his descendants. (898 -
956) (md. Hedwige of Saxony)
18) Hugh Capet, King
of France (939 - 996) (md. Adelaide of Aquitaine)
19) Robert II, King of
France (972 - 1041) (md. Constance of Arles)
20) Henry I, King of
France (1008 - 1060) (md. Anne of Kiev)
21) Philip I, King of
France, "the Amorous" (1052 - 1108) (md. Bertha of
Holland)
22) Constance of France
(1078 - 1124) (md. Bohemond I, Prince of Taranto, Crusader)
23) Bohemond II, Prince of
Taranto and of Antioch, Crusader (1108 - 1130) (md. Alice of
Jerusalem)
24) Constance of Antioch
(1127 - 1163) (md. Raynald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch,
Crusader)
25) Agnes of Antioch (1154
- 1184) (md. Bela III, King of Hungary AKA Caesar Alexius of
the Byzantine Empire)
26) Andrew II the
Jerosolimitan, King of Hungary, Crusader (1177 - 1235)
(md. Gertrude of Merania)
27) Bela IV, King of
Hungary and Croatia and Duke of Styria (1206 -
1270) (md. Maria Laskarina)
28) Stephen V, King of
Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia,
Lodomeria, Cumania, and Bulgaria, also Duke of Styria
(1239 - 1272) (md. Elizabeth the Cuman)
29) Mary of Hungary (1257
- 1323) (md. Charles II, "the Lame", King of Naples and
Sicily, King of Jerusalem, Prince of Salerno)
30) Eleanor of Anjou AKA
Eleanor of Naples (1289 - 1341) (md. Frederick III, King
of Sicily)
31) Elisabeth of Sicily
AKA Isabel of Aragon (1310 - 1349) (md. Stephen II, Duke of
Bavaria)
32) Frederick, Duke of
Bavaria (1339 - 1393) (md. Maddelena Visconti)
33) Elizabeth of
Vabaria-Landshut (1383 - 1442) (md. Frederick I, Hohenzollern,
Elector of Brandenburg an Burgrave of Nuremberg)
34) John Hohenzollern, "the
Alchemist", Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1406 -
1464) (md. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg)
35) Dorothea of
Brandenburg AKA Dorthea of Hohenzollern, AKA Dorthy Achilies
(1431 - 1495) (md. Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, also Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst)
36) Margaret of Denmark
(1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of Scotland)
37) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
38) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
39) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
40) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
41) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
42) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
43) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
44) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
45) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
46) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
47) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
48) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
49) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
50) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
51) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
52) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
Line
of Bohemia and Hungary
Saint Ludmila -- Grandmother of "Good King
Wenceslaus" and of His Murderer
Daughter of a Slavic
prince, Ludmila married Borivoj I, Duke of Bohemia (in what is
now the Czech Republic). The couple were converted to
Christianity, probably by Saints Cyril and Methodius (best
known as the inventors of the Russian, "cyrillic", alphabet).
Ludmila and her husband
worked hard to convert the people of Bohemia to Christiantiy,
and as a result of their efforts they were driven from the
country. Later they returned and ruled again.
Their son Sptihnev ruled
as duke after them, and he was succeeded by his brother
Vratislav I. When he died, he was succeeded by his
eight-year-old son, Wenceslas -- the "Good King Wenceslas" of
the Christmas carol.
Wenceslaus' mother
Drahomíra became jealous of Ludmila's influence over
Wenceslaus and had two noblemen murder Ludmila. Legend
says that she was strangled with her own veil.
Later, Wenceslaus was
murdered by his brother (our ancestor) Bolesaus I "the Cruel"
who then became Duke. According to Wikipedia: "Despite
the fraticide Boleslav is generally respected by Czech
historians as an energetic ruler."
Her feast day is
celebrated on September 16. She is the patron saint of
Bohemia, converts, Czech Republic, duchesses, problems with
in-laws, and widows.
(NB -- Russia was
converted to Christianity by Saints Olga and Vladimir
[our ancestors]; France was converted by Saint Clotilde and
King Clovis [our ancestors]; and Bohemia was converted by
Saint Ludmila [our ancestor]).
