Illegitimate Children of English and British Kings
William I (the Conqueror)
William had no known illegitimate children, but he himself was the illegitimate son of Robert, Duke of Normandy. So the House of Normandy, which overthrew King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, was founded by an illegitimate son, hence William's alternative name of William the Bastard.
Henry I
Henry holds the record for having the largest number of illegitimate children of any of the kings, with several mistresses; the number is given as anywhere between 20 and 25. The eldest illegitimate child, Robert, was acknowledged by the King, who created him Earl of Gloucester. Another illegitimate son, William de Tracy, was one of the knights who murdered Thomas Becket on the orders of Henry II.
Henry had only one legitimate child, a daughter, Matilda.
Stephen
Stephen is alleged to have fathered an illegitimate son, Gervais of Blois, before his marriage.
Henry II
Henry II had at least three illegitimate sons, William de Longespée (whose mother was the Countess of Norfolk), who married the Countess of Salisbury and hence became the Earl of Salisbury; Geoffrey (whose mother was a prostitute), who became Archbishop of York; and Morgan (mother unknown), who became Bishop of Durham.
Richard I
Richard the Lionheart had one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac (mother unknown).
John
John had at least seven (and maybe as many as 12) illegitimate children, as well as five legitimate ones. His illegitimate children came from his affairs with several women, and the mothers of some of them are unknown. Most of them were given the traditional surname for royal bastards, FitzRoy; Joan, the eldest daughter, married the Prince of Wales, and Richard, the eldest son, was granted lands and titles. Most of John's illegitimate children did not live prominent lives.
Edward II
Surprisingly, since Edward II appeared to have been homosexual, he had at least one illegitimate son, Adam FitzRoy, as well as several legitimate children. The identity of Adam's mother is not known.
Edward III
Edward III possibly had at least one illegitmate son, John (and allegedly up to four children), by his long-time mistress Alice Perrers.
Edward's third surviving legitimate son, John of Gaunt, had several illegitimate children by his mistress, Katherine Swynford. These children, who took the surname Beaufort, were legitimised by Richard II. The sons became very powerful, and the daughter married the Earl of Westmoreland. One of her children was Cecily Neville, the mother of Edward IV and Richard III. The eldest son of John of Gaunt, John Beaufort Earl of Somerset, was the grandfather of Margaret Beaufort, who married Edmund Tudor and was the mother of Henry VII. It is his lineage from Margaret Beaufort which was the basis of Henry's claim to the throne as the Lancastrian heir after the deaths of Henry VI and his son Edward Prince of Wales.
Henry VI
Henry VI's son, Edward Prince of Wales, was conceived while the King was sufferering from one of his bouts of insanity. It was rumoured that Edward was the illegitimate child of Queen Margaret and the Duke of Suffolk, although this was never proved and Henry acknowledged the child as his own.
Edward IV
Edward IV was known to have had several mistresses, the best-known being Jane Shore. There are reports of anything between two and six illegitimate children from several mothers.
The two known illegitimate children are Arthur and Elizabeth, the children of Elizabeth Waite (or Elizabeth Lucy). Arthur was created first Viscount Lisle because of his marriage to the daughter of Edward Viscount Lisle. Unusually for the offspring of Yorkist royalty, he survived and prospered at the court of Henry VII, although he was eventually accused of treason at Calais and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died a couple of years later.
Edward himself was accused of being illegitimate by the Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker) after Warwick turned against the King and planned to put Edward's younger brother, George Duke of Clarence (Warwick's son in law), on the throne. This rebellion did not succeed.
Richard III
Richard III had two children, John of Gloucester (appointed Captain of Calais in 1485) and Katherine Plantagenet (who married William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon), by an unknown woman (who has been tentatively identified as Katherine Haute).
There is possibly a third illegitimate child, known as Richard Plantangenet, whose mother is unknown.
Henry VII
There are rumours of an illegitimate son, but nothing is known about him and the rumours are probably incorrect.
Henry VIII
Henry VIII was the father of Henry Fitzroy Duke of Richmond and Somerset (15 June 1519-18 June 1536), whose mother was Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount. Henry Fitzroy was the only illegitimate child acknowledged by Henry VIII, who had no legitimate sons at the time. He was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset in 1525 and married the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk in 1533. There was talk of his taking over the crown of Ireland and even of succeeding his father to the English throne. His early death in 1536 (the same year Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn died) put paid to these plans. He had been ill for some time before he died, and the knowledge that he would not outlive his father might have played a part in the King's decision to rid himself of Queen Anne and marry again in order to get a son.
Henry also had a son by Mary Boleyn (older sister of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife) but did not acknowledge him.
There may also be two others, but no details are known about them.
At one or another time during his reign, Henry declared that one or the other of his legitimate daughters (Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth) was in fact illegitimate, depending on whether he was trying to deny the validity of his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, or Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn.
Charles I
As well as several legitimate children, Charles I is believed to have fathered an illegitimate daughter, Joanna Brydges.
Charles II
Charles II had no legitimate children with his wife, Catherine of Braganza. He had several illegitimate children with a variety of mistresses, and these children are ancestors of many of the current members of the aristocracy. In 1649 he had a son, James, with his mistress Lucy Walter. James was granted the titles Duke of Monmouth and Duke of Buccleuch; he is the ancestor of Sarah Duchess of York and Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, among many others. He was executed in 1685 after an unsuccessful attempt to take the throne after his father died with no legitimate offspring.
Charles had six children by Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland. One of these children, Henry FitzRoy, was created Duke of Grafton and is an ancestor of Diana Princess of Wales.
He had two children by the actress Nell Gwyn; the elder son was created Duke of St Albans.
He had a son, Charles Lennox, by his French mistress, Louise de Keroualle (Duchess of Portsmouth). Charles was created Duke of Richmond and Duke of Lennox, and is an ancestor of Diana Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Sarah Duchess of York.
By Catherine Pegge he had two children; the son, Charles FitzCharles, was created Earl of Plymouth.
George I
George I fathered three illegitimate daughters with his mistress Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenberg, all born before he inherited the British throne.
George II
George II had one alleged but unacknowledged illegitimate son, Johann Ludwig, by his mistress Amalie van Wallmoden.
George III
George III is rumoured to have secretly married Hannah Lightfoot in 1759, before his marriage to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and to have had three or four children with her. The documents produced in a court of law during a trial in the 19th century were judged to be forgeries. However, if the marriage had taken place legally, it would have rendered his later marriage to Queen Charlotte invalid since it pre-dated the Royal Marriages Act.
George IV
George IV was known to have had many affairs, and there are rumours of several illegitimate children. None appear to have been confirmed.
William IV
Before his marriage to Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, William IV (at that time the Duke of Clarence, fourth son of George III) lived for many years with an actress, Dorothy Jordan; together they had 10 children, who took the surname FitzClarence. The eldest FitzClarence, George Augustus, was created Earl of Munster. The FitzClarence daughters made good marriages among the nobility.
Before meeting Mrs Jordan, William had a son whose mother's identity is not known.
Edward VII
It has been rumoured that Sonia Keppel, younger daughter of Edward VII's mistress Alice Keppel and grandmother of the Duchess of Cornwall, may have been Edward's daughter since she was born a couple of years after Alice became Edward's mistress.
George V
There were rumours that before his marriage to Princess May of Teck, George V had contracted an illegal marriage with a woman in Malta and fathered three illegitimate children. When a French magazine published the story, George sued for libel; the journalist who had written the story was convicted and imprisoned. A recent rumour alleges that Sir Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures who was exposed as a Soviet spy in 1979, was an illegitimate son of George V. There appears to be no foundation to this story.
