Damery of Cork · the descents, read downward

Where the Crowns Stop

The earliest-ancestor list asks how far back each royal line goes. This asks the opposite question: where does each one end — the last person in the line who was still royal, before the blood drops into the nobility, the gentry, and finally a farm in west Cork.

The short answer

Three things worth knowing before the table

The last royal ancestor is not English, not Norman, and not who anyone would guess. And the crowns do not each close their own door — they queue up behind a handful of shared ones.

1476

The last king in the family died in 1476 — and he was a Gaelic king of Leinster, not a Plantagenet. Donal Reagh Kavanagh MacMurrough outlives Edward I in this tree by 169 years.

10

Twenty-two houses, ten doors. Most royal lines leave through one of a handful of shared exits. Only the Irish, the Welsh and — as of this rebuild — the Scots close their own.

g17

Seventeen generations. That is the distance to Sabh Kavanagh, "a princess of Leinster" — the last person in the tree born inside a house that was still reigning.

Correction, 26 August 2026 — the Scottish row was wrong

This chart gave Scotland's last reigning ancestor as David I, d. 1153. That was wrong when it was published. William the Lion, who reigned to 1214, was already in the tree at g27, with his daughter Isabel at g26 — I simply failed to search for him. The error is mine, not the data's, and it is sixty-one years and one whole era band. The row below is rebuilt.

The new GEDCOM then adds a second royal-Scottish road, through William's brother David, Earl of Huntingdon — see the Scotland entry.

Part one

The last doors, crown by crown

Two columns per house, because "royal ancestor" means two different things. Last to reign is the final ancestor who actually wore the crown. Last born royal is the final ancestor born inside the house — usually a king's daughter, and usually one generation later. The number in the margin is generations above Aynsley: g24 means a 22× great-grandparent.

The doors that closed last

1476 – 1415 · Ireland and Wales
g18

Leinster — the Kavanagh MacMurroughsthe last door

Last to reignDonal Reagh Kavanagh MacMurrough, King of Leinster, 1396–1476
Last born royalSabh Kavanagh (g17), his daughter

Out through her marriage to Sir James Butler of Polestown (d. 1487), whose son Piers became 8th Earl of Ormond. A reigning king's daughter marrying into the Butlers a decade before Bosworth — this is the tree's single most recent royal marriage.

g20

Wales — Powys, the house of Mathrafalnow wired

Last to reignOwain Glyndŵr, Prince of Wales, c.1354–c.1415
Last born royalAlys ferch Owain Glyndŵr, his daughter

Out through her marriage to Sir John Scudamore of Kentchurch (d. 1435), then Joan Scudamore (g18), Gruffydd Dwnn (d. 1449), and into the Trussells and the de Vere Earls of Oxford. Now fully wired: Glyndŵr g20, Alys g19, traced from the GEDCOM rather than read off a chart. Note the frontier: both of Glyndŵr's parents are terminal nodes — Gruffudd Fychan II of Powys Fadog (d. 1369) and Tomas ap Llywelyn (d. 1343) have no parents wired — so the descent from the Mathrafal princes behind him is asserted, not traced.

The thirteenth-century doors

1307 – 1194 · the great convergence
g24

England — the Plantagenets

Last to reignEdward I, 1239–1307
Last born royalElizabeth Plantagenet, 1282–1316 — and her elder sister Joan of Acre, 1272–1307 (both g23)

Elizabeth married Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, and carried the line to the Butlers of Ormond. Joan married Gilbert de Clare and carried it to the Despensers and the Raleighs. Two daughters, two independent descents — and no later English monarch anywhere in the tree.

g27

Scotland — Alpin and Dunkeldrebuilt

Last to reignWilliam the Lion, King of Scots 1165–1214
Last born royalIsabel of Scotland, his daughter (g26)

Out through her marriage to Robert de Ros — the Magna Carta surety baron — and their son William de Ros. Forty-nine years of reign later than this chart previously said, and two generations shallower.

And now a second royal road. The new GEDCOM wires William's brother David, Earl of Huntingdon (g27), and from him: Margaret of Huntingdon (g26) → Alan of Galloway → Dervorguilla of Galloway (g25) → Eleanor Balliol (g24) → John Comyn II "the Black" → John III Comyn of Badenoch. Dervorguilla was the mother of King John Balliol, so the line runs through the king's sister, not the king. It brings the lordship of Galloway, the Balliols and the Comyns in with it.

