Is the British monarch a direct male line descendant of Rollo the Conquer, the Viking who settled Normandy after being baptized? If not why?

by WhiteTwink
Evan_Th

No, Queen Elizabeth is not a direct male-line descendant of Rollo, or of Rollo's great-great-great-grandson William I the Conqueror. As you can see from this family tree, the throne has changed lines several times.

However, you didn't ask whether Queen Elizabeth is descended through the eldest line from Rollo (she isn't, thanks to the Glorious Revolution); you asked whether she's a direct male-line descendant. She isn't, for the same reason that Prince Charles isn't a direct male-line descendant of George VI: the Crown sometimes descends through the female line.

The first time this happened was in the early twelfth century. William the Conqueror had three sons: the eldest, Robert, got Normandy; the second, William Rufus, got England; the third, Henry, succeeded to the English crown when William Rufus got assassinated while hunting. Unfortunately, Henry had no sons of his own. So, he made all his barons swear they'd accept his daughter Matilda (called "Empress Matilda" thanks to her previous marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor) as his successor and their queen - something very unusual at the time. To make a long story short, Robert's son Stephen (a son of William's daughter Adela) contested her claim, many of the barons followed him, and there was a long civil war called "The Anarchy." At the end, Stephen got the crown for his life, but accepted Matilda's son Henry II as his successor. From that point on, the royal house was no longer in male-line descent from Rollo and William, because it had descended through the female line.