Honouring The Dead

Here’s something different to my usual Hallowe’en article. Just for a change, here’s my take on Hallowe’en and how today, All Soul’s Day, is just as important, and how one lgbt community has turned Hallowe’en’s true meaning into a popular celebration.

I’m sure you know that Hallowe’en is short for Hallows Evening, the night before All Hallows (or All Saints) Day, when the lives of Christian saints are honoured. This is followed by today, All Souls Day, when lives of all the departed are honoured. Hallowe’en is the English name for the Festa di Ognissanti, the real name, celebrated in Catholic churches today, and they don’t celebrate it with trick-or-treat and pumpkins (unless they copy the Americans).

I’ve often felt uncomfortable about the way Hallowe’en is celebrated. I know what the word Hallowe’en actually means and what it symbolises, and neither have anything to do with horror, trick-or-treat, or pumpkins. Most modern Hallowe’en practices originate in the USA, and most (not all) of them were appropriated from European Christmas traditions.

As I grew up I went along with the horror aspect of Hallowe’en because I was led to believe by the media that this was how it should be celebrated. When I left school I began research into all things historical, and I realised that what I was told about a lot of things were not completely accurate, including Hallowe’en.

There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun at Hallowe’en. I enjoy sitting down to watch “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy” or “Carry on Screaming”. But, like other genuine Christians, I also mark the day as it should be. No pumpkins, no scary costumes, and definitely no trick-or-treat.

Being quarter Irish, my main misgiving about modern Hallowe’en is the false belief that it is an Irish Celtic pagan festival. Neo-pagans and anti-Christians consistently claim that it originated in something called Samhain. They provide no evidence, except to repeat a lot of unsourced 17th century suppositions.

The name Samhain first appears in the 9th century, AFTER the Catholic Church created All Saint’s Day and Hallowe’en. The idea that Celts had a festival in October or November was first suggested in the 17th century by amateur “historians” who based their history on folklore and legend, not documentary evidence. There isn’t even any evidence to say what Samhain actually was. A festival? A month? A season? People who believe those old “historians” remind me of Mr. Copper in the “Doctor Who” episode “Voyage of the Damned”, who gives this description of Christmas:-

There are many reasons why horror, monsters and gore became associated with Hallowe’en, which will take too long to explain. Most of them don’t come from the Celts but from Germanic Christmas customs, but the Christian Hallowe’en has always been about honouring our ancestors, not being scared by them. Ironically, neo-pagans appropriated this idea for their modern Samhain.

European colonists in the 16th century took the above-mentioned Festa di Ognissanti with other festivals to the New World. The Spanish, in particular, had a large empire in the Americas, and it is in Latin America where we find that the closest observances to the original Hallowe’en are still celebrated. Their celebration is called the Dia de los Muertes. You probably know it better as Day of the Dead.

Let’s have a look at what is probably the longest running lgbt Day of the Dead festival, the Calavera LGBTQ Festival in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Calavera is the name given to representations of the human skull that are decorated with colourful patterns. You’ve probably seen some of these in your area. Originally, in the 18th century, they may have just been sugar candy skulls given to children.

 The Calavera LGBTQ Festival was created by the Latino Equality Alliance (LEA), an organisation founded in 2009 in response to California’s Proposition 8, a state amendment that outlawed gay marriage. LEA’s purpose is to promote equality and community for those of Latin-American heritage.

In 2016 LEA produced their first lgbt Day of the Dead events. First was a workshop where visitors could learn about the meaning and spirituality of the occasion and place small gifts on an ofrenda, an altar traditionally erected to honour the dead. These altars are erected everywhere during Day of the Dead, including people’s homes, in communal areas in streets, and on the graves of family ancestors. Several days later LEA hosted a Calavera Dance Party, where guests painted their faces like calaveras.

The impetus for the creation of this event was the terrible shooting in the “Pulse” nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the previous June in which many young people, mainly lgbtq, were killed. Perhaps LEA was also inspired by their Youth Council, who had set up an ofrenda in October 2015 to honour transgender murder victims.

In 2017 LEA held their second event, renamed the Calavera LGBT Community Celebration, and this marked the start of its annual return. Since then, ofrendas and acts of remembrance have gone alongside celebrations and traditional dances, and at the same time raising money for local lgbt Latin-American causes and charities.

From 2019 the event has had its current name of the Calavera LGBTQ Festival and has been held every year since then. Like many events during the Covid Year, 2020, the festival was held online, and was available to a wider audience. In 2021 the festival returned to its usual format. The most recent festival was held on 18th October.

With the focus of Hallowe’en, All Souls Day, and the Day of the Dead all being on honouring your ancestors it provides a perfect occasion for genealogist and family historians, which is how I usually celebrate these days. I concentrate on doing family history research (which is what I’m going to do after I’ve posted this, particularly research into my great-uncle who was a professional boxer) and placing (plastic) roses around photos of my family. For an alternative celebration you could decorate the walls with lgbtq flags as though it was Pride Month or your local Pride, or celebrate whatever other community you identify with, or all communities.

Day Of The Dead: Out Of His Hollywood Tree

We’re halfway through what the Christian Church calls Hallowtide. This is the 3-day period of remembrance and devotion to our ancestors. It began with All Hallow’s Eve (corrupted into Hallowe’en), followed by All Hallow’s Day (or All Saint’s Day), and tomorrow is All Soul’s Day. We don’t need to go into the history of Hallowtide, except to say that historians day there’s no evidence that there was any similar festival in pagan of pre-Christian times. No, the Celts didn’t have a festival called Samhain. As far the evidence suggests, Samhain was the name of a month or time of year, not a festival.

Mexico is the country that is most widely recognised as celebrating Hallowtide in a unique way in the festival which translates into English as the Day of the Dead. It was the Spanish colonists are recorded as taking Hallowtide to the Americas, and perhaps the ancestors of today’s subject was among them. The person whose ancestors I have chosen to delve into was the early Hollywood sex symbol Ramon Novarro (1859-1968).