Two women named Margaret of Huntingdon now sit in the tree — Henry of Scotland's daughter (d. 1201, m. Humphrey de Bohun) and David's daughter (m. Alan of Galloway). The GEDCOM keeps them properly distinct; any chart built from it must too.

g25

Castile · León

Last to reignFerdinand III, d. 1252 — held both crowns
Last born royalEleanor of Castile, c.1241–1290 (g24)

Not an exit at all: she married Edward I. Castile and León do not leave royalty in this tree — they feed forward into the English crown and leave through his daughters.

g26

Wales — Gwynedd, the house of Aberffraw

Last to reignLlywelyn ab Iorwerth "the Great", 1173–1240
Last born royalGwladus Ddu, d. 1251, his daughter (g26) — now level with her father, a second road having arrived through the Glyndŵr line

Out through Ralph de Mortimer, then FitzAlan, Percy and FitzWalter into the de Veres. Her mother is disputed — the site deliberately declines to claim the extra Plantagenet descent that would follow if she were King John's granddaughter.

g27

Munster — the Dál gCais O'Briens

Last to reignDonal Mór O'Brien, d. 1194 — the last King of North Munster
Last born royalDonogh Cairbreach, d. 1242, first to be styled Prince of Thomond (g26)

A slow exit rather than a sharp one. The Gaelic princely title runs on in the direct line to Turlogh Donn O'Brien (b. 1499, g17) and is finally surrendered in 1552, when Donogh became 1st Earl of Thomond. His granddaughter Lady Honora O'Brien (g13) is the last of the house in the line.

g27

Leinster — the Uí Cheinnselaig

Last to reignDiarmait Mac Murchada, c.1110–1171
Last born royalAoife (g26) and Órlaith (g27), both his daughters

Two doors from one king. Aoife married Strongbow at Waterford in 1170 and went to the Marshals; Órlaith married Donal Mór O'Brien and went to Thomond. The Kavanagh kings above are traditionally of the same stock, but that join is kept as tradition and not wired.

The twelfth-century doors

1220 – 1093 · the continental funnel
g28

Aragón

Last to reignAlfonso II "the Troubadour", d. 1196 — first to hold Aragón and Barcelona as one crown
Last born royalAlfonso II, Count of Provence, d. 1209, his son (g27)

Into the cadet counts of Provence, and back into royalty two generations later when Eleanor of Provence (g25) married Henry III.

g28

France — the Capetians

Last to reignLouis VII, d. 1180
Last born royalAlys of France, d. 1220, his daughter (g27)

The princess betrothed to Richard the Lionheart for twenty-five years and never married to him. Out through William IV of Ponthieu, and back into royalty through her great-granddaughter Eleanor of Castile. Changed in this rebuild: the shortest road into the French royal house no longer runs through Alys at all. It runs through Louis VI's other son Peter of France (g27), who took his wife's name and became Peter I de Courtenay — putting Louis VI at g28, level with Louis VII, on 22 paths. His daughter Alice de Courtenay (g26) is a male-line Capetian one generation shallower than Alys, if you count cadet blood as royal blood. The door itself does not move. France also leaves a third time, a century earlier, through Hugh Magnus of Vermandois.

g28

Normandy and England — the Conqueror's house

Last to reignHenry I, d. 1135
Last born royalRobert of Gloucester, c.1090–1147 — acknowledged natural son (g27)

Out through his son William FitzRobert and granddaughter Amice into the de Clares. Henry I stands in this tree twice: once by his illegitimate son here, and once by his lawful daughter the Empress Matilda, who carries the Plantagenet road.

g27

Deheubarth — the house of Dinefwr

Last to reignRhys ap Tewdwr, d. 1093 — killed resisting the Normans
Last born royalNest ferch Rhys, "Helen of Wales", c.1085–c.1136 (g26)

Out through Gerald of Windsor and into the Geraldines — the FitzGeralds of Kildare and of Desmond, and from there back to the Butlers.

g28

Navarre — the Jiménez

Last to reignGarcía Ramírez "the Restorer", d. 1150
Last born royalBlanca of Navarre, his daughter (g28)

Straight into Castile by her marriage to Sancho III. Navarre never really exits; it merges.

g28

Jerusalem — the crusader crownanomaly

Last to reignFulk V of Anjou, King of Jerusalem 1131–1143
Last born royalNobody. Geoffrey V of Anjou (g27) was born in 1113, eighteen years before his father took the crown.

The one crown in the whole set that produces no royally-born descendant. The line leaves through a son born a Count of Anjou — who then fathers Henry II, and the blood re-enters royalty by the front door.

g29

Uí Dúnlainge — the Uí Fáeláin of Naas

Last to reignCerball mac Fáeláin, King of the Uí Fáeláin, fl. c.1130. Last to hold the provincial crown of Leinster: Bran mac Máelmórda, d. 947 (g32)
Last born royalSadb Ní Fáeláin, his daughter (g28)

Out by marriage to Diarmait Mac Murchada. This is the deepest line in the tree — nineteen rungs back to Dunlaing mac Enda Niada in the late fifth century — and it all hangs on Sadb being Órlaith's mother, which the site grades as plausible rather than documented.

