Ancestry of Camilla, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall

The Duchess of Cornwall is the daughter of Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and The Hon Rosalind Maud Shand (nee Cubitt), the daughter of 3rd Baron Ashcombe, who married on January 2nd, 1946 at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge.

She was born Camilla Rosemary Shand on July 17, 1947 at King’s College Hospital, London, the eldest of three children. Her Royal Highness has a sister, Annabel Elliot; her brother, Mark Shand, died in 2014.

When Her Royal Highness married Prince Charles at the Guildhall in Windsor on April 9, 2005, she brought some French blood to the British royal family.

The Duchess was previously married to Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles and the marriage was dissolved in 1995. The couple had two children, Thomas Henry and Laura Rose, born in 1974 and 1978 respectively. The Prince of Wales is godfather to Tom Parker Bowles.

French-Canadian ancestry of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

perche-quebec.com has climbed the branches of Her Royal Highness's genealogical tree and discovered several French roots.

To find most of Camilla's French ancestors, it is not necessary to cross the English Channel but to cross the Atlantic Ocean and to join Canada as William Coutts Keppel did it, one of the great-great-grandfathers of Camilla, born in London on April 15, 1832.

William Coutts Keppel married Sophia Mary MacNab on November 15, 1855 in Hamilton (Ontario-Canada). She is the daughter of Mary Stuart and Sir Allan Napier MacNab (1798-1862) who served as joint Premier of the Province of Canada from 1854 to 1856.

Those family ties between the future Queen Camilla and the French Canadians are the reflection of the official registers. However, the paternity of the maternal grandmother of Camilla, Sonia Rosemary Keppel, is being disputed. Alice Frederica Edmonstone, Camilla's great-grandmother, married George Keppel, son of William Coutts Keppel, on June 1, 1891. After having given birth to a first daughter Violet on June 6, Alice became in 1898 and during the next twelve years the mistress of The Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VII of England on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Sonia, Alice's second daughter, was born on May 24, 1900 in London. Who is the biological father of Sonia? Nobody can say it with certainty. Legally it was decided when George acknowledged Sonia as his child and gave her his name (Keppel).

See details of the ancestry here.

source & infographics perche-quebec.com

Camilla, a descendant of Louise de Keroual

In the family tree of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, there is another French branch not related to Quebec but Brittany with Louise Renée de Penancoët de Keroual, Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny, born in September 1649 in Guilers (Finistère, France).

Coming from the Breton gentry, Louise moved to the court of Louis XIV in Versailles to become maid of honor to Henriette of England, wife of the Duc d’Orléans, Louis XIV’s brother, who is best known as Monsieur. The Sun King made her his agent of influence in England to defend the interests of France and Catholicism there. In 1670, Louise de Keroual accompanied Madame on a diplomatic visit to her brother, the King of England Charles II. She was noticed by the English sovereign and became his favorite mistress for about fifteen years. In 1672, this liaison gave birth to an illegitimate child Charles Lennox who will be recognized and ennobled; he was created Duke of Richmond in 1675.

In 1685 on the death of Charles II, Louise de Keroual returned to France. She settled in Brest then retired to her land in Aubigny (Berry) which was once the land of the Stuarts in France. She died in Paris in 1734.

William Coutts Keppel, great-great-grandfather of Camilla, born in London on April 15, 1832 is a descendant of Charles Lennox, son of Louise de Keroual and King Charles II. The Duke of Richmond's descent also includes Diana, Princess of Wales, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and Jane Birkin.

	de PENANCOËT Louise Renée (1649-1734) Louise de Keroual, Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny				STUART Charles (1630-1685) Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland
LENNOX Charles (1672-1723) ⚭ 1692 BRUDENELL Anne (~ 1671-1722)
LENNOX Charles (1701-1750) ⚭ 1719 CADOGAN Sarah (1705-1751) LENNOX George (1737-1805) ⚭ 1759 KERR Louisa LENNOX Charles (1764-1819) ⚭ 1789 GORDON Charlotte (1768-1842) GORDON-LENNOX Charles (1791-1860) ⚭ 1817 PAGET Caroline (1797-1874) GORDON-LENNOX Cecilia Catherine ⚭ BINGHAM Charles George (1830-1914)			LENNOX Anne (1703-1789) ⚭ 1722 van KEPPEL Willem (William) Anne (1702-1754)
			KEPPEL Elizabeth (1739-1768) ⚭ 1764 RUSSELL Francis (1739-1767) RUSSELL John (1766-1839) ⚭ 1803 GORDON Georgiana (1781-1853) RUSSELL Louisa Jane (1812-1905) ⚭ 1832 HAMILTON James (1811-1885) HAMILTON James (1838-1913) ⚭ 1869 CURZON-HOWE Mary Anna (1848-1929)			KEPPEL George (1724-1772) ⚭ MILLER Anne (-1824) KEPPEL William Charles (1772-1849) ⚭ 1792 SOUTHWELL Elizabeth (1776-1817) KEPPEL George Thomas (1799-1891) ⚭ 1831 TROTTER Susan (-1885) KEPPEL William Coutts (1832-1894) ⚭ 1855 MACNAB Sophia Mary (1832-1917) KEPPEL George (1865-1947) ⚭ 1891 EDMONSTONE Alice Frederica (1868-1947) KEPPEL Sonia Rosemary (1900-1986) ⚭ 1920 CUBITT Roland Calvert (1899-1962) CUBITT Rosalind Maud (1921-1994) ⚭ 1946 SHAND Bruce Middleton Hope (1917-2006) SHAND Camilla Rosemary (1947) HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
BINGHAM Rosalind Cecilia Caroline (1869-1958)			HAMILTON James Albert Edward (1869-1953)
		⚭ 1894
HAMILTON Cynthia Ellinor Beatrix (1897-1972) ⚭ 1919 SPENCER Albert Edward John (1892-1975) SPENCER Edward John (1924-1992) ⚭ 1954 ROCHE Frances Ruth (1936-2004) SPENCER Diana Frances (1961-1997) Diana, Princess of Wales

source & infographics perche-quebec.com