There another reason why I have chosen him. Two days ago, the day before Hallowe’en, was the 55th anniversary of Ramon Novarro’s murder. You can read a bit about Ramon in this “80 Gays” article.

Ramon was not the only member of his family to make it big in the early days of cinema. His first cousin (daughter of his mother’s sister) was Andrea Palma (1903-1987), who became a big star in their native Mexico, though she did make a memorable supporting role in an American gilm, “Tarzan and the Mermaids” (1948) starring Johnny Weismuller.

A more distant cousin, Dolores del Rio (1904-1983), had bigger success in the US. She is particularly remembered as a lead character in “Flying Down to Rio” (1933), though people usually only remember two supporting actors, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the legendary dancing partnership first brought together for this film. Dolores and Ramon were third cousins, both being great-great-grandchildren of Leandro Sanchez Manzanera and his wife. Dolores was also famous for an affair she had with Orson Welles.

There are several other acting cousins of Ramon Novarro, including some alive today, but his ancestry shows no indication of where the acting bug came from. So, what is his ancestry?

Ramon Novarros’ real name was José Ramón Gal Samaniego. His parents were Dr. Mariano Sameniego (1871-1940) and Leonor Pérez-Gavilán (1872-1949). Both came from well-connected and prominent families with long lineages. Ultimately, as you might guess, the majority of Ramon’s ancestry came from Spain.

There is a tantalising rumour that Ramon has Aztec ancestry through his mother, to no less a person than Moctezuma (or Montezuma), probably the most famous Aztec “emperor”, but I am unable to find any information to verify this. However, that doesn’t stop Ramon from having family connections to other Mexican emperors. His grandfather’s great-uncle was married to the sister of Agustin I Yturbide (1783-1924), the first Emperor of Mexico after independence from Spain. He wasn’t in office long. There was a lot of opposition to Mexico becoming a monarchy, most strongly in the Mexican Congress. Agustin dismissed Congress and appointed his own. Very soon almost everyone else turned against him and he was ousted.

A feature of European colonialism is that quite a lot of the first colonists came from wealthy, landed families and minor aristocracy (most of the US Founding Fathers were from the upper classes). Because of this Agustin Yturbide can be put on the list of Ramon Novarro’s famous distant blood relatives in addition to his connection though marriage. Ramon and Agustin are descended from a Spanish noble called Fernán Yañez de Saavedra (d.1370). In turn, Fernán is descended from an illegitimate daughter of King Sancho IV of Castile (1221-1284). Going back further, and one of King Sancho’s ancestors was King Henry II of England, meaning I am a very distant cousin of Ramon Novarro also.

That opens up a huge catalogue of blood relatives that Ramon Novarro can claim. For this particular article, however, let’s just concentrate of some Hispanic cousins.

I haven’t done a massive amount of research into the ancestries of many Latin American or Spanish celebrities and famous people, though I have done some into those of national leaders. Through the same small group of Conquistadors in Ramon’s ancestry he is distantly related to at least two Presidents of El Salvador, six Presidents of Nicaragua, several dozen from Costa Rica, a couple from Colombia, and a couple from Argentina.

Among the Colombian Presidents in Virgilio Barco Vargas (1921-1997). One of my previous “Out of His Tree” articles featured President Barco’s gay son, the activist Virgilio Barco Isakson.

As far as Mexico is concerned, Ramon has at least four Mexican Presidents as distant cousins. One in particular is of interest, the fourth president Anastasio Bustamente (1780-1853). We enter Abraham Lincoln territory here. That is to say, there is clear evidence that the president shared a bed with another man, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate homosexuality. Both Lincoln and Bustamente shared a bed with another man. That was common in pre-20th century times. We have no evidence that any physical or sexual intimacy occurred. However, even though I still have reservations about the sexuality attributed to Abraham Lincoln I a have fewer regarding Anastasio Bustamente. It is widely reported that he preferred the company of young men, and he never married. So perhaps, he could have been gay.

Which other well-known Latin Americans are related to Ramon Novarro though his Conquistador ancestors? Well, there’s Che Guevara, Simon Bolivar, Eva Peron, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Going back and looking at Ramon’s non-Hispanic cousins, you can get a good idea from the articles I wrote about descendants of King Edward II of England, beginning here.

So, that’s Ramon Novarro’s family tree. It is dominated by the bloodlines and legacy of the Spanish Conquistadors. His immediate ancestry centres on the Durango province of Mexico, but most of his earliest colonial ancestors settled in the northern part of Spanish Mexico, the area which is now the US state of New Mexico.

Heraldic Alphabet 2023

Welcome to my 10th Heraldic Alphabet celebrating the annual International Heraldry Day with coats of arms in the lgbt+ community. Regular readers and fans of my Alphabets will notice several differences this year.

First, there are two letters with double entries because there are more armigers (people with a coat of arms) whose names begin with those letters.

Second, there’s an oval instead of a shield for the letter B1. This is explained in my detailed look at its owner, Bishop Eve Brunne.

Third, in England, when an armiger dies his or her coat of arms can be displayed at the funeral on a diamond shaped black wooden panel. Heraldic internet sites have used black backgrounds to commemorate recent deaths (e.g. Queen Elizabeth II). The black background I show marks the passing of Princess Abigail Kawananakoa of Hawaii last December.

Some nations still don’t allow women to use shields, only ovals or diamond lozenges. For the sake of visual uniformity I prefer to use shields, except for the example referred to above. The symbol ^ used in the list below indicates that the individual would use a lozenge.

I have chosen not to show the helmet, crest, motto, and/or animal supporters to which any armiger is entitled. These are best shown in future in-depth looks at their full heraldic achievement.

Some Quick Basic definitions

Arms of Office – arms of an institution or public office of which the person is the nominal head, used only during their term of office. Not all institutions or offices grant this right.

Assumed – arms adopted by a family where no heraldic authority exists. Also, arms that are not officially registered by any such authority that does exist.

Cadency mark – a specific symbol added to a family coat of arms to indicate the place in order of birth of the user (i.e. 1st son/daughter, 2nd son/daughter, etc.).

