Royalty have apparently been arguing about it for ages. Of course I'm a woman and I do not really get involved in it as it is on the male side.
Being descended in any way from Charlemagne is important to European Royalty. as we all know. The French kings were considered highly because of their lineage from Charlemagne. The more closely linked the better.
Although I have read various different accounts of who Charlemagne descended from, anyone who is anyone, and by that I mean Royal, knows that Charlemagne descended from the Imperial Byzantine Family, in the male line.
It goes further back then that. Anyway to cut a very long story short and leaving out several thousand years history, the story goes that the Byzantine Imperial bloodline was originally Eygptian Pharoahs and Eygptian Pharoahs thought they were descended from Ra, the Sun God. This was certainly believed by the French Kings, I cannot remember which Louis it was that went around telling everyone that he was the Sun King. I'm not saying this is true, I'm just saying this is what they believed.
Anyway, being descended from Byzantine Royalty brought them status and they have been arguing about it ever since.
So now that we have DNA testing, the whole argument has moved into a new phase.
Unfortunately every Royal line that claims to be descended in a direct male line from the Byzantine Royalty, has a different Y chromosome. So none of them can prove that they are the correct bloodline. (Royalty really are obsessed with bloodlines)
Until now.
Romanov Y chromosome matches Purcell Y chromosome.
It takes more than just chance for 2 royal lines to match. The Romanov have an obvious link to Byzantine Royalty. The Purcells have a provable link to Charlemagne and therefore to Byzantine royalty.
Unfortunately for the Duc d'Orleans not only does he not match, he also has an R1b haplotype, which is a distinctly Northern European Haplotype.
The Romanovs and the Purcells have a J haplotype, which is distinctly from the Middle East.
(For anyone that is interested in these things, Coburg Saxe Gotha Y chromosome is also R1b, but its a different R1b to the Duc d'Orleans one.
R1b is a very common haplotype and most men in Northern Europe carry a version of it.)
I'm only pointing this out because the Duc d'Orleans makes so much of the fact he has such a Royal bloodline, the cross of Malta on everything to indicate his Imperial blood and he is such a fraud. Yes, I agree he is descended from the French Kings, but as none of the French Kings descendents, either legitimate or illegitimate have anything like a Middle East haplotype, it seems safe to assume that the Byzantine Bloodline died out a very long time ago in France.
Luckily for the Purcells they left the country in 1066.
