♂Guillaume of Aquitaine

Guillaume of Aquitaine was the twenty-sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Eleanor of Aquitaine (died 1204).

Duke of Aquitaine

He is said to have been Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou^W. By his first wife, Eleonore de Chatellerault, he had a daughter, Eleanor, his eldest child and co-heiress. She inherited the duchy^W and became Queen of France and then Queen of England. His own parents are not known.

Lines of descent

Both lines run down Nancy Jane Blanchard’s father’s side, through Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975), and both pass through Eleanor of Aquitaine. One runs through her son John of England (1166–1216), then John’s son Henry of England (1207–1272) and Henry’s son Edward of England (1239–1307); this is the twenty-sixth-great line. The other runs through her daughter Eleanor of England (1162–1214), then Berenguela of Castile, her son Fernando of Castile (1201–1252), and his daughter Eleanor of Castile (died 1290); this is the twenty-seventh-great line. The two lines meet again in Joan of England (1272–1307), whose parents, Edward and Eleanor of Castile, both descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Notes

How this is known

The duke’s titles and his daughter Eleanor’s parentage rest on Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, vol. I (England), pp. 1 and 5, a published compilation. The entry for Eleanor of Aquitaine names him as her father by his first wife and does not give his parents. No original record for him is cited.