Bence-Jones, Mark and Hugh Montgomery-Massingberg. The British Aristocracy. London: Constable, 1979.

The authors begin with the basics the difference between "nobility" and "aristocracy" and the essential prerequisite to both: "the right to be called a gentleman." They move on to a thoughtful historical analysis of the British sort of aristocracy, including its manifestations in Scotland and Ireland, and the development of the aristocratic character, and end with its place (if any) in the modern world. Of particular interest are the chapters on two rogue subgroups the great landowning families who are nevertheless untitled commoners and those military or professional middle-class families who achieved titles without possessing much acreage. The unannotated bibliography is a useful starting point for further reading. All in all, a well-informed and well-written treatment by two blokes with hyphenated names.

Bloomfield, Paul. Uncommon People: A Study of England's Elite. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1955.

In a modern democracy, is there any place for an elite based on genetics, such as the British aristocracy? Bloomfield takes the view that the meritocracy of politics, commerce, theology, and the arts feeds the aristocracy, often enough to remarked on. For instance, Sir George Villiers, a 15th century gentleman in north Leicestershire, had nine children by two marriages, and among his direct descendants one may note twelve prime ministers, the lines of four dukedoms and at least a dozen earldoms and marquessates, and such noteworthy individuals as Winston Churchill, Charles James Fox, Sidney Herbert, and Bertrand Russell. The descendants of Josiah Wedgewood, the great potter, include Charles Darwin, Vaughan Williams, Aldous and Julian Huxley, and John Maynard Keynes. Moreover, these two family groups, as well as several others he delineates, are crossbound by collateral marriages. This is not merely a subsidized leisure class, he maintains, but a "new patriciate" on the classical model, which does not depend on titles, but which often enough leads to their creation. But whether this forty-year-old argument would still stand in our present corporate/post-technological society is another question.

Brook, Lindsay L. (ed.). Studies in Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Salt Lake City: Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, 1989.

This scholarly festschrift includes twenty-three essays (variously in English, French, German, and Spanish) by such noted genealogists as David H. Kelley, Sir Iain Moncreiffe, Milton Rubincam, Walter Lee Sheppard, and Prince Cyril Toumanoff. Subjects range from the parentage of Catherine d'Artois and the continuing influences of the family of Aethelred under the Norman domination to a general "Critique of Spanish Genealogy." The level of scholarship and expression is uniformly high and the variety of topics and the authors' approaches make this almost a book of readings for the ambitious genealogist.

Brooke, Christopher. The Saxon and Norman Kings. New York: Macmillan, 1963.

The author's theme is the development of English kingship, which had its origins in the system of Germanic tribal leadership, altered to suit the needs of a conquering (and later, conquered) people. This means covering a period of seven centuries, from the end of Roman occupation to the civil war between the Empress Maud and Stephen of Boulogne a span of time that includes perhaps two hundred British kings but Brooke carries it off quite well. He inquires into the process of king-making (inheritance vs. "election"), the significance of coronation, the practical politics of succession, the necessary occupations of a king in England, and even the effects on the kingdom of religious conversion of the monarch. And throughout this work runs a strong thread of medieval genealogy. A worthwhile read, especially in sorting out the tangled threads of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Cannadine, David. The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

A century ago, the British titled class was still God's elect; the wealthiest, most powerful, and most glamorous segment of the population. Then things began to fall apart and this rather scholarly work attempts to explain why. The popular assault on "landlordism," the proliferation of titles, the democratic revolution, the question of Irish independence, the escape of many of the nobility to the farther corners of the empire (where they could still wield something like their old power), the institution of life peerages, plus the leveling effects of two world wars all took their toll and resulted in today's titled elite becoming, for the most part, an elegant anachronism surviving precariously on the margins of British society. The author's style and wit are especially evident in his vignettes of such characters as Wilfrid Blunt, Lord Howe, and the Mitford sisters, but this book will still demand some intellectual commitment from the reader.

Given-Wilson, Chris and Alice Curteis. The Royal Bastards of Medieval England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.