The deep doors

1063 – 818 · everything before the Conquest
g30

Kyivan Rus — the Rurikids

Last to reignYaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev, d. 1054
Last born royalAnne of Kiev, Queen of France, d. c.1075 (g29)

Into France by marriage to Henry I, and out again with her younger son Hugh Magnus.

g31

Sweden

Last to reignOlof Skötkonung, first Christian king, d. 1022
Last born royalIngegerd of Sweden, d. 1050, his daughter (g30)

To Kiev by marriage to Yaroslav. Sweden, Kiev and France are the same descent read at three depths.

g32

Wales — the kingdom of all Wales

Last to reignGruffydd ap Llywelyn, c.1010–1063 — the only man ever to rule the whole of Wales
Last born royalNest ferch Gruffydd, d. 1080, his daughter (g31)

Out through Osbern FitzRichard, de Neufmarché and Hereford into the Bohuns — a wholly separate Welsh line from Gwynedd and Deheubarth.

g32

Wessex — the West Saxons

Last to reignEdmund II Ironside, r. April–November 1016
Last born royalEdward the Exile, d. 1057, his son — who never reigned (g31)

Out through his daughter St Margaret, shipwrecked in Scotland and married to Malcolm III. Wessex also enters twice more, earlier and by shorter roads: through Eadgifu (g33) into the Carolingians, and through Ælfthryth (g35) into Flanders.

g32

León and Asturias — the old house

Last to reignAlfonso V of León, d. 1028 — of the old Astur-Leonese male line
Last born royalSancha of León, d. 1067, his daughter (g32)

Into Castile by her marriage to Ferdinand I, who united the two crowns for the first time.

g33

Italy — the Anscarids of Ivrea

Last to reignAdalbert of Italy, d. 971 — crowned beside his father Berengar II, then deposed
Last born royalOtto-William of Burgundy, d. 1026 — born after the dynasty fell (g32)

Into Burgundy, then by two roads: one to Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets, one to Alfonso VII of Castile.

g33

Germany — the Ottonians

Last to reignHenry the Fowler, King of Germany, d. 936 — the only reigning German monarch in the line
Last born royalHedwig of Saxony, d. 965, and her sister Gerberga, d. 984 (both g32)

Hedwig married Hugh the Great and became the mother of Hugh Capet. Otto the Great, the first emperor of the new line, is a collateral — a brother-in-law's brother, not an ancestor.

g36

The Frankish Empire and Carolingian Italy

Last to reignBernard, King of Italy, d. 818 — blinded and deposed by his uncle. On the other roads, Louis IV d'Outremer, King of the West Franks, d. 954 (g31)
Last born royalPepin, Count of Vermandois, Bernard's son (g35)

Into the Herbertian counts of Vermandois, and eight generations later into Isabel de Vermandois — who is the single most important woman in the whole continental half of this tree.

g39

Navarre — the house of Aristathe deepest crown

Last to reignFortún Garcés "the One-Eyed", King of Pamplona, d. 922 — twenty years a hostage at Córdoba
Last born royalOnneca Fortúnez, his daughter (g38)

Through her granddaughter Queen Toda Aznárez into the Jiménez, and so back into Navarre by the next dynasty.

Part two

Collapsed: the ten doors

The natural question is whether the list shortens if the answers repeat. It does, sharply. Twenty-two houses do not leave royalty twenty-two times — they queue behind ten people. Six of those ten carry more than one crown out with them.

The doorClosesCrowns it carries outInto
Sabh Kavanagh g17c.1470sLeinster (Kavanagh)the Butlers of Polestown
Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr g19c.1420PowysScudamore, then the de Veres
Lady Honora O'Brien g131600Thomond, as a surrendered Gaelic princedomthe FitzMaurice barons of Kerry
Elizabeth Plantagenet & Joan of Acre g231282 · 1272England, Castile, León, Aragón, Provence, France, Navarre, Jerusalem, all-Wales, Anscarid Italythe Bohuns and the de Clares
Isabel of Scotland g26c.1190sScotland — no longer shares the Bohun exitthe de Ros barons
Gwladus Ddu g26d. 1251Gwyneddthe Mortimers
Aoife & Órlaith MacMurrough g26–271170 · 1168Uí Cheinnselaig, Uí DúnlaingeStrongbow; the O'Briens
Robert of Gloucester g27d. 1147Normandythe de Clares
Nest ferch Rhys g27c.1100Deheubarththe Geraldines
Isabel de Vermandois g27d. 1131the Frankish Empire, Carolingian Italy, France, Germany, Kiev, SwedenBeaumont and Warenne, then the de Veres

The shape this reveals

Three of the nine doors are Irish and one is Welsh — and those four are the latest to close. Every English and continental crown in the tree is finished by 1282. The family's royal blood does not trickle out; it arrives in two great lumps, seven centuries apart in date but only nine generations apart in the tree, and the later lump is Gaelic.

