Awa’

Have a safe journey, Andrew. See you Sunday?

Have a Blessed Easter.

P.S. Where did you find those illustrations?

I don’t know where to post this…The genealogy of Fra Matthew Festing…this from an well-known genealogist on the Medieval List.

__A blessed person in Germany made me aware that the new Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta is Fra Matthew Festing and with the message included a link to Wikipedia where mention was made of him being a descendant of Sir Adrian Fortuescue who was executed in 1539 for religious reasons. I was disappointed that they did not mention he is also a descendant of Margaret Countess of Salisbury who in 1541 was butchered on orders of Henry VIII.

But besides descending from Margaret Countess of Salisbury, Fra Matthew Festing descends at least in 169 different ways from King Edward I.

Returning to Sir Adrian Fortescue, he is an interesting person, interesting because of his descendants but most of all because of his life.

He is an ancestor of Afra, John and Elizabeth Harleston, Sir Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Lady Diana Spencer, Sarah Ferguson, Rachel Ward, the Dukes of Marlborough, Northumberland, Buccleuch, Abercorn, Devonshire and Leinster and many more..

Sir Adrian Fortescue was born about 1476, son of Sir John Fortescue and Alice Boleyn. As a first cousin of Anne Boleyn’s father, he was present at the coronation of Anne Boleyn. In 1539 he was attainted of High Treason without trial, by Act of Parliament which condemned fifty people opposed to Henry VIII’s ecclesiastical policies. Sir Adrian was beheaded 9 July 1539. On 13 May 1895 Pope Leo XIII declared him Blessed.

Leo van de Pas,
Canberra, Australia