Gareth, by the Browne reference, I was off the Royals and on to the Norman landholders being replaced by the Tudors' "common" supporters as large estate holders. The royals are not, I understand, the largest (I despise the term owner of land). Crane Driver, I agree that after five generations, the number of ancestors exceeds the number of chromosomes, and so the probability of inheritance from any particular ancestor starts to diminish somewhat. They were still required to pass on the baton, as it were, and when the royal line is still projected back to Noah in the Ark, I was going by their own logic. They go back, incidentally, via the Welsh line just one short of Aphrodite, and by the English line just one short of Woden, and guess how much I believe in those two ancestors. You are also forgetting the family's strong adherence to inbreeding. Unlike other families, there is a stronger probability of ancestors contributing to the present generation - which is probably why they do it.

Incidentally, I tried rereading this thread while I was at school, along with Harry Potter and the dead parrot. All three were banned by nanny - I think I know why this one fell foul, but not the others.

Penny