Adam Rutherford, a twentieth-century geneticist, has claimed that it is "virtually impossible" that a person with a predominantly British ancestry is not descended from Edward III.[2] According to his calculations, "almost every Briton" is "descended between 21 and 24 generations from Edward III".[3]
The Wars of the Roses were civil wars over the throne of the
Richard III as king, supported and then betrayed by his cousin Buckingham, the descendant of Thomas of Woodstock. Finally, the Yorks were dislodged by the remaining Lancastrian candidate, Henry VII
of the House of Tudor, another descendant of John of Gaunt, who married the eldest daughter of Yorkist King Edward IV.
Edward, the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Wales. Although he was eldest son of Edward III, he predeceased his father thus never became king. Edward's only surviving child was Richard II who ascended to the throne but produced no heirs. Richard II designated as his heir presumptive his cousin Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, senior heir of Lionel of Antwerp through Philippa of Clarence, but this succession never took place as Richard II was eventually deposed and succeeded by another of Richard's cousins, Henry Bolingbroke (who ascended as Henry IV
), senior heir of John of Gaunt. Roger Mortimer had therefore a more senior right to the crown than Henry, but Edward III had reverted this ranking in 1376 by omitting Philippa from the order of succession.
William of Hatfield (1336–1337), second son, was born at Hatfield Manor House in Hatfield near Doncaster in the West Riding of Yorkshire late in 1336, where Edward III kept Christmas with Queen Philippa. He was baptised by William Melton, Archbishop of York, but died soon afterwards. He was buried at York Minster on 10 February 1337,[5][6][7] where survives his monument with effigy in the north quire aisle, the position of his burial being unknown.
Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (29 November 1338 – 7 October 1368), third son. He also predeceased his father. Lionel's only child, Philippa, was acquired as a wife by the powerful Mortimer family, which as noted above had exerted enormous influence during the reigns of Edward II and Edward III. Philippa's son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, was the designated heir of King Richard II but predeceased him, leaving his young son Edmund as heir presumptive. Anne Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer's eldest sister and Lionel of Antwerp's great-granddaughter, married Richard, Earl of Cambridge
, of the House of York, merging the Lionel of Antwerp/Mortimer line into the York line.
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399)
John of Gaunt (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399), 1st Duke of Lancaster
, fourth son.
Legitimate male heirs (Lancaster)
From the marriage of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, daughter and heiress of the
Edward IV
.
The Lancaster kings also had Plantagenet ancestry on the female side from
Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster (c. 1310–1361), descended from Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, the second son of King Henry III (1216–1272), the great-grandfather of King Edward III. A legend was developed, although without foundation, claiming that Edmund Crouchback was older than his brother King Edward I and had been passed over in the succession because of physical infirmity.[8]
Legitimized male heirs (Beaufort)
John of Gaunt's legitimized heirs were the
Battle of Bosworth
in 1485.
The present Somerset family,
royal arms of King Edward III within a bordure compony argent and azure,[9] and in 1682 were created Dukes of Beaufort
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (7 January 1355 – 8/9 September 1397), eighth son. He was one of the Lords Appellant influential under Richard II, was murdered or executed for treason, likely by the order of Richard II; his eventual heir was his daughter Anne, who married into the Stafford family, whose heirs became the Dukes of Buckingham. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, descended on his father's side from Thomas of Woodstock, and on his mother's side from John Beaufort
Arms of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence: Royal arms of Edward III, a label of three points argent each point bearing a canton gules (or: a label of five points argent each point bearing a
^"Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon auctore cononici Bridlingtoniensi, cum continuatione ad A.D. 1377", Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and II, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., Rolls Series (London, 1882–3), Vol. 63, ii, pp. 128–29.
^Register of William Melton, Archbishop of York 1317–1340, ed. R. M. Hill, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 70 (1977), p. 109, no.370.
^W. Mark Ormrod, Edward III, Yale University Press, London, 2013, p. 174.
1 Briefly joined the Lancastrians. 2 Briefly joined the Yorkists. 3 Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. 4 Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. 5 Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.