OUR ROYAL FAMILY OF IRISH DESCENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.')
SIE,—The connection of Queen Victoria with King Feargus More, and his connection with Ireland, seem doubtful ; see Skene's "Historical Introduction to Fordun," particulaily pp. 50, 56, and 64. But however this may be, the Queen has a much more recent connection with the old Irish Kings, being descended from Eva McMurrough, daughter of King Dermot of Leinster, the wife of Strongbow. The line of descent is through Isabel Marshal, one of her five granddaughters, who married Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester, and perhaps through the families of De Burgh Earls of Ulster, of Plan- tagenet Dukes of Clarence, of Mortimer Earls of March, to King Edward IV., who was probably the first English King of Celtic Irish descent. The line of descent is very direct, being that in which the house of Clare or Clarence in Suffolk, which has occasionally given the title of Duke of Clarence to the Royal Family, has descended, and the earl- doms of March and Ulster have for a considerable period followed the same line. The home of Eva and her ancestors was in the province of Leinster, and tills province would now probably furnish the most agreeable residence for the Royal
Family on their return to Ireland.—I am, Sir, &o., R.
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