Line of Descent
1) Saint Ludmila (c. 860-921) (md. Borivoj
I, Duke of Bohemia)
2) Vratislaus I, Duke of
Bohemia (888-921) (md. Drahomira)
3) Boleslaus I, "the
Cruel", Duke of Bohemia (d. 967) (md. Biagota)
4) Dobrawa (940-977)
(md. Mieszko I, King of Poland)
5) Bolesaw I, "the
Brave", King of Poland (967-1025) (md. Enmilda)
6) Mieszko II Lambert,
King of Poland (990-1034) (md. Richeza of Lotharingia)
7) Gertrude of Poland
(md. Iziaslav I, Prince of Kiev)
8) Sviatopolk II
Iziaslavich, Prince of Kiev (1050-1130)
9) Predslava (md. Almos,
Prince of Hungary)
10) Bela II, "the
Blind", King of Hungary (1110-1141) (md. Helena of Raska)
11) Geza II, King of
Hungary (1130-1162) (md. Euphrosyne of Kiev)
12) Bela III, King of
Hungary, AKA Caesar Alexius of the Byzantine Empire (1148-1196
(md. Agnes of Antioch)
26) Andrew II the
Jerosolimitan, King of Hungary, Crusader (1177 - 1235)
(md. Gertrude of Merania)
27) Bela IV, King of
Hungary and Croatia and Duke of Styria (1206 -
1270) (md. Maria Laskarina)
28) Stephen V, King
of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia,
Lodomeria, Cumania, and Bulgaria, also Duke of Styria
(1239 - 1272) (md. Elizabeth the Cuman)
29) Mary of Hungary
(1257 - 1323) (md. Charles II, "the Lame", King of Naples
and Sicily, King of Jerusalem, Prince of Salerno)
30) Eleanor of Anjou AKA
Eleanor of Naples (1289 - 1341) (md. Frederick III, King
of Sicily)
31) Elisabeth of Sicily
AKA Isabel of Aragon (1310 - 1349) (md. Stephen II, Duke of
Bavaria)
32) Frederick, Duke of
Bavaria (1339 - 1393) (md. Maddelena Visconti)
33) Elizabeth of
Vabaria-Landshut (1383 - 1442) (md. Frederick I, Hohenzollern,
Elector of Brandenburg an Burgrave of Nuremberg)
34) John Hohenzollern, "the
Alchemist", Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1406 -
1464) (md. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg)
35) Dorothea of
Brandenburg AKA Dorthea of Hohenzollern, AKA Dorthy Achilies
(1431 - 1495) (md. Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, also Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst)
36) Margaret of Denmark
(1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of Scotland)
37) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
38) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
39) John Fleming, 5th
Lord Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
40) John Fleming, 6th
Lord Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
41) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
42) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
43) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
44) Charles Fleming
(1659 - 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
45) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
46) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
47) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
48) Sarah Langhorne
Bates, moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md.
Joel Estes)
49) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
50) Louis Powhatan
Estest (1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
51) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
52) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Russian Line
Saint Olga -- the Vengeful Beauty Who
Converted Russia to Christianity
Olga "the Beauty"
married Igor, Prince of Kiev; and when he died, she sought to
avenge her husband's death at the hands of the Drevlians and
"succeeded in slaughtering many of them and interring some in
a ship burial, while still alive. She is reputed to have
scalded captives to death." She also destroyed an entire
town hostile to her, asking that each household present her
with a dove as a gift, then tying burning papers to the legs
of each dove, which she then released to fly back to their
homes, setting fire to the thatched rooves of those homes.
She ruled the kingdom
for 18 years as regent for her son Svyatoslav. She then ruled
again when Svyatoslav was away on his many military campaigns.
She changed the system
of tribute gathering or taxation in her kingdom, which
Wikipedia says was "the first legal reform recorded in Eastern
Europe." And she was the first Russian ruler to convert to
Christianity, for which she earned sainthood. At her baptism,
in Constantinople, she took the name of "Helena"
She was unable to convert
her husband, but her grandson and pupil Saint Vladimir I "the
Great" made Christianity the state religion.
Line of Descent
1) Saint Olga (890-969) (md. Igor, Prince
of Kiev)
2) Sviatoslav, I Prince
of Kiev (935-972) (md. Malusha)
3) Saint Vladimir I "the
Great", Prince of Kiev (958-1015)
4) Yaroslav "the Wise",
Prince of Kiev (978-1054) (md. Ingegerd Olafsdottir)
(we are descended from
his daughter Anne of Kiev, his son Izaslav I of Kiev, and his
daughter Anastasia, as well as his son Vsevolod, as shown
below)
5) Vsevolod I, Prince
of Kiev (1030-1093) (md. Anastasia)
6) Vladimir II Monomakh,
Prince of Kiev (1053-1125) (md. Gytha of Wessex)
7) Mstislav I, "the
Great", Prince of Kiev (1076-1132) (md. Christina
Ingesdotter)
8) Ingeborg of Kiev (md.
Canute Lavard)
9) Valdemar I, "the
Great", King of Denmark (1131-1182) (md. Sofia of
Minsk)
10) Helen of Denmark
(1177-1233) (md. William of Winchester, AKA William Longsword,
Lord of Luneburg)
11) Otto, "the Child,
First Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg (1204-1252)
12) Albert I, "the Tall",
Duke of Brunswick-Lunebuerg (1236-1279) (md. Adelheide)
13) Albert II, "the Fat",
Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg) (1268-1318) (md. Rixa)
14) Magnus I, "the Pious",
Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg) (d. 1369) (md. Sophie Brandenburg)
15) Magnus II, Duke of
Brunswick-Luneberg) (1324-1373) (md. Catherine
Anhalt-Bernburg)
16) Katharina Elisabeth of
Brunswick (1385-1423) (md. Gerhard VI, Count of Holstein)
17) Hedvig of Schuaenburg,
Duchess of Schleswig and Countess of Holstein (1398-1436) (md.