Family – arms usually borne by the family’s senior bloodline member. Other family members are often required to add differences (e.g. cadency marks). Some nations allow all family members to use the arms unaltered.

Marital – spouses (including same-sex couples in some countries) can chose to place their arms side by side on one shield. Heirs place theirs on a smaller shield or lozenge on their spouse’s. A person who is not an armiger can just display the arms of their spouse alone.

Personal – inherited family arms used by the individual, with or without differences and cadency marks. Also new arms granted by an official heraldic authority.

 Quarters – 4 or more divisions of a shield with a different inherited coat of arms in each. Some individuals are entitled to bear many quarters.

Without further ado, here is 2023’s Heraldic Alphabet:

A) Carl Austen-Behan (b.1972) – Lord Mayor of Manchester 2016, Mr. Gay UK 2001. Arms of office. Arms of the city of Manchester, granted by the College of Arms on 1st March 1842.

B1) Bishop Eva Brunne (b.1954) – Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm 2009-19. Arms of office. For more information see here.

B2) Hon. Toby Butterfield (b.1965) – British-American lawyer, Gay Games squash champion 2002. Personal arms. Arms granted to his father, Lord Butterfield, with Toby’s cadency mark as his 3rd son (star). The towers on either side of the lion are from the arms of Nottingham (Lord Butterfield was Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham University).

C) Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) – Florentine sculptor and goldsmith. Family arms. The lion is the original family arms. The fleurs-de-lys and “label” at the top is called a capo d’Anjou (see here).

D) Nils Dardel (1888-1943) – Swedish artist. Family arms granted to his great-grandfather Georges-Alexandre Dardel, a Swiss army officer knighted, ennobled and granted arms by the King of Sweden on 21st May 1810.

E) Reginald, Lord Esher (1852-1930) – Sir Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher. Personal arms. The Brett family arms are the gold lions. They are holding a fasces, a symbol of authority in the Roman Empire (where we get the modern word “fascist” - this does not imply that the family has any fascist associations). The 3 leopard faces were inherited from the Wilfords of Enfield. The bears’ heads are inherited from the Forbes of Edinglassie.

F) Laudomia Forteguerri (1515-1555) – Italian poet. Family arms. The pattern on the right side is called vair. It represents pieces of squirrel fur (“varus” is Latin for squirrel) sewn together to form the lining of a medieval cloak. Blue represents the squirrel’s back fur, white represents its belly fur.

G) Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000) – British actor. Family arms. The Gielguds are untitled Polish nobility. Sir John’s great-grandfather fled to England during Russian occupation of Poland. I have not determined if Sir John had an English grant of arms. This is his inherited Polish arms. They are derived from an older coat of arms belonging to the Dzialosza family to which the Gielgud family are related.

H) Capt. Myles Hildyard (1914-2005) – British army officer, and historian. Personal arms. The blue quarters are the Hildyard arms. The white quarters with the bugles are inherited from the Thoroton family. Capt. Hildyard was President of the Thoroton Society, a historical society named after his ancestral uncle, an antiquarian called Robert Thoroton (1628-1678).

I) Ruth Illingworth – Mayor of Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland, 2009-10; the first openly lgbt mayor in Ireland. Arms of office. Probably assumed arms, as I cannot find any official grant. This design is based on the town’s 18th century civic seal. The wheel represents the mill-wheel of a local landmark – the name Mullingar means “left-hand mill”. Other objects on the shield represent local heritage and families.

J) Lady Catherine Jones (1672-1740) ^ – British philanthropist and women’s rights advocate, daughter of the Earl of Ranelagh. Family arms. The objects in the corners are called pheons, representing arrow heads.

K) Princess Abigail Kinoiki Kehaulike Kawananakoa (1926-2022) – Hawaiian princess and heir to the Hawaiian throne. Inherited arms, being those of the kingdom of Hawaii granted by the College of Arms in May 1845. Had the kingdom survived, these are the arms Princess Abigail would have used as Queen. Minor changes were made when it was chosen for the state seal of Hawaii in 1959. The stripes are prominent on the state flag.

L) Ellen Lascelles (b.1984) ^ – British recruitment consultant. Personal arms. Ellen’s great-grandmother was Princess Mary, Queen Elizabeth II’s aunt. Princess Mary had her own variation of the royal arms (bottom left), making her children her heraldic heirs, including Ellen’s father who would have added the star as a third son. The yellow crosses are the Lascelles family arms. They inherited the cross with the lion from the Burkes of Clanricarde.

M) Erica Mann (1905-1969) ^ - German actor and author. Attributed marital arms. I included the Mann family in last year’s Alphabet. If her family’s German arms were permitted in England, this is how Erica’s arms could have looked as wife of author W. H. Auden (see 2016 Alphabet). They married to allow Erica to flee Nazi persecution and become a British citizen.

N) Rt. Rev. Szymon Niemiec (b.1977) – Bishop of the United Christian Church of Poland, founder of Polish Pride, and psychotherapist. Personal arms, granted by the United Christian Church. Red and white are the Polish national colours. The angels (Gabriel left, Michael right) deliberately break the heraldic rule of never putting white on white. This symbolises the angels’ spiritual nature. The chalice and disc represent Holy Communion. The “X” on the disc is also the family arms of the Niemiec family.

O) Dr. Rachel Wyndham Obbard – American Professor, and planetary scientist. Family arms. These arms were granted to Dr. Rachel’s 3-times great-grandfather, Robert Obbard, by the College of Arms on 12 February 1850. The crescent indicates her descent from a 2nd son.

P) Dennis Price (1915-1973) – British actor. Family arms. For more information see here.

R) John Randolph (1773-1833) – US Congressman and Senator. Assumed arms. John Randolph is believed to have had a form of genetic gender variation, probably Klinefelter syndrome. The first Randolphs to settle in Virginia used the arms of the Randolphs of Kent who used black stars. There’s no known link between the two families. John’s great-grandfather was the first to use red stars.

