Richard III

All this talk of Richard III and his incongruous re-interment reminds me that the succession of Henry VII is the widest genealogical succession since William the Bastard some 400 or so years before, and since. Henry VII was the 'third cousin once removed' of Richard III.

The third cousin was Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort, great grand daughter of John of Gaunt, Edward III's son.

Richard III was also a great great grand child of Edward III. Richard III and Lady Margaret Beaufort are third cousins. They shared a great great grand dad, Edward III.

Once removed because Henry VII is Margaret Beaufort's son.

When Henry VII married his fourth cousin, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward VI, Richard III's brother, also then Henry VII's third cousin once removed, the royal bloodline became more concentrate.

Henry VIII's children, Mary, Elizabeth, Edward are a genealogical cul-de-sac.

It was Henry VIII's elder sister, Margaret Tudor, who continued the line; the Stuarts. James VI&I succeeded Elizabeth I, and thereafter Charles I, II, etc.

Having said all of that I note the succession of James VI&I was equivalent since he, in effect, succeeded from Henry VII, his great great grand dad, just like Henry VII succeeded from Edward III.

The story is complicated somewhat by James V of Scotland marrying Henry Stewart Darnley whose grand mother was also Margaret Tudor. James VI and I was the great great grand son of Henry VII twice over so a twice less tenuous claim than Henry VII.