Dietrich AKA Theodoric the Lucky, Count of Delmenhorst and
Oldenburg)
18) Christian I, King
of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, also Count of Oldenburg
and Delmenhorst (1426-1481) (md. Dorothea of Brandenburg AKA
Dorothea of Hohenzollern)
19) Margaret of Denmark
(1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of Scotland)
20) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
21) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
22) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
23) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
24) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
25) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
26) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
27) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
28) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
29) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
30) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
31) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
32) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
33) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
34) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
35) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Welsh and Scottish Line
Gormflaith -- Legendary for Her Beauty and
Her Wickedness
One of the best-known
Icelandic sagas -- Njal's Saga -- says that Gormflaith was
"endowed with great beauty... [but] was utterly wicked"
Daughter of the King of
Leinster (in what is now County Kildare in Ireland),
Gormflaith married Olaf Cuaran (our ancestor), the Viking king
of Dublin and York. After his death, she married the legendary
Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, as part of a peace treaty.
In that same deal, her son Sigtrygg "Silkbeard", King of
Dublin married a daughter of Brian Boru. In other words
Gormflaith married the father of her daughter-in-law, and
Gormflaith's son married his step-father's daughter. As
a result, we are descended from both Gormflaith and Brian
Boru.
Her marriage with Brian
was not a happy one. She later instigated a war against
Brian that ended in the Battle of Clontarf at which he was
killed.
Joan, Lady of Wales -- An Affair to
Remember
Joan married the five
greats grandson of Gormflaith
Joan was a natural
daughter of King John of England. The pope eventually
ruled that she was "legitimate" even though her parents were
not married to each other at the time of her birth.
John was the enemy of
his brother Richard I "the Lionhearted" and of the legendary
Robin Hood. He was the king who was forced to sign the Magna
Carta, the first step toward democracy in England and later in
America.
John arranged for Joan
to marry Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, as part of a
political alliance.
Llewelyn, was the last
monarch to claim sovereignty over all of Wales (though his
power base was in North Wales, in particular in Anglesey, the
county from which our ancestors the Griffiths came).
This was in the days of frequent wars with England. His
successors faced one challenge after another until 1301 when
King Edward I of England (our ancestor) named his son Edward
II (our ancestor) "Prince of Wales" and it became the
tradition to give that title to the eldest son of the King of
England.
In 1230, Joan and her
lover, William de Braose, a prisioner of Llywelyn, were found
in Llywelyn's bedchamber. William was hanged, and Joan
was placed under house arrest for a year. She eventually
reconciled with her husband.
Llewelyn and his wife Joan
are main characters in several historical novels, including
"Here Be Dragons" by Sharon Kay Penman and "The Heaven Tree
Trilogy" by Edith Pargeter.
Helen, Princess of North Wales -- the
Namesake
daughter of Joan
Mom would have loved to
have known that she had an ancestor on her father's side named
Helen, who was princess of the same part of Wales that her
Griffith ancestors, on her mother's side, came from.
Her Welsh name was Elen
ferch Llywelyn, i.e. Helen daughter of Llewelyn. Little
is known of her except that she married twice; her second
husband, Robert de Quincy, Lord of Ware is the one we are
descended from.
Joan, "the Fair Maid of Kent" -- the Most
Beautiful Woman in England and Her Two Secret Marriages
great-great
granddaughter of Helen
The French historian
Froissart called Joan "the most beautiful woman in all the
realm of England, and the most loving".
Joan's father, Edmund of
Woodstock, Earl of Kent, was grandson of King Edward I of
England and half-brother of King Edward II (also our ancestor)
Edmund supported the King as opposed to the Queen, Isabella
(also our ancestor). Hence when the King died, the Queen
had him executed and placed Joan (age two) and her mother
under house arrest at the Castle of Arundel.
Joan came back in favor
under the new king, Edward III and his wife Queen Philippa
(our ancestors) and was raised at court.
At the age of 12 she
secretly married Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent (our ancestor),
without getting the required royal consent. While Thomas was
off fighting in the Crusades, her parents forced her to marry
someone else. Eventually, Pope Clement VI ruled that her
real husband was Thomas, and she lived with him for eleven
years.
When Thomas died in 1360,
she secretly married Edward "the Black Prince," the heir
apparent to the throne of England, her first cousin once
removed. They were too closely related for the marriage to be
legal, so the King got a dispensation from the Pope, and they
then had an official church wedding presided over by the
Archbishop of Canterbury. As Edward's wife she was known
as the "first English Princess of Wales."
In 1362, Edward became
Prince of Aquitaine, a province in the south of France on the
Mediterranean that English kings of that day inherited by way
of Eleanor of Aquitaine (our ancestor). The couple moved
there and Edward became embroiled in wars with Castile (a
kingdom in what is now Spain), in which he gained military
renown.
Edward died in 1376 and
his father the king died the next year, which meant that
Joan's son Richard II became king at the age of 10. (See
Shakespeare's play Richard II). As the power behind the
throne during his minority, she was reportedly well-loved by
the English people.