S) Mrs. Sarah Scott, née Robinson (1720-1785) ^ - British novelist and social reformer. Personal arms. Sarah and her brother became heraldic heirs to the Robinson family in 1794. The deer features in many Robinson family arms. Sarah’s marriage to George Scott was for his financial benefit and was not a happy one.

T) Ernest Thesiger (1879-1961) – British actor. Personal arms. Granted to his grandfather, Sir Frederick Thesiger, in 1844 when he was knighted. Sir Frederick’s 5th son is Ernest Thesiger’s father, hence the cadency mark of a ring.

V1) Sándor Vay (1859-1918) – Hungarian poet and journalist. Family arms. Born Countess Sarolta Vay. The original Vay arms date from 1418 and show just the deer and arrow, facing the other way. Later generations modified and added to the design. This particular design was adopted by Sandor’s paternal grandfather,

V2) Count Gottfried von Cramm (1909-1976) – German tennis player. Family arms. For more information see here.

W) Dame Veronica Wedgwood (1910-1997) ^ – British historian. Personal arms. A member of the famous Wedgwood pottery family. These arms were confirmed to Dame Veronica’s ancestor, John Wedgwood, by the College of Arms on 20 November 1576.

Y) Dame Eileen Younghusband (1902-1981) ^ - British pioneer of social work training. Family arms. These arms appear on the memorial to one of her great-uncles, and are still used by descendants of another. This implies that her grandfather could also use them and, therefore, Dame Eileen could inherit them.

Queer Achievement: Arms For A Price

[Achievement – the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of arms.]

It’s been a while since I did an in-depth look at the heraldic achievement of a specific individual, so I’ll rectify that today with a look at the full coat of arms of the British actor Dennis Price (1915-1973). His arms are these –

It’s more than 30 years since I began researching and drawing the coats of arms of famous people. Dennis Price was one of the first ones I did (at about the same time that I did Jeremy Brett’s). I didn’t know at the time that they were both bisexual.

The arms shown above are scanned from my original artwork, which was made before I had access to a computer, which I’ve “tweaked” and tidied up.

Dennis’s full name was Dennistoun Franklin John Rose Price. All except the name John were names of families that feature in his ancestry. I won’t go into the full genealogical profile today but skim through it to tell you where the names came from. Through his paternal grandmother Dennis is descended from the Dennistoun’s of Colgrain near Argyll in Scotland. Franklin is the family name of his paternal great-grandmother (sister of the explorer Sir John Franklin). Rose was the name of the family from whom Dennis’s ancestors inherited Rose Hall on Jamaica (yes, we have to acknowledge that both the Price and Rose families were slave owners). Even though the Dennistoun, Franklin and Rose families all have a coat of arms, none of them were passed down to the Prices through heraldic heirs. This leaves us with just the Price coat of arms.

The Price family is of Welsh origin. Dennis can trace his male line ancestry back with certainty to Capt. Francis Price who was the first member of the family to settle in Jamaica in 1655 after Oliver Cromwell (the Putin of Britain during the, thankfully, brief period when we were a republic) decided to invade Jamaica. Capt. Price probably descended from the Prices of Brecknock in Wales, or at least claimed some family association because the coat of arms granted to Captain Price’s grandson are very similar to theirs. Here are some of the arms known to belong to Price families in the Brecknock area. The earliest, on the left, dates to 1546.

The similarities (spearheads, chevron and black background) do not necessarily indicate a family blood relationship but are frequently adopted and granted with changes, even today, where there is a geographical connection or the same family name.

The specific coat of arms that Dennis Price inherited were granted to an ancestral uncle, the grandson of Capt. Price mentioned above. He was Sir Charles Price (1708-1772), Speaker of the Jamaica House of Assembly, who was created a baronet (hereditary knighthood) in 1768.

The arms were granted to Sir Charles on 13th August 1766 by the College of Arms and included a special limitation, a clause which indicates if other members of the family are allowed to inherit it. This is now common practice. If I were granted a coat of arms it could be extended to include all descendants and heirs of my paternal grandfather. Sir Charles had only one child, a son, who died childless. So, Sir Charles’s youngest brother, John, inherited this coat of arms and passed them down to his descendants, which included his 3-times great-grandson Dennis Price.

Usually, there are other symbolic explanations for every object in a coat of arms. The shield, as I’ve said, is probably to indicate some sort of connection to the Brecknock family. The dragon’s head in the crest was granted specifically to Sir Charles Price and his heirs. It may have been symbolic of the family’s Welsh ancestry. The bloody hand may indicate that Charles was a baronet, as a red hand is the badge of this particular order of knighthood and often appears on a little shield placed somewhere on the main shield.

Next we come to the star and the bird. These are both cadency marks, something placed on a shield to indicate which son in the family you are. I am the third son of my father, so I would have a star. Dennis descends from the third son of the above-mentioned John Price. Added to this, Dennis is descended from that third son’s fourth son (confused?), so he places a special bird called a martlet on top of the star. Technically, new cadency marks would be added generation after generation, but in practice they are often reduced to just one or omitted altogether to stop the arms from becoming cluttered with cadency marks.

Usually, if a husband and wife (now also same-sex married couples) both have a coat of arms they place them side by side on one shield, the husband’s on the viewer’s left (each person in a same-sex marriage can put their own arms on the left and their partner’s on the right). During his brief marriage to Joan Schofield (1920-2017) Dennis Price could have displayed his marital coat of arms as below. Joan’s family name was Temperley, and arms she could have used are those shown on the memorial plaque to her paternal uncle Rev. Canon Arthur Temperley. If there are cadency marks both the husband and wife can omit them, as I’ve shown.

Lastly there is the motto. This is in Welsh and translates as “All Depends on God”.

For heraldry fans, there's my annual Heraldic Alphabet to look forward to in June.

Game of Gay Thrones 7: Byzantium, Korea, England and Baden

Here we are again with another group of lgbt royal wannabes. Included are a couple of spouses who, for one reason or another, were prevented from sitting beside their spouses. I never stop being surprised by the number of queer claimants and disinherited heirs to thrones past and present there have been, not to mention their spouses. There are even more to come next year.

