After reading how they identified the skeleton of Richard III from DNA from descendants of his nieces , I was wondering if anyone has ever documented how many living descendants there are from Edward IV's daughters , and possibly illegitimate offspring ?

On Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 1:40:03 PM UTC-7, Mark Spitler m_spitler@comcast.net wrote:
> After reading how they identified the skeleton of Richard III from DNA from descendants of his nieces , I was wondering if anyone has ever documented how many living descendants there are from Edward IV's daughters , and possibly illegitimate offspring ?

The first volume of the Plantagenet Roll series by Ruvigny - the Tudor volume, published in 1903 - is, as far as I know, to date the most comprehensive attempt to trace all of the legitimate living descendants of Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII. Ruvigny named 11,723 of her living (in 1903) legitimate descendants.

Edward IV's daughters Mary and Bridget of York died unmarried. His daughters Cecily and Anne both married, but died without surviving issue. The issue of his daughter Katherine, Countess of Devon, was extinct in 1556.

The mtDNA line of Queen Elizabeth of York (and so of Queen Elizabeth Woodville) was extinct in 1642 at the death of the 6th Earl of Derby. I don't know for certain if there are any living mtDNA descendants of the sisters of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, but I have a few of their mtDNA descendants in my database as late as the 19th century, so the likelihood is good that there are some living today. You can use the Genealogics database founded by Leo van de Pas to get a better answer:
https://www.genealogics.org/descendtext.php?personID=I00015403&tree=LEO&generations
Edward IV had at least one illegitimate daughter, Margaret, Lady Lumley, who has thousands of living descendants today, some overlapping with the descendants of Queen Elizabeth of York, but many others who do not.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, -----Brad

On Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 3:57:35 AM UTC-7, Brad Verity wrote:

> Edward IV had at least one illegitimate daughter, Margaret, Lady Lumley, who
> has thousands of living descendants today, some overlapping with the descendants
> of Queen Elizabeth of York, but many others who do not.

We can also mention Edward's illegitimate son Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, who had three daughters who married to men relatively lower on the social scale than Lady Lumley. Though not specifically tracing her descendants, many of those of the Viscount's daughter Frances Plantagenet and her second husband Thomas Monk of Powdrich can be traced in Vivian's Devon visitations.

taf

On Thursday, 5 May 2022 at 20:57:35 UTC+10, Brad Verity wrote:

> The mtDNA line of Queen Elizabeth of York (and so of Queen Elizabeth Woodville) was extinct in 1642 at the death of the 6th Earl of Derby. I don't know for certain if there are any living mtDNA descendants of the sisters of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, but I have a few of their mtDNA descendants in my database as late as the 19th century, so the likelihood is good that there are some living today. You can use the Genealogics database founded by Leo van de Pas to get a better answer:
> https://www.genealogics.org/descendtext.php?personID=I00015403&tree=LEO&generations=

There is an mtDNA line that has living descendants from Margaret Widville, Countess of Arundel (1454-1490) to Jacqueline Holt-Schooling (1921-2016). Jacqueline has a living daughter and two living grandsons. She also has a maternal half-sister and a maternal half-brother (both are possibly still living). The half-sister has living sons and daughters.

The line was published in The Private Life of Edward IV by John Ashdown-Hill in 2016.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0hWKDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46

On Monday, 9 May 2022 at 09:04:35 UTC+2, Charlene wrote:
> On Thursday, 5 May 2022 at 20:57:35 UTC+10, Brad Verity wrote:
>
> > The mtDNA line of Queen Elizabeth of York (and so of Queen Elizabeth Woodville) was extinct in 1642 at the death of the 6th Earl of Derby. I don't know for certain if there are any living mtDNA descendants of the sisters of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, but I have a few of their mtDNA descendants in my database as late as the 19th century, so the likelihood is good that there are some living today. You can use the Genealogics database founded by Leo van de Pas to get a better answer:
> > https://www.genealogics.org/descendtext.php?personID=I00015403&tree=LEO&generations> There is an mtDNA line that has living descendants from Margaret Widville, Countess of Arundel (1454-1490) to Jacqueline Holt-Schooling (1921-2016). Jacqueline has a living daughter and two living grandsons. She also has a maternal half-sister and a maternal half-brother (both are possibly still living). The half-sister has living sons and daughters.
>
> The line was published in The Private Life of Edward IV by John Ashdown-Hill in 2016.
> https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0hWKDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46

Hi Guys,
In response to the above topic, I don't think it's a rarity to have living descendants from King Edward IV.
I'm a direct descendant from both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of York. Both links came from my grandmother Elder who was an Irish protestant.

Cheers,
Brian

On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 3:16:16 PM UTC-8, Brian Hill wrote:
> On Monday, 9 May 2022 at 09:04:35 UTC+2, Charlene wrote:
> > On Thursday, 5 May 2022 at 20:57:35 UTC+10, Brad Verity wrote:
> >
> > > The mtDNA line of Queen Elizabeth of York (and so of Queen Elizabeth Woodville) was extinct in 1642 at the death of the 6th Earl of Derby. I don't know for certain if there are any living mtDNA descendants of the sisters of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, but I have a few of their mtDNA descendants in my database as late as the 19th century, so the likelihood is good that there are some living today. You can use the Genealogics database founded by Leo van de Pas to get a better answer:
> > > https://www.genealogics.org/descendtext.php?personID=I00015403&tree=LEO&generations=
> > There is an mtDNA line that has living descendants from Margaret Widville, Countess of Arundel (1454-1490) to Jacqueline Holt-Schooling (1921-2016). Jacqueline has a living daughter and two living grandsons. She also has a maternal half-sister and a maternal half-brother (both are possibly still living). The half-sister has living sons and daughters.
> >
> > The line was published in The Private Life of Edward IV by John Ashdown-Hill in 2016.
> > https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0hWKDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46
> Hi Guys,
> In response to the above topic, I don't think it's a rarity to have living descendants from King Edward IV.
> I'm a direct descendant from both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of York.. Both links came from my grandmother Elder who was an Irish protestant.

Sort of depends on the frame of reference. In terms of the number of descendants, there are probably more than a million, but then that is out of 7+ billion. In terms of the proportion of those with English royal ancestry who descend from Edward IV, it is probably a small fraction, less than 1%, with Edward III, Edward I, and Henry I probably leading the pack for most common most-recent royal ancestor, and Edward IV way down the list - of those reigning before him, perhaps only Henry IV has fewer.

taf