Line of Descent
This line includes Viking Kings of
Dublin, Princes of Wales, King John of England, and Kings
James I and II and III and IV of Scotland.
1) Gormflaith (960-1010) (md. Olaf or
Amlaib Curan, King of York and Dublin)
2) Sigtrygg Silkbeard
(d. 1042) King of Dublin (md. daughter of Brian
Boru, High King of Ireland)
3) Olaf of Dublin
4) Raignaillt (md. Cynan
ab Iago, 1014-1063, King of Gwynedd in Wales)
5) Gruffydd ap Cynan
(1055-1137), King of Gwynedd in Wales (md. Angharad
ferch Owain)
6) Owain Gwynedd
(1100-1170), King of Gwynedd in Wales (md. Gladys
ferch Llywarch)
7) Iorwerth ab Owain
Gwynedd, "the Broken-Nosed"(1145-1174) (md. Mared ferch
Madog)
8) Llywelyn ap Iorwerth =
Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales (1173-1240) (md.
Joan of Wales, 1191-1237, daughter of King John of England)
9) Helen of North Wales (1207-1253) (md.
Robert de Quincy, Lord of Ware)
10) Hawsie de Quincy
(1250-1295) (md. Baldwin Wake, Lord of Bourne, d. 1281)
11) John Wake (d. 1300)
(md. Joan de Fiennes)
12) Margaret Wake
(1297-1349) (md. Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, executed
for treason in 1330)
13) Joan, Countess of Kent "the Fair Maid
of Kent" (1327-1385) (md. Thomas Holland, First Earl of Kent,
1314-1360)
14) Thomas Holland,
(1350-1397) Second Earl of Kent, councillor of his
half-brother King Richard II of England
15) Margaret Holland
(1385-1439)( md. John Beaufort, First Earl of Somerset)
16) Joan Beaufort
(1404-1445) (md. James I, King of Scotland, 1394-1437))
we are descended from
their daughter Annabella, also from their daughter Joan
Stewart and also from their son James II, King of Scotland
17) James II, King of
Scotland (1430-1460) (md. Mary Gueldres)
18) James III, King of
Scotland (1451-1488) (md. Margaret of Denmark)
19) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart
20) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
21) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
22) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
23) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
24) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
25) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
26) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
27) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
28) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
29) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
30) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
31) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
32) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
33) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
34) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Anglo-Saxon Line
Edith the "Gentle Swan" and Her Love Bites
Known as "Edith the
Fair" and "Edith the Gentle Swan", this ancestor was the
common-law wife of Harold II, King of England for over 20
years. Her daughter, Princess Gytha of Wessex, married
the Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir Monomakh.
Her main claim to fame
was that she identified the body of her husband on the
battlefield at Hastings, after he was defeated by William the
Conqueror (also an ancestor). She is the main character
in a well-known poem by Heinrich Heine entitlted "The
Battlefield of Hastings", and identifies him by markings on
his chest known only to her, which Heine says were "love
bites."
Line of Descent
1) Edith the Fair (md.
Harald II, King of England)
2) Gytha of Wesex (md.
Vladimir II Monomakh, Prince of Kiev)
3) Mstislav I, "the
Great", Prince of Kiev (1076-1132) (md. Christina Ingesdotter)
4) Ingeborg of Kiev (md.
Canute Lavard)
5) Valdemar I, "the
Great", King of Denmark (1131-1182) (md. Sofia of Minsk)
6) Helen of Denmark
(1177-1233) (md. William of Winchester, AKA William Longsword,
Lord of Luneburg)
7) Otto, "the Child, First
Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg (1204-1252)
8) Albert I, "the Tall",
Duke of Brunswick-Lunebuerg (1236-1279) (md. Adelheide)
9) Albert II, "the Fat",
Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg) (1268-1318) (md. Rixa)
10) Magnus I, "the Pious",
Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg) (d. 1369) (md. Sophie Brandenburg)
11) Magnus II, Duke of
Brunswick-Luneberg) (1324-1373) (md. Catherine
Anhalt-Bernburg)
12) Katharina Elisabeth of
Brunswick (1385-1423) (md. Gerhard VI, Count of Holstein)
13) Hedvig of Schuaenburg,
Duchess of Schleswig and Countess of Holstein (1398-1436) (md.
Dietrich AKA Theodoric the Lucky, Count of Delmenhorst and
Oldenburg)
14) Christian I, King
of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, also Count of Oldenburg
and Delmenhorst (1426-1481) (md. Dorothea of Brandenburg AKA
Dorothea of Hohenzollern)
15) Margaret of Denmark
(1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of Scotland)
16) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
17) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
18) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
19) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
20) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
21) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
22) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
23) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
24) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
25) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
26) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
27) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
28) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
29) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
30) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
31) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Byzantine Line
Empress-Mother Anna Dalassene
Anna's father, Alexios
Charon, was the imperial lieutenant in Italy, a very important
man in his day. But Anna chose to use her mother's
family name instead of his. From the very beginning, in her
family, the woman ruled.