Imperial symbol adopted by the Byzantine emperors

1) Basiliskianos (pre-846- after 866); named as a possible Emperor of Byzantium, 866.

The throne of Byzantium has seen more than its fair share of dethronements, assassinations and claimants. Basiliskianos became a pawn in the power struggle between Emperor Mikhael III (840-866) and his lover and co-Emperor Basileios (c.830-886). I explain the emperors’ relationship in more detail here. Briefly, Mikhael spotted Basileios at a sporting event and became besotted with him. He later made him co-emperor.

In 866 Mikhael began to show more than a casual interest in a young courtier called Basiliskianos. After Mikhael won a chariot race Basiliskianos gave him a lot of enthusiastic praise. The emperor was wearing the imperial red boots, and he told Basiliskianos to remove them and wear them himself. This angered co-emperor Basileios and a bit of an argument ensured. Mikhael said to him “I made you emperor, and do I not have the power to create another?” He later added, “I am ready to make Basiliskianos emperor”. He never did, but the possibility was always there and it upset Basileios enough to assassinate Mikhael. There’s no record of what happened to Basiliskianos after Mikhael died.

Imperial emblem on the Joseon kingdom

2) Crown Princess Sun-Bin Bong (1414-after 1436); consort of the future king of Josean.

Sun-Bin was a member of the aristocratic Haeum Bong clan. In 1429 she married Crown Prince Hi Hyang of the Joseon kingdom in Korea. The marriage, however, was not a very congenial one, and it is reported that the king himself told the Crown Prince to take more interest in his new bride. It didn’t help the marriage, and it deteriorated even more when Princess Bong got angry after one of the Crown Prince’s concubines became pregnant.

Another stumbling block in the marriage was Princess Bong’s habit of giving clothes from the royal wardrobe to her own family. But what really put an end to the marriage, and any chance of her sitting on the Korean throne with her husband in the future, was her blatant over-friendliness towards her female servants, in particular a maid with whom she confesses to having been intimate with on more than one occasion.

This was too much for the king and he banished Sun-Bin Bong from court, annulled the marriage, and reduced her to the rank of commoner. As with Basiliskianos above, there’s no real record of what happened to her after that.

Coat of arms the Mervyn, Earl of Castlehaven

3) Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven (1594-1631); consort of the legal heir to King Henry VIII of England.

Before the 1701 Act of Settlement defined the order of succession to the British throne it was sometimes decided by the last will of the previous monarch. King Henry VIII’s will of 1546 decreed that after the extinction of his own descendants the throne should pass to descendants of his younger sister, not his elder sister as would have been the case under primogeniture rules.

After the last of Henry VIII’s children, Queen Elizabeth I, died in 1603 the heir to the throne under his will was Lady Anne Stanley (1580-1647), who should have become Queen Anne. However, parliament decided to ignore the will and gave the throne to the primogeniture heir, the gay King James VI of Scotland. Some people considered Anne to be the rightful monarch though she never pressed her claim.

It is Anne’s second husband, the Earl of Castlehaven, who is our lgbt royal wannabe. Their marriage was disastrous. I wrote about it several years ago and it is best to read about it here because it’s a bit complicated. Thankfully, the whole sordid affair ended in 1631 when the earl was executed and he never got the chance to be the prince consort to the lawful (under King Henry’s will) queen of England.

Coat of arms of the Pinces Sanguszko-Lubartowicz

4) Prince Janusz Sanguszko-Lubartowicz (1712-1775); bloodline heir of King Harold II of England.

The most famous date in English history is 1066 – the year of 4 kings and 2 invasions. King Edward the Confessor died and was succeeded by King Harold II. Harold faced an invasion led by William of Normandy. Harold was killed in battle, but before William could take the throne as the victor one of King Edward’s nephews was declared king. He quickly abdicated in William’s favour.

Several sites online track Harold’s bloodline to determine who is his direct heir. None match my own research, which I believe is accurate. Harold’s bloodline passed through his daughter to the Kievan royal family, then to the Princes of Warsaw, and finally to the Counts Potocki, the present heirs. On the way several senior bloodlines became extinct and switched to surviving junior branches. One such senior line ended with Prince Janusz Sanguszko-Lubart.

Janusz became Harold’s heir at the age of 17 on the death of his mother, the previous bloodline heir. Janusz was a bit of a party animal and squandered his inheritance on parties and his many gay lovers. In contrast, he was also a great benefactor to local religious institutions. In 1730 he entered a dynastic marriage, but he showed little interest in performing his dynastic duty by fathering an heir. His wife soon left him, and Prince Janusz spent the rest of his life trying unsuccessfully to have his marriage annulled.

In 1748 his openly gay lifestyle was forced temporarily into the closet when his father imprisoned his lover for fraud. Two years later, his father died and Janusz had another vast inheritance to squander away. Although not interested in politics the king of Poland-Lithuania appointed him a Court Marshal, among other offices.

When Janusz died in 1775 he was in debt and there were no close living relatives on his mother’s side, King Harold’s bloodline, to succeed him. It had to go back to descendants of his great-grandfather’s younger brother, from which it has passed to today.

Coat of arms of the Grand Dukes of Baden

5) Prince Maximilian von Baden (1876-1929); heir presumptive to the Grand Duchy of Baden.

The Grand Duchy of Baden was one of the sovereign states within the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire until it was abolished in 1918. The last Grand Duke was Prince Friedrich II (1857-1928). He was childless and his cousin Prince Maximilian was his nearest living male relative and heir presumptive.

In the 1890s the British Queen Victoria attempted to marry Maximilian to her grand-daughter, Princess Alexandra von Hessen. Alexandra wasn’t interested because she was already in love with the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. I wonder how history would have been different if Alexandra had married Maximilian. After all, it was Alexandra’s relationship with Rasputin that was one of the causes of the Russian Revolution.

In 1900 Prince Maximilian did marry into the British royal family. His wife was Princess Marie Louise, one of Queen Victoria’s cousins and a member of the “old Royal Family” (i.e. junior descendants of King George III), the Cumberlands. This branch of the family still exists, but most of them sided with Germany in World War I and were deprived of their British royal titles, Princess Marie Louise included.

