Saturday, March 10, 2018

You Can Call Me Al....er, Allah

Not that I am joking about Islam and please, I hope no one out there tries to issue a Fatwah against me but I had to make a funny in this post's title.
I don't know if anyone out there is old enough to get the song reference in the title but I just had to do it. ;-)


An article popped up on my news feed the other day about how Queen Elizabeth II is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
News article HERE.

Since "Liz" is my 17th cousin 2 x removed(our common ancestors being Ralph de Neville 1364-1425 and his wife Joan de Beaufort 1375-1440....Elizabeth is descended from Ralph and Joan's daughter, Cecily de Neville and I am descended from Ralph and Joan's son, George de Neville, 1st Baron Latimer)I thought I'd do the actual linking work and work this Muslim line into my tree and see what happens.

An ancestral line of Muhammad descended into Spanish lands and noble houses, namely Seville and Castile.
Al Mu'tamid was the King of Seville at one point and ruler of Cordoba, parts of an ununified Spain that were controlled by Muslims.  Al Mu'tamid is the 14th Great Grandson of Muhammad.

Al Mu'tamid had a daughter, Zaida, who fled when the Abassid kingdom fell to the Berbers to the part of Spain ruled by Alfonso VI-the lands of  Leon, Castille and Galicia.  Zaida ended up marrying Alfonso VI and converting to Catholicism, taking the name Isabella.  There descendants brought many Spanish noble families into Muhammad's lines of descent.

Al Mu'tamid's granddaughter, Sancha Alfonsez, was the Infanta of Castille. Sancha Alfonsez's 4 x Great Granddaughter, Maria Juana de Padilla was the mistress of King Pedro(or Peter in English) "el Cruel" of Castile. 

                         Drawing of Maria Juana de Padilla

Maria Juana de Padilla was the mistress of King Peter(the Cruel)of Castile. Maria was the 22nd Great Granddaughter of Muhammad  She produced three daughters with Peter of Castile; Beatrice, Constance and Isabella and a son, Alfonso the crown prince of Castile(who died at 3 years).

My 19th GGrandfather, John of Gaunt, married as his second wife Peter of Castile and Maria Padilla's eldest daughter, Constance of Castile.  John and Constance's daughter, Catherine of Lancaster, was the GGrandmother of Catherine of Aragaon(being named for her GGrandmother).  Catherine of Aragon was Henry VIII of England's first wife.  Catherine of Aragon is my 3rd cousin 17 x removed.

Constance of Padilla, my 19th GGrandfather's second wife, was the sister of Isabella of Padilla, one of Maria de Padilla and King Peter of Castile's other daughters.  Isabella de Padilla married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.  Edmund is my 20th Great Uncle.  Edmund and my 19th GGrandfather, John of Gaunt, were full brothers and sons of Edward III of England. (Edward III is my 20th GGrandfather.)

                         Painting of John of Gaunt

My direct line being John of Gaunt and his mistress, later his third wife, Katherine de Roet Swynford- they are my 19th GGrands.  So John of Gaunt's descendants with his other wives-Blanche of Lancaster(who was also John's 3rd cousin via Henry III)and Constance de Padilla are all full cousins of mine.
John of Gaunt and Blanche's son Henry IV became King of England and is my 19th Great Uncle.

John of Gaunt's children, by one of his three wives, descended all subsequent sovereigns of Scotland beginning in 1437 and all sovereigns of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom from 1603 to the present day.
The three houses of English sovereigns that succeeded the rule of Richard II in 1399, the Houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor, were all descended from John's children; Henry IV, Joan of Beaufort and John Beaufort, respectively.
I am a direct descendant of Joan of Beaufort, though NOT the line that succeeded to the English throne.

Queen Elizabeth II's 19 x Great Grandmother is Maria Juana de Padilla.
Maria Juana de Padilla is the mother in-law of my 19th GGrandfather John of Gaunt which makes the Prophet Muhammad the step 24th Grandfather of my 18th GGrandmother.
John Gaunt's wife, Constance of Castile(the daughter of Maria Juana de Padilla and Muhammad's direct descendant)is the stepmother of my direct ancestor, John of Gaunt's daughter(with his third wife Katherine Swynford), Joan de Beaufort, my 18th GGrandmother.

I am sure that once I connect all the royal and noble Castile, Aragon and Portugese lines up with my tree I may have a closer relationship to Muhammad via one of these.

Some day I'll do a post about some of these notable figures in history that supposedly I can lay claim to  genetically.
But for now I've got a "step" familial link to what one could say is the most famous Islamic figure.  8-)

If all this makes your eyes cross just go to the top of this post and listen to the video.  ;-)

Sluggy







7 comments:

  1. I am old enough and do remember the song. I can see the family resemblance to john of gaunt...lol.

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  2. I got confused after the first few paragraphs...lol, but I love this song! It's crazy, but I was singing it just last week. Song is now stuck in my head again...lol

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  3. You are related to everybody! I need to do some research on my tree, lots of long lost lines in Scotland and France

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  4. I'm very familiar with the song. It was on a Muzak tape that we played at my old job many moons ago. Ugh. Lol.

    And you lost me with all of this. I can barely explain to my kids how that are related to their cousins. :) but...Cool!

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  5. I too have a distant relationship to english royalty so that makes you my very distant cousin but this is probably true of just about everybody else.

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  6. I like Cheapchick's comment and must agree - you are related to everyone...I suppose if we go back far enough we are all related to each other ! :)

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  7. I always knew you were a Princess. I however am the queen of crap!

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