How many U.S. presidents are descendants of King Edward III of England?
Executive summary
Genealogists and amateur family-tree researchers have long concluded that the great majority of U.S. presidents can trace at least one line of descent back to medieval English royalty, and multiple compiled databases assert that more than 40 — in some reckonings all — presidents descend from King Edward III (1312–1377) [1] [2]. Exact totals vary by researcher and by which documentary links are accepted, and scholars warn the result is as much a product of probability and repeated ancestor overlap as it is of a clean, uncontested pedigree [3] [4].
1. The claim: “Most presidents descend from Edward III” — what the genealogies say
Several widely circulated genealogical compendia and online projects explicitly map many U.S. presidents back to Edward III, with projects like Michael Marcotte’s compilation and other presidential genealogy databases reporting that the lines of all or nearly all presidents converge on medieval English ancestors, often Edward III or a slightly earlier common forebear [1] [5]. Popular writeups of the viral BridgeAnne d’Avignon story likewise reported that the child genealogist linked 42 of 43 presidents to King John or Edward III, and later treatments claim “all but one” or similar formulations — a shorthand that has propagated across news and hobbyist sites [3] [2].
2. Why the number differs: methodology, documentation and “gateway” ancestors
Differences in counting arise because genealogists use different standards for acceptable links, and because certain medieval “gateway” ancestors (like Edward III or King John) appear so often in descendant trees that minor breaks in documentation or contested marriages change whether a modern figure is counted as a verified descendant [1] [6]. Some databases assert that all 46 modern presidents have lines to Edward III, while others conservatively report “most” or give firm numbers only when primary sources can be verified; therefore the numeric answer depends on whose ledger is being consulted [1] [6].
3. The math behind the monarchy link: population genetics and probability
Demographic mathematics explains why Edward III shows up so frequently: a medieval ancestor who left many descendants across Britain and Europe will, after many generations and pedigree collapse, appear in the family trees of a very large fraction of modern people of British Isles ancestry [3]. Researchers such as Andrew Millard estimate that nearly anyone with Anglo-Saxon ancestry is almost certainly descended from Edward III, a point that reframes the finding as statistical inevitability rather than proof of a special political dynasty [3] [4].
4. What this does — and doesn’t — prove about presidents or power
Claims that most presidents are Edward III descendants are genealogically interesting but carry limited explanatory power about political outcomes: critics of “royal-blood” theories note that distant descent represents vanishingly small shares of DNA after many generations and that documented descent is not evidence of causal influence on leadership or election results [4]. The “most royal candidate” idea has been widely critiqued as more media-friendly than scientifically persuasive, and historians caution against treating distant royal descent as meaningful political capital [4].
5. Bottom line and reporting limits
The defensible bottom line is this: multiple genealogical sources and popular reports conclude that the overwhelming majority of U.S. presidents are descended from Edward III, with some databases and compilers claiming all presidents are so connected and others reporting slightly smaller counts depending on evidentiary standards [1] [2] [3]. This answer relies on genealogical compilations and probability-based analyses in the provided reporting; it cannot adjudicate disputed medieval links or provide a single uncontested numeric total because the count varies by dataset and by which ancestral connections researchers accept [1] [6].