Before his marriage Prince Maximilian was listed in Berlin police records as a homosexual. This fact was only revealed in a biography of him in 2013. Maximilian and Marie Louise had two children, both of whom have interesting connections. Their son married the late Duke of Edinburgh’s sister (he was named after Prince Philipp von Hessen, heir presumptive of Finland). Maximilian’s daughter married Philipp von Hessen’s twin brother.

In September 1918, when it seemed Germany would lose the war, the Kaiser appointed Prince Maximilian as Chancellor of Germany. The following day the Kaiser offered an armistice to the Allies and Maximilian advised him to abdicate. Once armistice was accepted a political “rebellion” against the Kaiser’s appointments forced Maximilian to resign. A republic was declared, royal titles were abolished, and Maximilian spent the rest of his life in retirement. On his cousin’s death in 1928 he became the head of the abolished Baden royal family, and claimed by monarchists as the rightful Grand Duke of Baden. He died the following year.

William and John: Part 6) Outlaws and Villains

We return to the story of Sir William Neville and his partner Sir John Clanvowe. Last time we concentrated on Sir John’s writings, specifically my theory that he wrote the original version of the Robin Hood ballad later printed as “The Geste of Robyn Hode”, the basis of every film and television version that are familiar today.

Today we look at characters in “The Geste” and discover how some of them can be connected to Sir John and Sir William.

First of all, forget about the characters who don’t appear in “The Geste” – Prince John, King Richard, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck. They were added to the legends later. So, which of the remaining characters are connected to Sir John and Sir William? Below is a family tree to help explain those connections.

THE HIGH SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

The man who appears in "The Geste" is the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, not the Sheriff of Nottingham. (See here for my own connection to the real Sheriff of Nottingham.) He is never mentioned by name, though historians suggest he may have been modelled on Sir Henry Fauconberg. When King Edward II visited Nottingham in 1324 to pardon outlaws, an event which features in “The Geste”, Sir Henry Fauconberg was the High Sheriff.

The Fauconberg family were related to the Nevilles. Sir William Neville’s aunt was married to Sir Walter Fauconberg, whose father leased a manor in Holderness, East Yorkshire, to his second-cousin (i.e. they shared one set of great-grandparents), who the father of High Sheriff Sir Henry Fauconberg.

As a supporter of King Edward in a rebellion of 1322 Sir Henry was rewarded by being appointed Commissioner of Array for Yorkshire, responsible for raising troops for battle. However, he got this appointment at the expense of his predecessor, Lord Waleys, the grandfather of Sir William Neville’s wife, Elizabeth. Lord Waleys’ manors were seized by the Crown and he had to pay a large fine. Even though he was pardoned by King Edward at Nottingham (as Robin Hood was in “The Geste”) in 1324 and had his manors returned, his appointments weren’t and he would have had no good feelings towards Sir Henry Fauconberg.

Other High Sheriffs have also been suggested as the model for Robin Hood’s archenemy.

LITTLE JOHN

In "The Geste" Little John says he is the disinherited heir of a manor in Holderness. Sir Henry Fauconberg had an older brother called Sir John who, for reasons that are not clear, was deprived of manors in both Holderness and Sherwood. However, there is an absence of any recognition between Little John and the High Sheriff when they meet in “The Geste”, though Little John was in disguise at the time and probably didn’t want to be recognised.

GUY OF GISBORNE

This character who doesn’t appear in “The Geste” yet is now an integral part of the legend and can be linked to the Fauconbergs. He first appears in a separate manuscript ballad dated to around 1475.

Historians suggest that Gisborne refers to a town in Lancashire just over the Yorkshire border. However, others have pointed out that in Sir John Clanvowe’s lifetime, Gisborne was also a name applied to the town of Guisborough in Northumberland. Guisborough was a familiar to Sir John Clanvowe and the Neville family as they would have passed through it on their way to the Neville estates in the north, and the lords of Guisborough at the time were the Fauconbergs. So, I believe Guy of Gisborne should today be called Guy of Guisborough.

Bearing in mind that Guy of Gisborne was a bounty hunter it would be the High Sheriff to whom he would have handed Robin Hood. With his Fauconberg connection Guy would be another suitably villainous addition to the ballads. Which makes me wonder, is the earliest surviving manuscript of “Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne” copied from one that Sir John Clanvowe wrote a century earlier?

SIR ROGER OF DONCASTER AND THE PRIORESS OF KIRKLEES

Sir Roger of Doncaster and his mistress the Prioress of Kirklees murder Robin Hood in “The Geste”.

Doncaster is a Yorkshire town (and my birthplace) between Barnsdale and Sherwood. A family called de Doncastre lived in the area during the 1300s and some of them held judicial and manorial offices. For instance, Sir John de Doncastre was steward to the Abbot of St. Mary’s in York, an abbott from whom Robin Hood stole in “The Geste”.  Being in the abbot’s service, this would place Sir John, named as Sir Roger of Doncaster in “The Geste”, on the villains list. Sir John was also Steward of Wakefield in 1324, where manorial rolls include the name of a Robert Hode (Robert and Robin were interchangeable names).

Moving on to the Prioress of Kirklees, a noted historian called Joseph Hunter (1783-1861) formulated a theory about her in the 1830s. He said that Robin Hood was based on Robert Hode of Wakefield. "The Geste" says that the Prioress was “nye was of his kin", i.e. near kin to Robert Hode. Hunter suggested that the Prioress of Kirklees was called Elizabeth de Stainton, and that she was step-sister to Robert Hode's wife, Matilda.

The Staintons were landowners in Tickhill, a town 7 miles from Doncaster. It is interesting to note that one Sir John de Doncastre was Constable of Tickhill Castle from 1304, very likely the same man who was Steward of Wakefield, so he would have known the Staintons as well as Robert Hode of Wakefield.