She married John
Komenos, and soon thereafter his brother, Isaac, was made
Byzantine Emperor by the military. When Isaac became
very ill and was forced to abdicate, he wanted to give the
crown to John, but he refused, much to his wife's chagrin.
Later, thanks to her
political maneuvering, her son Alexios became Alexios I
Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor. And when during his frequent
absences on military campaigns, he left the goverment of the
empire in the hands of his mother, rather than his wife.
Over the course of a long
public life, Anna was constantly plotting to advance herself
and her family and to determine who would serve as the next
emperor.
Empress Irene Doukaina
daughter-in-law of
Anna
Irene was wife of
Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, mother of Emperor John
II Komnenos, and great-granddaughter of Ivan Vladislav,
Emperor of Bulgaria. But her most important relation was
her daughter Anna Komnene (1083-1153) -- the first woman
historian.
Anna described her
mother in great detail: "She stood upright like some
young sapling, erect and evergreen, all her limbs and the
other parts of her body absolutely symmetrical and in harmony
one with another. With her lovely appearance and charming
voice she never ceased to fascinate all who saw and heard her.
Her face shone with the soft light of the moon; it was not the
completely round face of an Assyrian woman, nor long, like the
face of a Scyth, but just slightly oval in shape. There were
rose blossoms on her cheeks, visible a long way off. Her
light-blue eyes were both gay and stern: their charm and
beauty attracted, but the fear they caused so dazzled the
bystander that he could neither look nor turn away...Generally
she accompanied her words with graceful gestures, her hands
bare to the wrists, and you would say it was ivory turned by
some craftsman into the form of fingers and hand. The pupils
of her eyes, with the brilliant blue of deep waves, recalled a
calm, still sea, while the white surrounding them shone by
contrast, so that the whole eye acquired a peculiar lustre and
a charm which was inexpressible."
It "would not have been
so very inappropriate," Anna wrote, to say that Irene was
"Athena made manifest to the human race, or that she had
descended suddenly from the sky in some heavenly glory and
unapproachable splendour."
She often accompanied her
husband on his military expeditions. And as her husband
was on his deathbed, she plotted to help her daughter Anna and
Anna's husband Nikephoros succeed him as Emperor, instead of
her son John. When she failed, John exiled her and Anna
to a monastery.
Elizabeth the Cuman -- a Dash of Asian
Wildness
Elizabeth married the
four greats grandson of Irene
Elizabeth was the
daughter of Kuten, leader of the Kuni clan of Cumans, a Turkic
people from Central Asia, who followed a Shamanist
religion. Fleeing from the Mongol hordes, Kuthen
led the Kuni in an invasion of Hungary. King Bela IV of
Hungary granted them asylum on condition that they serve him
and convert to Christianity. As part of the deal, the
infant Elizabeth was betrothed to Bela's infant son Stephen.
When the Mongolian
invasion reached Europe in 1241, Hungarian nobles assassinated
Kuthen for fear that he would defect. The Mongolians
beat the Hungarians, but withdrew the next year on news that
their overlord had died.
Even though her father
was dead, Elizabeth went through with the marriage, when she
and Stephen were both age 12. On the death of his father in
1270 Stephen became king. When he died two years later,
Elizabeth became regent for their ten-year-old son King
Ladislalus IV.
Ladislaus lived and
dressed like a Cuman, which angered the Hungarians. Then
in trying to win over the Hungarians, he angered the Cumans,
who eventually murdered him.
Queen Dorothea -- Practical and Economical
five greats
granddaughter of Elizabeth the Cuman
Dorothea Hohenzollern
married Christopher, King of Denmark, Sweden and Norway and
was crowned queen of all three kingdoms. When
Christopher died, she married the next elected king, Christian
I of Denmark. At that time, she had to renounce her
holdings in Denmark and Norway, but held onto her territory in
Sweden, and her son eventually became King of Sweden.
Wikipedia says she was
"cold, practical, and economic". She served as regent during
the absence of King Christian and she had the right to command
all the castles in Denmark. She also acquired territory from
her spouse by lending him money. For instance, Christian
acquired the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig on condition
that he pay his creditors. Then when he couldn't pay,
Dorothea paid for him on condition that he not make those
territories part of Denmark. And by the time Christian died,
she ruled those duchies as her own possessions.
Line of Descent
1) Anna Dalassene (1025-1102) (md. John
Komnenos)
2) Alexios I, Byzantine Emperor
(1056-1118) (md. Irene Doukaina)
3) Theodora Komnene (b.