Royal promiscuity sometimes has political consequences, as demonstrated in 1483 when Richard, duke of Gloucester and brother of the recently deceased Edward IV, had his royal nephews declared illegitimate. He acceded as Richard III, the "princes in the Tower" were never seen again, and the Plantagenet royal line ended two years later at Bosworth Field. Ironically, the victor there, Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, was descended on one side from a legitimized bastard of one of Edward III's sons and on the other from a Welsh clerk who had secretly married a former queen of England. It might be said that the crowing of Henry VII marked the low point of the concept of legitimacy in determining the succession to the throne of England. Medieval monarchs married not for love, of course, but for good political reasons to acquire territory or to cement alliances. Personal compatibility and mutual consent were irrelevant (with occasional exceptions, such as Edward IV's secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, which outraged his family and advisors). The Church preached the indissolubility of the marriage bond but that didn't carry much weight with the aristocracy and the monarch. So it's not surprising that kings had mistresses. Sometimes these were casual liaisons, but sometimes the relationship was one of genuine affection, spanning many years and producing multiple offspring. Henry I had twenty illegitimate children whom he acknowledged, and three or four others had good claims. Adding in the unknowns who didn't survive early nfancy, a total of forty bastards by this one king is not impossible. (Even Charles II only managed sixteen.) The exceptions also are surprising: William the Conqueror, himself a bastard, was singled out by the chroniclers for the purity of his personal life.

The authors examine in great detail the sort of women who became royal mistresses between the Conquest and Bosworth, what sort of future awaited their offspring, and why some of those children went to the headsman's block for rebellion while others had distinguished military and diplomatic careers and founded noble lines of their own. Detailed lineages are supplied and discussed at length, which makes this a very useful source in an area not often covered in sufficient detail, as well as an intriguing study in its own right.

Kidd, Charles & Patrick Montague-Smith. Debrett's Book of Royal Children. New York: William Morrow, 1982.

The title is somewhat misleading, since only the children of Queen Victoria and her descendants are discussed, but that's quite enough! This volume is very useful for sorting out the relationships among the royal siblings and cousins and their inevitable participation in the European marriage market. There are also several hundred photos, including a delightful snapshot of Victoria holding her toddler grandson Willy on her lap, . . . who was later the hated Kaiser of Germany during the Great War. A very readable and wholly captivating narrative.

Lacey, Robert. Aristocrats. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.

The Countess Maria Gloria [etc.] von Schonburg-Glauchau, who now goes by her married name of Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, is a 22-year-old mother of two daughters who is disarmingly aware of her principal function as a wife: to produce a Thurn und Taxis male heir. (She got one on the third try, after this book was published.) One cannot become an aristocrat, she says; one can only be born one. But her family works at it. Besides being the largest private landowners in Germany, they own farms in Georgia, a big piece of the Matto Grasso, and eleven castles and palaces, among a great many other holdings. The duke of Edinburgh, invited to a boar hunt, expressed disbelief that a private family could live so grandly without receiving (as the Windsors do) financial assistance from the state. "What do you expect?" responded Prince Johannes. "No workey, no money." Lacey gives a similarly witty, insightful, and fascinating view of the duke of Westminster (the richest man in England), the duchess of Medinaceli (owner of more than a hundred castles and fifty titles), Prince Franz Josef of Liechtenstein, and several more of their elite colleagues. There's also quite a lengthy bibliography, but this one is worth reading for the anecdotes alone.

Marples, Morris. Princes in the Making: A Study of Royal Education. London: Faber & Faber, 1965.

Monarchs are born to their station but they also must be made ready to assume its duties. The tradition of consciously educating the heir to the throne in anything more than the military arts began with the Tudors and the Renais sance. The young Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth all of whom became monarchs in their turn were true prodigies, with what seems almost a genetic gift for languages, politics, geography, theological discourse (high intellectual sport in those days), and especially music. Elizabeth I is reckoned to have been perhaps the most gifted and certainly the most academically prepared woman in the Europe of her generation. The unfortunate Jane Grey was even more brilliant though, according to her instructors, she lacked the mental flexibility required of a successful ruler; had she lived and retained the throne, she might have become the Protestant equivalent of the intolerant Mary I. Education didn't come so easily to the Stewarts, but they persevered and were generally successful at least academically. The Hanoverian offspring were quite another matter, producing enough black sheep to turn any tutor's hair white. An interesting account of the transformation of extraordinary children into kings and queens.

Myers, Henry Allen and Herwig Wolfram. Medieval Kingship. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1982.

"The origins and development of Western monarchy in all stages from the fall Rome to the Fifteenth Century," and that about says it all. Excellent back ground reading on all the little delights of nomenclature bestowed upon us by the Franks and the Carolingians. Not really "genealogy," but you have to understand the history and the bureaucracy before you can follow the relationships and the titles.

Pine, Leslie G. The Genealogist's Encyclopedia.New York: Weybright & Talley, 1969.