There’s no contemporary record naming Elizabeth de Stainton as a Prioress of Kirklees. It has been assumed that she was appointed during a gap in the records between 1328 and 1350. But there’s a problem. The only records which mention an Elizabeth de Stainton say she was under 12 years old in 1347, making it impossible for her to be the Prioress of Kirklees between the above dates. Perhaps Joseph Hunter was wrong, or that the prioress is a general composite character.

SIR RICHARD AT THE LEE

Sir Richard at the Lee is a major character in later parts of "The Geste". He gives refuge to Robin Hood and his Merry Men after a battle with the High Sheriff. From this point until the end of the ballad Sir Richard is a companion of Robin Hood. A similar scenario had already appeared in the poem "Fulk le Fitz Waryn" dating from 1260. As mentioned in Part 5, Sir John Clanvowe was familiar with the legend of Fulk le Fitz Waryn and clearly used it as the basis for the story of Sir Richard at the Lee.

GILBERT OF THE WHITE HANDS

This character only appears briefly twice in "The Geste" as one of the Merry Men taking part in two archery contests; the famous contest at Nottingham Castle and one later in the forest against the king. "The Geste" implies Gilbert is the second best marksman in England after Robin Hood. It is surprising, therefore, that Gilbert doesn’t appear have his own set of folk tales and ballads. So, who was he?

I think the answer lies in "the White Hands". Among the many different feudal services in England was the presentation of white leather gloves (white hands?) at the coronation of the monarch by the Furnival family as lords of Farnham Royal in Buckinghamshire. After 1379 this hereditary service was vested in Joan Furnival who married Sir Thomas Neville, Sir William's nephew. During the visits of King Richard II to Nottingham Castle during the 1380s, when Sir William was its Constable, the Furnivals would have been expected to be present, as they were also the lords of Worksop in north Nottinghamshire.

Alternatively, could "white hands" actually be "white hounds"? In the 14th century "hand" and "hound" were often spelt and pronounced the same. Could the first printers of "The Geste" (c.1492-1534) have misinterpreted the word from the original manuscript and the actual name should read “Gilbert of the White Hounds”? This also fits the Furnivals. They had to give two white hunting hounds to the king as part of their feudal service as lords of Worksop. What better time and place to present them than during a royal visit to Nottingham Castle. But the Furnivals don't provide us with a Gilbert. However...

A white hound was the livery badge of the Talbot family, and this type of hound became so associated with them that it was named after them – talbot. The word talbot is still used in heraldry for a hunting dog and still appears as the Talbot’s crest. The feudal presentation to the king of white hounds, and also that of white gloves, passed from Joan Neville to her son-in-law, Sir John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (whose father was Sir John Clanvowe’s cousin). There were three Gilberts in the Talbot family tree - the 1st, 3rd and 5th Barons.

Perhaps one of these Gilberts, even both the 3rd Baron Talbot and the young, future 5th Baron, was present with their famous white hounds when Sir John Clanvowe, as I believe, presented his ballad for the first time in front of the king and court at Nottingham Castle in the mid 1380s.

Perhaps we’ll never know if my theory is correct, but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest to me that I’m right.

That’s enough speculation. We return to established fact in the next and final part of the lives of Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe, in which we encounter pirates of the Mediterranean.

Out of King Edward's Tree: Part 3

Today is St. George’s Day. St. George became the patron saint of England during the reign of King Edward III (1312-1377). Over the past two days I have listed the many lgbt descendants of King Edward, and his father, the gay King Edward II (1284-1327). See my article of two days ago for the family tree which shows which of Edward III’s grandchildren the following people descend.

List 8 – descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort (c.1379-1440) through the Nevilles

Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926), poet and suffragette (61 lines)

Hon. Hugh Lygon (1904-1936), banker (697 lines)

T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935), Lawrence of Arabia, author and adventurer (16 lines)

Pamela Schwerdt (1931-2009), horticulturalist (70 lines)

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), author (81 lines)

Edward Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (1926-2015) activist and motor museum owner (320 lines)

Roden Noel (1834-1894), poet (27 lines)

Rupert Buxton (1900-1921), Oxford University student (27 lines)

George Mallory (1886-1924), mountaineer (26 lines)

Fiona Cunnigham-Reid (b.1956), documentary film-maker (281 lines)

William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806), Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister (8 lines)

John Waters (b.1946), film director (3 lines)

Glen Maxey (b.1952), American politician (3 lines)

Sir John Bramston (1832-1921), Australian politician (10 lines)

Margaret Damer Dawson (1873-1920), co-founder of women’s police force (29 lines)

Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), artist (10 lines)

Ellen Degeneres (b.1958), broadcaster and comedian (7 lines)

E. M. Forster (1879-1970), author (15 lines)

William Leonard Courtney (1850-1928); author and philosopher (12 lines)

Peter Cokes (1913-2008), actor (16 lines)

Patrick Trevor-Roper (1916-2004), eye surgeon and activist (45 lines)

Ernest Thesiger (1879-1961), actor (23 lines)

Clare Balding (b.1971), sports broadcaster (263 lines)

Cara Delevigne (b.1992), actor (66 lines)

William Beckford (1760-1844), novelist and arts patron (4 lines)

Francis Bacon (1909-1992), artist (6 lines)

Marlon Brando (1924-2004), actor (2 lines)

Randolph Scott (1898-1987), actor (2 lines)

Gore Vidal (1925-2012), author (2 lines)

Dale Parker Anderson (b.1965), activist, founder of lgbt micronation (1 line)

George Seymour, 7th Marquess of Hertford (1871-1940), party giver (141 lines)

Tony Scupham-Bilton (b.1960), historian, writer of The Queerstory Files (4 lines)

Peggy Seeger (b.1935), singer and songwriter (2 lines)

Vincent Price (1911-1993), actor and art collector (4 lines)

Victoria Price (b.1962), author and public speaker (4 lines)

Leona Holbrook (1909-1980), Professor of Physical Education (2 lines)

Frances Norma Loring (1887-1968), sculptor and artist (2 lines)

Reynell Grissell (1927-1999), classical pianist (4 lines)

Very Rev. Charles Vaughan (1816-1897), Dean of Llandaff Cathedral (4 lines)