1096) (md. Konstantinos Angleos)
4) Andronikos Angelos
5) Alexios III Angelos,
Byzantine Emperor (1153-1211) (md. Euphrosyne Doukaina
Kamatera)
6) Angelina Komnene
(1176-1212) (md. Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea)
7) Maria Laskarina
(1206-1270) (md. Bela IV, King of Hungary and Croatia)
8) Stephen V, King
of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Serbia, etc. (1239-1272)
(md. Elizabeth the Cuman)
9) Mary of Hungary
(1257-1323) (md. Charles II, "the Lame", King of Naples,
Sicily, and Jerusalem)
10) Eleanor of Anjou
(AKA Eleanor of Naples) (1289-1341) (md. Frederick III, King
of Sicily)
11) Elizabeth of Sicily
(AKA Isabel of Aragon) (1310-1349) (md. Stephen II, Duke of
Bavaria)
12) Frederick, Duke of
Bavaria (1339-1393) (md. Maddalena Visconti)
13) Elizabeth of
Bavaria-Landshut (1383-1442) (md. Frederik I Hohenzollern,
Elector of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg)
14) John Hohenzollern,
"the Alchemist", Margrave of Branenburg Kulmbach (1406-1464)
(md. Barbara of Sax-Wittenberg)
15) Dorothea Hohenzollern (1431-1495) (md.
Christian I Oldenburg, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden)
16) Margaret Oldenburg
AKA Margaret of Denmark (1456-1486) (md. James III Stewart, King
of Scotland)
17) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
18) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
19) John Fleming, 5th
Lord Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
20) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
21) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
22) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
23) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
24) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
25) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
26) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
27) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
28) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
29) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
30) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
31) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
32) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
Line of English
Kings -- Plantagenet Dynasty
Saint Margaret of Scotland
maternal grandmother
of the Empress Matilda (belo)
Soon after Cnut the Great, the Viking, conquered
England, the previous Anglo-Saxon king, Edmund "Ironside"
died, and Cnut shipped Edmund's two young sons to Sweden,
where they were supposed to be murdered. They escaped
that fate, went to Kiev instead, and eventually ended up at
the Hungarian court. That's where Margaret, the daughter
of one of those sons, was born and raised.
In 1057, her father, Edward the Exile, was
recalled to England as a possible successor to his uncle King
Edward the Confessor, who had no children. But Edward
the Exile died soon after arrival and Harald II Godwinson
(also an ancestor) was chosen as king. When a few months
later Harald was killed at the Battle of Hastings by the
forces of William the Conqueror (also an ancestor), Margaret's
brother Edgar was proclaimed King of England. But with
the Normans advancing on London, Margaret and her family first
fled north, then tried to sail to the Continent. A storm threw
their ship off course, and they landed in Scotland, where they
sought the protection of King Malcolm III. Malcolm, a
widower, married Margaret as one of the few remaining members
of the Anglo-Saxon royal family, and proceeded to wage war
against England, in support of the claims of his new
brother-in-law Edgar.
In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Malcolm kills
Macbeth who had killed Malcolm's father Duncan.
Margaret was canonized "in recognition of her
personal holiness, fidelity to the Church, work for religious
reform, and charity... She was considered to be an exemplar of
the "just ruler", and also influenced her husband and children
to be just and holy rulers."
Her feast day was June 10, later moved to
November 16.
Matilda of Flanders -- England's Shortest
Queen
paternal grandmother
of the Empress Matilda, below
Matilda of Flanders was
the wife of William "the Conqueror", King of England. She bore
William eleven children, including two kings, William II and
Henry I.
According to legend,
when William, then Duke of Normandy, sent his representative
to ask for Matilda's hand in marriage, she said she was far
too high-born, to consider marrying a bastard. After hearing
this response, William rode from Normandy to Bruges, found
Matilda on her way to church, and dragged her off her horse by
her long braids, threw her down in the street, and rode off.
When her father, Baldwin
V, Count of Flanders, took offense, Matilda stopped them from
coming to blows by agreeing to marry William (despite a papal
ban on the grounds that they were too closely related).
According to the Guinness
Book of Recrods, she was just 4'2" tall, and hence was
shortest queen in the history of England.
(Her mother was Adela
Capet, daughter of Robert II, King of France.)
Empress Matilda -- First Woman Ruler of
England
granddaugther of both
Saint Margaret and Matilda of Flanders
This Matilda was the
last surviving legitimate child of Henry I, King of England
(the son of William the Conqueror). At the age of 12 she
married Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, thereby acquiring the
title "Empress". When the Emperor died 11 years later,
Matilda returned to England.
Her father named her as
heir to the English throne and to the Duchy of Normandy. He
saw to it that the Anglo-Norman barons, including her cousin
Stephen of Blois (who was also a grandchild of William the
Conqueror) swore twice to accept Matilda as ruler if he died
without a male heir.
She married Geoffrey,
Count of Anjou, who called himself "Plantagenet" from the
broom flower (planta genista) he adopted as his
personal emblem. Plantagenet became the name of the dynasty
founded by their son (our ancestor) Henry II.
When her father died in
1135, Matilda and Geoffrey were in Anjou; and Stephen of Blois
raced to England where, with the support of most of the
barons, seized the crown.
Matilda and her husband
fought to claim her inheritance. Geoffrey won Normandy
and assumed the title of Count of Normandy. Then in
1139, Matilda challenged Stephen in England. In February
1141, her forces defeated and captured King Stephen at the
Battle of Lincoln. Matilda was in fact Queen of England for
several months. But when she arrived in London, in
preparation for her coronation, the citizens requested that
she halve their taxes, and when she refused, they closed the
city gates to her, and the civil war started up again.