Not nearly as broad in its subject matter as the title would suggest, this volume by a former editor of Burke's Peerage examines in depth (and with many illustrative examples) the value of ancient British and Continental oral genealogies, the trustworthiness of medieval lineages, and comparable records for Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. There are extensive chapters on heraldry, peerage law, orders of knighthood, the Scottish clans, and the whole system of titles. This should be required reading for anyone attempting British research of any kind, especially when faced with a claim to Roman or ancient Celtic descent. Pine also delights in describing the 9th century "gangster-types" from which such illustrious families as the Mountbattens descended.

Pine, Leslie G. Heraldry, Ancestry and Titles: Questions and Answers. New York: Gramercy Publishing Co., 1965.

Intended for the beginner, this non-threatening presentation of 161 questions and answers in 122 pages ranges from "Who can get a coat of arms?" and "Why do so many titles become extinct?" to "What is a County Palatine?" (Well? Do you know?) Morganatic marriages, "of that Ilk," Jacobite titles, the royal family's surname, and the difference between "dormant" and "abeyant" all make this compulsive reading.

Pine, Leslie G. The Story of Titles. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969.

From "Mister" to "Exalted Highness," the Anglo-European system of titles often, in documents, the most visible indications of aristocratic connections, and probably the least understood is made clear and comprehensible. The labels by which an historical figure is known may be the only clue, other than nomenclature, to his status in society and his relationships to other members of his class. Written for the relative beginner, but a good-brush-up for anyone.

Pine, Leslie G. Tales of the British Aristocracy. London: Burke Publishing Co., 1956

Strictly a non-reference book, this delightful volume discourses ingenuously on the ups and downs of a dozen impeccable British families, from the Howards and the De Courcys to the Wellesleys and the Nelsons. Filled with anecdotes from both his researches and her personal experiences, Pine is an entertaining (while still careful and accurate) storyteller.

Round, J. Horace. Family Origins and Other Studies. London: Constable & Co., 1930 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970).

This collection of articles and unpublished papers is a terrific book to open at random and just read. With titles like "The Mildmay Mystery," "The Heneage Fiction," and "An Approved Preconquest Pedigree," the author can hardly go wrong. The Churchills, Cavendishes, and numerous other families also come in for their share of Round's gimlet scrutiny in this memorial volume, which also includes a complete (and lengthy) bibliography of his writings.

Round, J. Horace. Peerage and Pedigree: Studies in Peerage Law and Family History. 2v. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1910 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970).

Only some of these essays are germane "Tales of the Conquest," "Some 'Saxon' Houses," etc. but all are diverting and instructive. Round never hesitated to voice his opinions in print (supported by close reasoning), and whether he strained at gnats or pursued a fancied challenge to his scholarship, few others were willing to joust with him. His thirty-year feud with Edward Freeman, author of History of the Norman Conquest, is especially famous.

Round, J. Horace. Studies in Peerage and Family History. Westminster: A. Constable & Co., 1901 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1970).

More of the same (actually, this came first). Detailed case studies of noble but non-royal English families, including Mowbray, Russell, Spencer, Stewart, and Ballon. Excellent and stimulating background reading, if you pay attention.

Smyth, Alfred P. Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles, 850-880. London: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Hollywood notwithstanding, the viking invaders of Britain and Ireland in the 9th century, whom the English generically called "Danes," were not merely raiders but settlers who founded dynasties in Northumbria, the Orkneys and Hebrides, York, and Dublin that lasted for several centuries. All this activity produced an elaborate body of heroic literature in Scandinavia and it is the northern viewpoint rather than the English that Smyth adopts. The first of the lot was Ragnar Lo brok (which translates roughly as "hairy ass"), who perished sword in hand, according to tradition, in the snake pit of King Aella of Northumbria. Ragnar's ancestry is unknown and probably unprovable (some scholars even argue that he was a legendary figure) but his progeny claimed as their grandfather Sigurd Ring –– the Siegfried of the Niebelungenlied. His sons seized on their father's murder as justification for a retaliatory invasion but the process actually was one of economic and population pressure. Genealogy figures prominently in this study, since so many of the conqueror-rulers were blood-related. The Anglo-Saxon and Norman dynasties continued the bloodlines. And what the monks of Lindisfarne recorded as pirate raids were, to the Norse, a well-organized campaign to occupy the fertile British Isles. This volume in the Oxford Historical Monograph series is a very readable treatment, supported by thorough footnotes and an extensive bibliography, of one of the main skeins of the history, language, and political traditions of England.

Please direct comments and inquiries to: Michael K. Smith
©1997-2001 Michael K. Smith / Updated: 4/01/2001