Eustace Robb (1899-1985), television producer (8 lines)

Rt. Hon. Jeremy Thorpe (1929-2014), MP, Leader of the Liberal Party (4 lines)

Lady Eve Balfour (1899-1990), pioneer of organic farming (116 lines)

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), author (2 lines)

G. DeWolf Shaw (b.1950), human capital evaluator (2 lines)

Gerald Heard (1889-1971), historian, author and philosopher (1 line)

Hon. Eleanor Acheson (b.1947), US Assistant Attorney General (10 lines)

Sir Robert Herbert (1831-1905), Premier of Queensland (70 lines)

Mark Frankland (1934-2012), journalist and spy (14 lines)

Divine (1945-1988), actor and performer (3 lines)

Cynthia Nixon (b.1966), actor (3 lines)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), author (3 lines)

Doris Fielding Reid (1895-1973), stockbroker (8 lines)

John Holmes III (b.1984), flower shop proprietor (8 lines)

List 9 – Descendants of Princess Constance of York (c.1374-1416)

Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829), one of the Ladies of Llangollen (2 lines)

Sir Arthur Vicars (1862-1921), herald (1 line)

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), author (1 line)

Dolly Wilde (after 1893-1941), socialite (1 line)

List 10 – Descendant of Princess Anne, Countess of Buckingham (1383-1438)

Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool (b.1954), Assistant Bishop of New York (2 lines)

Out of King Edward's Tree: Part 2

Here is the second part of the list of lgbt descendants of King Edward III, who made St. George the patron saint of England, and his father, the gay King Edward II. See yesterday’s article for the chart which shows which of Edward III’s grandchildren the following people descend. Again, the numbers after their occupation are the total known lines of descent of that person from the two Edwards.

List 4 – descendants of John and Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset

James Ogilvy, 7th Earl of Findlater (1750-1811), architect (22 lines)

Rt. Rev. Percy Jocelyn (1764-1843), Bishop of Clogher (24 lines)

Julia Pell (1953-2006), civil rights advocate (1 line)

Myles Hildyard (1914-2005), landowner (18 lines)

Philip Streatfield (1879-1915), artist (48 lines)

Lady Anna Gordon (b.1988), 1st same-sex engagement announced in the Daily Telegraph (504 lines)

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945), partner of Oscar Wilde (70 lines)

Stephen Tennant (1906-1987), socialite (69 lines)

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), author (6 lines)

Una, Lady Troubridge (1887-1963), sculptor and author (13 lines)

Judith Furse (1912-1974), actor and director (13 lines)

Rupert Barneby (1911-2000), botanical scientist (2 lines)

Olive Custance (1874-1944), poet (20 lines)

Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven (1593-1631), rapist (1 line)

List 5 – Descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort (1407-1445)

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), First Lady of America (1 line)

Joseph Alsop (1910-1989), journalist (1 line)

Alan Turing (1912-1954), codebreaker and mathematician (20 lines)

Miranda Ponsonby (b.1933), author, transgender (7 lines)

Robert Boothby, 1st Baron Boothby (1900-1986), politician (19 lines)

Dennis Price (1915-1973) actor (41 lines)

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), author (20 lines)

Alexander Hamilton (c.1756-1804), Founding Father of America (1 line)

Jasper Conran (b.1959), designer (16 lines)

Francilia Agar (b.1975), Olympic swimmer (50 lines)

Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), author (3 lines)

Duncan Grant (1885-1978), artist (3 lines)

Michael Pitt-Rivers (1919-2000), activist (499 lines)

Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton (1840-1870); politician (260 lines)

Prince Egon von Furstenberg (1946-2004), fashion designer (146 lines)

William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872-1938), colonial governor (48 lines)

Bram Stoker (1847-1912), author (2 lines)

Simon Fanshawe (b.1956), broadcaster (220 lines)

John Hervey, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), politician (15 lines)

Tamsin Ormond (b.1984), environmental activist and journalist (15 lines)

Norman Douglas (1868-1952), author (12 lines)

Ursula Bethell (1874-1945), poet and social worker (8 lines)

George Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824), poet (16 lines)

Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), composer (1 line)

Sir Ewan Forbes, 11th Bt., (1912-1991), 1st transgender knight (20 lines)

Eileen Gray (1878-1976), architect (29 lines)

Francis Turville-Petre (1901-1941), archaeologist (73 lines)

Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Bt. (1874-1944), oriental scholar (16 lines)

Sir Peter Pears (1910-1986), classical singer (13 lines)

Hon. Edward Adeane (1939-2015), civil servant (33 lines)

Sir Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley (1545-1567), husband of Mary, Queen of Scots (7 lines)

King James I Stewart of Great-Britain (1566-1625) (13 lines)

Lord Ivar Mountbatten (b.1963), cousin of the Prince of Wales (26 lines)

Prince Philipp von Hessen (1896-1980), Landgrave of Hesse (13 lines)

King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia (1712-1786) (13 lines)

King Gustav III of Sweden (1746-1792) (13 lines)

King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886) (13 lines)

Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon (1902-1977), politician (2 lines)

Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973), actor, author, songwriter (1 line)

Daniel Veatch (b.1965), Olympic swimmer (1 line)

List 6 – descendants of Cardinal Henry Beaufort (c.1375-1447)

Martha Eliot (1891-1978), Assistant Director of WHO (1 line)

Charles Adams (1770-1800), lawyer (1 line)

Sally Ride (1951-2012), astronaut (4 lines)

Rosamund Grosvenor (1888-1940), socialite (8 lines)

Will Young (b.1979), singer and actor (6 lines)

Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831), one of the Ladies of Llangollen (4 lines)

Violet Martin (1862-1915), author (15 lines)

Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington (1885-1972), diplomat (32 lines)

Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu (d.1762), author, traveller (15 lines)

June Millington (b.1948), musician and songwriter (1 line)

List 7 – descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort (c.1379-1440) through the Ferrers family

Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), composer (2 lines)

Montgomery Clift (1920-1966), actor (1 line)

Tomorrow I give the third and last group of lgbt descendants with royal blood.