Ancestry of Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is the daughter of George VI, the second-eldest son of George V and Mary of Teck; and of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth, and, after her daughter's accession to the throne, the Queen Mother), the daughter of Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his wife, Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck, the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

Queen Elizabeth is the male-line great-granddaughter of Edward VII, who inherited the crown from his mother, Queen Victoria. His father, Victoria's consort, was Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; hence Queen Elizabeth is a patrilineal descendant of Albert's family, the German princely House of Wettin. (Other notable members of this house are King Albert II of Belgium and former King Simeon II of Bulgaria.) Traced as far as possible, Elizabeth's male-line ancestry stretches back to Conrad the Great of Meissen; see Patrilineal descent of Elizabeth II.

Through Victoria, as well as several other of her great-great-grandparents, Elizabeth is directly descended from many British royals: from the House of Stuart, from Robert the Bruce, and earlier Scottish royal houses; from the House of Tudor and earlier English royal houses stretching back as far as the 7th century House of Wessex.

As a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she is related to the heads of most other reigning and non-reigning European royal houses. Through her great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, she is descended from the Danish royal house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a line of the North German house of Oldenburg, one of the oldest in Europe. (Other members of the House of Glücksburg include Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as well as Margrethe II of Denmark, Harald V of Norway, Queen Sofia of Spain and former King Constantine II of Greece — each of whom is also descended from Queen Victoria.) Elizabeth is likewise descendant of Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange (1687 – 1711), who is a common ancestor to all reigning European royal houses.

Table

This table sets out the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II for five generations, numbered according to the Ahnentafel genealogical numbering system. Queen Elizabeth II is directly descended from Aethelflaed of Wessex's younger sister, Elfthryth.

1. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Parents

2. George VI of the United Kingdom
3. Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Grandparents

4. George V of the United Kingdom (father of 2)
5. Princess Mary of Teck (mother of 2)
6. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (father of 3)
7. Cecilia Cavendish-Bentnick (mother of 3)

Great-Grandparents

8. Edward VII of the United Kingdom (father of 4)
9. Princess Alexandra of Denmark (mother of 4)
10. Prince Francis, Duke of Teck (father of 5)
11. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (mother of 5)
12. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (father of 6)
13. Frances Dora Smith (mother of 6)
14. The Rev Charles Cavendish-Bentinck (father of 4) - 2nd marriage
15. Caroline Louisa Burnaby (mother of 7)