{1} And So It Begins...

Edward I/Eleanor of Castile Impalement
[from a window in the Great Hall of  Hampton Court Palace]

Welcome to my Royal Descent Blog. I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. But as someone who didn't even know I had i-Tunes on my laptop until my much more technologically competent partner David pointed it out, I was at a complete loss as how to begin it. Now that David has shown me how to use Blogger, I can finally jump into the blogosphere as an active creator, after years of enjoying it as a participant commenting in newsgroups and blogs that others have created.

Once I get the blogging down, I'll get my website, Royal Descent, up and running. That will contain profiles of the English medieval monarch Edward I, and his descendants. It will combine:

• My database (Reunion 9 for Mac OS X) of (so far) 1,421 individuals. [Update: 48,030 individuals as of Dec. 2016]
• My massive amounts of photocopied pages resulting from 25 years' worth of library-surfing.
• Thousands of medieval-oriented artwork and photos that I've collected from both personal trips to the UK, and 10 years of internet exploring.

Over the past twenty years, my friends and family have, I'm sure, at one point or another, viewed:

• My crazy amount of time spent at libraries to be, at best, a retreat from more important, pressing matters, and, at worst, a cover for much more illicit activity.
• My obsession with genealogy to be, at best, misguided, and, at worst, nosy.
• My love of the medieval era to make me, at best, Renaissance Faire nerdy, and, at worst, a useless 'Lord of the Rings' fantasy-freak.
• And my fascination with royalty to be, at best, ridiculously old-fashioned, and, at worst, a pretentious snobbery.

For any of them stumbling upon this blog, the only excuse I can give is: at least it's an easier read than my website will be! Also, thank you for bearing with me and showing support for my exploration through an admittedly very bizarre hobby.

Victoria, Princess Royal (later Empress of Germany)
holding Burke's Peerage

For those of you who only know me from my postings on the Google newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval, or from the articles I've written for Foundations and The Plantagenet Connection, you understand the territory and may find this blog to be both helpful and fun.

And for anyone else stumbling upon this and finding it interesting, you've got the medieval genealogy bug. Sadly, there is no cure. Only the following treatment:

• Post at least two, but no more than five, comments to a medieval history or genealogy newsgroup/blog, per day.
• Read through at least one, but no more than three, articles in Complete Peerage, Burke's Peerage, or Collins' Peerage, per week.
• And make at least one, but no more than two, trips to a major downtown or university research library, per month.

For any who understand that last paragraph, this blog's for you. Welcome and Onward we go!