This long period of civil
war came to be known as "The Anarchy".
During the war, Matilda's
most capable supporter was her illegitimate half-brother,
Robert, First Earl of Gloucester. By November, Stephen was
free (exchanged for the captured Robert of Gloucester) and a
year later, the tables were turned when Matilda was besieged
at Oxford but escaped to Wallingford, by fleeing across
snow-covered land in a white cape. Later she escaped again by
disguising herself as a corpse and being carried out for
burial.
In 1148, Matilda and her
son Henry returned to Normandy; and Geoffrey turned Normandy
over to Henry and retired to Anjou. .
In 1153, when Stephen's
son Eustace died and Henry arrived with another military
expedition, Stephen acknowledged Henry as his heir.
Matilda is a character in
Jean Anouilh's play Becket and the movie based on that, about
Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury and his contentious
relationship with King Henry II.
Eleanor of Aquitaine -- the Lioness in
Winter
daughter-in-law of
the Empress Matilda
Eleanor was one of the
richest and most powerful women of the Middle Ages. At
the age of 15, she succeeded her father as ruler of Aquitaine
(in what is now the south of France, on the
Mediterranean). Since her duchy would belong to whoever
she married, she was the most sought-after bride in
Europe. First she married Louis VII, King of France (our
ancestor through another wife of his, Adela of Champagne).
With Louis, she took
part in the Second Crusade. She recruited her
ladies-in-waiting and 300 vassals as Crusaders, and she served
as the leader of the troops from Aquitaine. According to
some accounts, she and her ladies dressed as Amazons.
On their return to
France, she asked for a divorce and was granted an annullment,
with her lands returning to her. She then married Henry
II, Duke of Normandy, the future King of England, who was 12
years younger than her. She bore him five sons and three
daughters. The sons included the future kings Richard I
and John (our ancestor).
This marriage was a bit
rocky. She supported her son Henry's attempt to
overthrow her husband, for which her husband had her
imprisoned for 16 years. When her husband died, Richard
became king and freed his mother. She ruled as regent
while Richard went on the Third Crusade.
She appears in the movie
"The Lion in Winter" (played by Katharine Hepburn) and figures
in the play and movie Becket, and in Shakespeare's play King
John.
Joan Stewart -- the Deaf Princess
seven greats
granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Joan Stewart, daughter
of James I, King of Scotland, was born deaf. Reportedly,
she used sign language, even in public. She married
James Douglas, First Earl of Morton and her effigy on the
family tomb is the world's oldest image of a known deaf
person.
Line of Descent
1) Saint Margaret of Scotland (1045-1093)
(md. Malcolm III, King of Scotland)
2) Matilda of Scotland
(1080-1118) (md. Henry I, King of England)
1) Matilda of Flanders (1031-1083) (md.
William the Conqueror, King of England)
2) Henry I, King of
England (1068-1135) (md. Matilda of Scotland)
3) Empress Matilda (1102-1110) (md.
Geoffrey Plantagenet, "the Handsome", Duke of Normandy and
Count of Anjou)
4) Henry II, King of England
(1133-1189) (md. Eleanor of Aquitaine)
5) John I, "Lackland", King
of England (1166-1216) (md. Isabella of Angouleme)
6) Henry III, King
of England (1207-1307) (md. Eleanor of Provence)
7) Edward I,
"Longshanks", King of England (1239-1307) (md. Eleanor
of Castille)
8) Edward II, King of
England (1284-1327) (md. Isabella of France)
9) Edward III, King of
England (1312-1377) (md. Philipa of Hainault)
10) John of Gaunt, First
Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) (md. Katherine Swynford)
11) John Beaufort, First
Earl of Somerset (1371-1410) (md. Margaret Holland)
12) Joan Beaufort
(1404-1445) (md. James I, King of Scotland)
13) Joan Stewart (1428-1486) (md. James
Douglas, First Earl of Morton)
14) John Douglas, Second
Earl of Morton (1459-1513) (md. Janet Crichton)
15) Agnes Douglas (md.
Alexander Livingston, Fifth Lord Livingston of Callandar, guardian
of Mary Queen of Scots)
16) William Livingston,
Sixth Lord Livingston of Callandar (1528-1602) (md. Agnes
Fleming)
17) Alexander Livingston
(1561-1621) (md. Eleanor Hay)
18) Margaret Livingston
(1586-1634) (md. John Fleming)
19) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
20) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
21) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
22) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
23) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
24) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
25) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
26) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
27) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
26) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
27) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Swedish and Danish
Lady Ingrid Ylva -- the White Witch
Lady Ingrid Ylva, a
Swedish noblewoman was renowned as a "white witch" -- a master
of magic used for good -- and for her ability to foretell the
future.
During insecure times
(which were common around 1200), she lived in a church tower
on her estates in Bjalbo.
Legend has it that when
Bjalbo was attacked by enemies of the family, she rushed to
the top of the church tower, ripped open a pillow full of
feathers, and turned those feathers into knights in amor, who
fought off the invaders.
