John of Gaunt (was No Rowling entry ...)

[justcarol67]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Sarah" <plungy116 at a...> wrote:
> 
> John of Gaunt's father, Edward III was my great(x20) grandad.  (My 
> other interest apart from Harry Potter is my family genealogy).  Does 
> this mean that by any twist of the imagination I am the heir of 
> Slytherin?
> 
> No, thought not! 
> 
> If you're interested in my family tree (I find it interesting anyway) 
> you can look at
> 
> http://www2.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=plungy&rand=38690
>  
> enjoy!
> Sarah xx


Very interesting, only I think your reference to "the reviled Richard
III" is a bit strong. (Granted, he beheaded William Hastings, but
there's evidence that Hastings was involved in a plot to murder
Richard, who was not yet king.) But since the rest of your site (as
much as I read of it) seems objective, that reference jumped out at
me. (I recommend Paul Murray Kendall's "Richard the Third" for more
information on both men.)

Maybe I was looking in the wrong places but I couldn't tell which of
Edward III's many children the Hastings are descended from. (There's
no evidence that I know of that Edward IV was illegitimate other than
a claim ostensibly made by an overenthusiastic Richard III supporter,
but some solid evidence that his children were since Edward was
officially betrothed to Eleanor Butler when he married Elizabeth
Woodville. None of which would have made the Hastings heirs to the
throne; it only made Richard III or his nephew Edward, son of George
Duke of Clarence  (whose claim had been set aside by Edward IV because
of Clarence's treason) the rightful heir. Still, I'd back the Hastings
over the Tudors any day. (Talk about kings who *ought* to be reviled!
Between them, Henry VII and VIII managed to kill off most of the
remaining Yorkist heirs.)

Carol

P.S. Did you look up John of Gaunt et al. on the Oxford DNB site (link
upthread)? There's still time if you hurry.