European Royal Families and their interconnections is a subject of fascination for many people. This ranges from serious academic research to providing never-ending source of popular gossip in the age of social media. For the amateur genealogist interest in European royalty is often driven by curiosity that they, or other members of their family, might have royal blood flowing through their veins.
European royal families todayEuropean royal families today
Royalty might seem an anachronism in the 21st century. Some famous European royal families, including those of Russia, France, Germany and Greece have effectively ceased to exist. But royalty still plays an active role in the political life of a surprising number of other European countries. Most prominent is the British royal family, which not only remains a feature of the United Kingdom, but also continues to have global reach through the status of the British King as Head of State in 15 other countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations. A further eight European counties are still constitutional monarchies today, although the monarch's powers are significantly constrained by democratic structures. In these cases the monarch's role is wholly or mainly ceremonial. Two more European nations operate as a "mixed monarchy" where the royal head of state retains some specifically defined powers of an absolute monarch[1]:
Not included on this list is Vatican City, which is an elective absolute monarchy ruled by the Pope[3]. For family genealogists it is of less interest than the other European monarchies.
How, and why, European royal families are inter-relatedHow, and why, European royal families are inter-related
European royal families are closely related to each other through centuries of intermarriage. Marriage between royal families was a common strategy used by monarchs to strengthen alliances, secure political power, and protect or expand their territories. As a result, many of Europe's royal families share common ancestors. Their inter-connections range from close--immediately identifiable by a recent marriage between two families--to distant, where the common ancestor(s) stretch back many generations.
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, with her son Edward, Prince of Wales (right), and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (left). Seated on the left is Alexandra, Tsarina of Russia, holding her baby daughter Grand Duchess Olga.
One of the most prominent examples is how the marriages of various children and grandchildren of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1837-1901) and King Christian IX of Denmark (1863-1906) has created blood connections between the royal houses of Spain, Russia, Germany, Greece, and Romania[4].
Another key figure is John William Friso, Prince of Orange (1687-1711), who was the Stadtholder (national leader) of Friesland and Groningen in the Dutch Republic[5]. He is considered a common ancestor of most of Europe's current monarchs, including:
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (1967-)
King Charles III of the United Kingdom (1948-)
King Felipe VI of Spain (1968-)
King Harald V of Norway (1937-)
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (1946-)
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (1940-)
Dynastic marriages have become less frequent in recent times as more royals marry commoners. But the close relationships between European royal families remains, even as they confront the need to adapt to the realities and expectations of the modern world.
Prominent people related to European royal familiesProminent people related to European royal families
There are many people in the public eye who can claim an established, if often distant, connection to one of the European royal families. Some examples include:
Boris Johnson – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 2019-2022Former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is related to Prince Paul von Wurttemberg, the son of German King Friedrich I of Wurttemberg (1754-1816) and King George II of Great Britain and Ireland (1727-1760). Actor Michael Douglas is another descendant of King George II
Actors Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Johnny Depp are all distant cousins of King Charles III of the United Kingdom (1948-)
Actor Tom Hanks and TV personality Ellen DeGeneres are distant cousins of King Charles' son, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (1982-)
Actor Tilda Swinton traces her lineage back to Scottish king, Robert the Bruce (1274-1329)
Musician Ozzy Osbourne is related to the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II (1894-1917)
Singer Madonna is a descendant of King Charles II of England (1660-1685)
Influencer Paris Hilton is related of English King Henry II (1154-1189)
Is practically everyone with European heritage related to a European royal family?Is practically everyone with European heritage related to a European royal family?
This is not as silly a question as perhaps it may seem as first. After centuries of inter-marriage and taking into account other factors it is very likely that millions of people of European heritage have a "royal" connection, however slight it might be. These factors include the extended size of many of the royal families; the prevalence of "official" consorts and extramarital affairs among the royals producing many illegitimate children; the fact that some royals historically have allowed wealthy or powerful commoners to marry into the family; and that over many generations royals will have produced a disproportionate number of healthy offspring due to their superior living conditions and who themselves would go on to have a higher number of healthy children than commoners in their societies.
A 2021 BBC article also highlighted that the relatively high chance of having a connection to a royal family is also partly the result of sheer numbers. By the time you go back 20 generations (about 600 years) everyone will have had over one million direct ancestors[6], some of whom, for the reasons outlined above, could be "royal". Such royal connections will be even more common if distant royal relatives like second, third, fourth, etc....cousins are included in this calculation.
Establishing whether you have a direct European royal connectionEstablishing whether you have a direct European royal connection
While many, perhaps almost all, people of European heritage may have some kind of tenuous royal link if they go back far enough, proving a direct, verifiable connection is what interests the family historian.
Bohemian royal family tree
A good place to start is to look for common royal surnames. Obvious examples include "Windsor", "Bourbon", and "Habsburg" but there are literally thousands of possibilities across all the European royal families. If you have one of these surnames in your own family tree, it is more likely that you can establish a direct connection to a royal family.
Another strategy is to search for records of royal marriages. Most royal families kept very detailed records of their marriages and comprehensive, multi-generational family trees may be available online. These records can be used to trace your ancestry back to a royal family. Note however that this is likely to be a time-consuming and labour-intensive process.
Finally, by testing your DNA, you may be able to find matches with other people who are known to be descended from European royal families.
Explore more about european royal families & their interconnectionsExplore more about european royal families & their interconnections
In addition to over 19 billion individual records MyHeritage also has specific resources to help you with your royal research:
A MyHeritage Knowledge Base article, How to Find Out If You Have Royal Ancestry, provides valuable insights and detailed guidance on family history records. This article also highlights that searching royal connections need not be limited to European royal families. Many people of predominantly European heritage may have links back to royal families of Asia, Africa or South America as a result of migration. Similarly, many other people whose ancestors originated from a country or region that came under European influence or control, including the Caribbean islands, parts of Africa and Asia, may also find an unexpected connection to a European royal family.
MyHeritage includes a detailed family tree of the British Royal Family. There are also several MyHeritage blogs which cover different aspects of British royalty:
Another blog provides a unique collection of Coronation Day celebration photos which have been colorised and enhanced utilising MyHeritage tools
Our Stories: Connecting with royalty, is a great practical example of how a MyHeritage member was able to trace the royal connection of his family to the mother of Queen Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002), who married King George VI of the United Kingdom.
Unknown to many is that Queen Elizabeth's consort, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh made an important contribution to DNA genealogy in his exploration of his own family history by definitively establishing that bodies discovered in an unmarked grave in Ekaterinburg in 1991 were indeed those of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family who were captured and murdered by Communist revolutionaries in July 1918.
Under MyHeritage auspices historian and genealogist, Caroline Gurney, has a webinar which explores Are You Related to Royalty.
A separate Wiki article explores the key role that Welsh Royalty played in the early history of Wales.
Other resources for researching European royal families which the family historian could consider are:
The European Royals Message Board is a forum for serious discussions about the European royal and princely families (reigning, former reigning and princely families).
Family Tree Template provides free printable up-to-date decorative royal family trees of the existing European kingdoms including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The website, william1.co.uk, includes a comprehensive database all the direct descendants resulting from a single marriage, that of William, Duke of Normandy, King of England ("William the Conqueror"), and Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders (estimated to have taken place in 1051 or 1052). It also provides a gateway to and commentary on multiple other sites for research of royalty and nobility, such as Genealogy EU, The Peerage and Netty's Royal Page.
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