Revealed: How David Cameron and Boris Johnson are Related (and Nick Clegg's Mata Hari Connection)

The blue-blooded origins of Demotic Dave were already fairly well known. Some time ago, a commenter on the Spectator blogsite pointed out that David and Samantha Cameron are 11th cousins twice removed, through their common descent from James I: he via William IV and Mrs Jordan, she through Charles II and Nell Gwyn. This assertion appeared to reference research by the well-known genealogist Leo van de Pas, which I have been unable to access online; but the standard reference works would appear to bear much of it out.

Now, however, findmypast has highlighted a more interesting cousin relationship of Dave: none other than Boris Johnson, widely seen as a claimant to Dave’s crown on May 7, if things go badly for Dave on May 6. When the incorrigibly shy and reclusive Boris appeared on the family research television programme Who Do You Think You Are? in 2008, one of the revelations that surfaced was Boris’s descent from Adelheid, Baroness de Pfeffel (his full name is Boris de Pfeffel Johnson), illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg, himself a great-great-grandson of King George II. Since George II was also Dave’s eight-greats-grandfather, that makes Dave and Boris cousins.'

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