Sophia of Denmark -- the Chess Player
Daughter of Eric IV,
King of Denmark, Sophia of Denmark was "a politically
interested, witty beauty with a quick tongue. She was
also known for her interest in chess." In fact, she was
playing chess when news arrived that her husband Valdemar I,
King of Sweden, had just lost his throne to his brother Magnus
III and had been thrown in prison. Considering her strained
relationship with her husband, she probably continued the
game, ignoring the interruption, and won.
While in imprison,
Valdemar lived openly with mistresses. And before that, he had
taken Sophia's sister, Jutta, a nun, as a mistress, and she
bore him a son. Eventually, Jutta was then sent back to
her nunnery and Valdemar had to make a pilgrimmage to Rome to
ask the Pope for absolution.
Line of Descent
1) Ingrid Ylva (1180 - 1250) md. Magnus
Minneskold (d. 1210)
2) Birger Magnusson, founder
of Stockholm (1210 - 1266) (md. Ingeborg Eriksdotter of
Sweden)
3) Valdemar I, King
of Sweden (1239 - 1302) (md. Sophia of Denmark)
4) Ingeborg of Sweden
(md. Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Ploen)
5) Gerhard IV, Count of
Holstein-Ploen (md. Anastasia of Wittenberg)
6) Ingeborg of
Holstein-Ploen (md. Conrad I, Count of Oldenburg)
7) Christian V, Count of
Oldenburg (1347 - 1423) (md. Agnes Honstein)
8) Dietrich, Count of
Delmenhorst and Oldenburg, "Theodoric the Lucky" (1398-1440)
(md. Hedwig Schauenburg)
9) Christian I, King
of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (1426 - 1481) (md.
Dorothea Hohenzollern)
10) Margaret Oldenberg AKA
Margaret of Denmark (1456 - 1486) (md. James III, King of
Scotland)
11) James IV, King of
Scotland (1473 - 1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
12) Janet Stewart, "Lady
Janet" (1505 - 1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
13) John Fleming, 5th Lord
Fleming (1537 - 1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
14) John Fleming, 6th Lord
Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567 - 1619) (md. Lilias
Graham)
15) John Fleming (1589 -
1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
16) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
17) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
18) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
19) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
20) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
21) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
22) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
23) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
24) Louis Powhatan Estest
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
25) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
26) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
The
Line of Stewart Kings of Scotland
Marjorie Bruce -- the Price of Being a
King's Daughter
In 1306, when Marjorie
was nine years old, her father, Robert the Bruce, was crowned
King of the Scots. Just three months later, her father was
defeated at the Battle of Methven, and she and all her female
relatives were captured and betrayed to the English.
Marjorie spent eight
years in solitary confinement in a convent. At the age
of 16, she was finally set free in exchange for English
noblemen captured at the Battle of Bannockburn and was given
in marriage to Walter Stewart as a reward for his performance
in that battle.
Two years later she went
horse-riding while in advanced pregnancy. She was
thrown, went in to premature labor, delivered the child, and
died soon after.
That child succeeded to
the throne of Scotland as King Robert II, the first king of
the Stewart dynasty.
Line of Descent
1) Marjorie Bruce (1296-1316) (md. Walter
Steward)
2) Robert II, King
of Scotland, first king of the Stewart Dynasty)
(1316-1390) (md. Elizabeth Mure)
3) Robert III, King
of Scotland (1337-1406) (md. Annabella Drummond)
4) James I, King of
Scotland (1394-1437) (md. Joan Beaufort)
5) Joan Stewart
(1428-1486) (md. James Douglas, First Earl of Morton)
6) John Douglas, Second
Earl of Morton (1459-1513) (md. Janet Crichton)
7) Agnes Douglas (md.
Alexander Livingston, Fifth Lord Livingston of Callandar, guardian
of Mary Queen of Scots)
8) William Livingston,
Sixth Lord Livingston of Callandar (1528-1602) (md. Agnes
Fleming)
9) Alexander Livingston
(1561-1621) (md. Eleanor Hay)
10) Margaret Livingston
(1586-1634) (md. John Fleming)
11) Alexander Fleming,
emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612 - 1668) (md.
Elizabeth Anderson)
12) John Fleming,
emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627 -
1686) (md. Mary)
13) Charles Fleming (1659
- 1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
14) Susannah Tarleton
Fleming (md. John Bates)
15) James Bates (1721 -
1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
16) Daniel Bates (1756 -
1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
17) Sarah Langhorne Bates,
moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781 - 1825) (md. Joel
Estes)
18) Albert Monroe Estes
(1804 - 1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
19) Louis Powhatan Estes
(1849 - 1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
20) Smith William Estes,
moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881 - 1943) (md. Mae
Griffith)
21) Helen Isabella Estes
(1920 - 2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer)
Cary-Estes
Genealogy
by May Folk Web and Patrick Mann Estes
Cary-Estes-Moore
Genealogy
by Helen Estes Seltzer
Please send feedback to: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
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