SC - SC-OOP and OT--Heraldry and Presidential Candidates

[Elaine Koogler]

I got this from my real-world Scots clan news service, and thought you
all might get a kick out of it:

Clan Morrison Society of North America, Mid-Atlantic Region
Online Service  /  October 19, 2000

By Jennifer Harper
     THE WASHINGTON TIMES (Oct. 19, 2000)
     Sir George and Lord Albert? Or maybe it's the duke of Midland
and the earl of Carthage.  George W. Bush and Al Gore are blue bloods,
at least according to Burke's Peerage, Britain's hoity-toity guide to
all things royal.
    The group has already designed coats-of-arms for both families,
should they feel the urge to assume the aristocratic condition.
  ``It is now clear that Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush have an unusually
large number of royal and noble descents,'' said Harold Brooks-Baker
of Burke's yesterday.
  ``In point of fact, never in the history of the United States have
two presidential candidates been as well endowed with royal
alliances,'' he added.
  Indeed.
  Mr. Brooks-Baker has traced the blood lines of every American
president since and has determined over the years that there is a
definite ``royalty factor'' among those who win the office.
  Mr. Bush has the edge, though, with more ``noble and royal''
connections than Mr. Gore. He counts such glittering personnae as
Henry III, Charles II, Queen Elizabeth, the king of Albania and Louis
XI of France in his family tree.
  He is a 13th cousin of Britain's Queen Mother, and is a 13th cousin
once removed of Prince Charles.
  Mr. Gore, on the other hand, has Edward I, Louis I, Louis II and
French Emperor Charlemagne in his corner, and he has ``direct links to
the Holy Roman Empire.''
  But he's still outranked by Mr. Bush, who ``is closely related to
every European monarch on and off the throne,'' according to Mr.
Brooks-Baker, who maintains that every American president has had
similar links, no matter how obtuse.
  Ironically enough, the dim complexities of these distant bloodlines
make Messrs. Bush and Gore cousins many times removed. It has
something to do with Charlemagne.
  But then, Burke's Peerage specializes in such ironies around
election time.
  Back in 1992, the group declared that President Bush and then-Gov.
Bill Clinton had a common ancestor named Simon de Montford, who was
Henry III's brother-in-law.
  Mr. Clinton's English background, in fact, was traced back to 1264
and a  wee town called Gotham, famous for an old tale called ``Merrie
Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham.''
  Burke's Peerage designed a family crest for Mr. Clinton five years
ago, which included the red lion of St. Hillary of Poiters to
represent Hillary Clinton, an anchor representing daughter Chelsea and
two white rabbits.