Part three

Cousins: who else is worth measuring

I have William at thirteenth cousin and Felipe at twentieth. Here is what the rest of the field looks like, computed the same way: degree is min(mA, mB) − 1, removal is the difference.

Two corrections before the tables

Charles III is closer than William. The same Loftus chain, stopped one rung earlier, makes him a 12th cousin once removed — the closest of any European monarch by nine degrees. The site computes William and never draws the corollary.

Felipe looks like 21st cousin twice removed, not 20th. The shortest documented Spanish chain I can build is 22 generations, via Gaunt → Castile → Habsburg-Lorraine. A 20th-cousin figure needs a 21-generation descent, and the route above is already the slowest-generating line available. Worth re-checking the working — if there is a shorter chain I would like to see it.

The ten reigning European monarchs

MonarchCommon ancestorGensRelationshipWeakest rung on their side
Charles IIIAdam Loftus & Jane Purdon14 / 1312C 1RAnne Wellesley, born 1788 before her parents' marriage
Hans-Adam II, LiechtensteinEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2120C 3RArchduchess Elisabeth Amalie, 1878–1960
Felipe VI, SpainEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2221C 2Rrouted to avoid Alfonso XII's contested paternity
Philippe, BelgiumEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2221C 2Rhangs entirely on the Count of Flanders line
Carl XVI Gustaf, SwedenEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2322C 1RMargaret of Connaught — solid
Harald V, NorwayEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2322C 1Rtwo independent chains agree — the best cross-checked
Guillaume V, LuxembourgEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2322C 1Rone Belgian marriage carries everything
Albert II, MonacoEdward I & Eleanor of Castile24 / 2322C 1RPrincess Charlotte, legitimated 1911 — weakest of the ten
Frederik X, DenmarkJoan of Acre23 / 2622C 3Rtwo independent chains agree
Willem-Alexander, NetherlandsJoan of Acre23 / 2622C 3RAnne, Princess Royal, m. William IV of Orange

Guillaume V acceded in October 2025 on Henri's abdication; Hans-Adam II remains sovereign, Alois being regent only. Andorra and the Vatican are elective and fall outside the arithmetic. Every continental figure is an upper bound on distance — a shorter chain, if one exists, makes them closer, never further.

The ones that actually beat the Prince of Wales

This is the real finding. The royal cousinships are all so distant they carry no information — as my own Cousin William post says. But the same gateways produce some startlingly close relatives who are not royal at all.

PersonCommon ancestorGensRelationship
Sir Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Bt (1788–1846), poetVere Hunt & Anne Browne, m. 17608 / 21C 6R
Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902), poetVere Hunt & Anne Browne8 / 32C 5R
Lord Shelburne, Prime Minister (1737–1805)William FitzMaurice, Baron Kerry, & Constance Long11 / 32C 8R
Sir William Berkeley, Governor of VirginiaSir Maurice Berkeley & Catherine Blount14 / 32C 11R
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordJohn de Vere, 15th Earl, & Elizabeth Trussell15 / 21C 13R
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of SalisburyRichard Cecil & Jane Heckington16 / 21C 14R
The Duke of WellingtonAdam Loftus & Jane Purdon14 / 76C 7R
Anne BoleynJames Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond20 / 54C 15R
Catherine ParrSir Thomas Greene of Greens Norton18 / 32C 15R
Winston ChurchillJames Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond20 / 1918C 1R
Charles DarwinJames Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond20 / 2119C 1R

Not cousins at all — closer than that

Three people in the tree are direct collaterals rather than cousins, which is a stronger claim and reads better: Jane Lane, Lady Fisher, who rode Charles II out of England after Worcester, is a 10× great-aunt. Sir James Ware, the historian, is a 10× great-granduncle. And if the Cecil rung below is added, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I's chief minister, is a 13× great-granduncle.

Part four

Negative findings, stated plainly

Four candidates that look promising and are not. Each is more useful written down than left to be re-attempted.

Part five

Three things to fix in the tree

Generation counts traced directly from the ancestor tree published at damery.family, August 2026 · 1,362 direct ancestors, 46 generations
Cousin degrees computed as min(mA, mB) − 1 with removal |mA − mB| · continental royal chains taken from published pedigrees, not primary sources
Every figure here is an upper bound on distance: a shorter documented chain makes a cousin closer, never further away

The Descents · the royal charts

The other charts

Chart
The royal lines at a glance
Chart
The British Isles in detail
Chart
The Continent in detail
Chart
Charlemagne to Margaret de Clare, rung by rung
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Where the crowns stop

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