I am directly descended from the Dunkeld royal line of Scottish kings, founded by King Duncan I in 1034 A.D., which reigned in Scotland for over two hundred years total, up until just before the Wars of Scottish Independence began. The Dunkeld royal family married royalty and nobility throughout Europe, joining with houses like Wessex, Normandy, Salian, and Flanders. The Dunkeld line is known as one of the four foundational lines that launched House Plantagenet in England. Matilda of Scotland, King Henry I of England’s Queen consort, was a Dunkeld royal daughter of my ancestor King Malcolm III of Scotland. King Henry and Queen Matilda’s daughter Empress Matilda, who was a Dunkeld on her mother’s side, went on to found the Plantagenet line with her second husband Geoffrey V of Anjou, and their son was King Henry II of England, sometimes known as Henry Plantagenet. The Dunkelds of Scotland were reputed to be good rulers.
Through Malcolm III of Scotland’s queen St. Margaret of Wessex, who was canonized in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, I am directly descended from the Wessex line of English kings, including King Edmund Ironside, Æthelred the Unready, and Edgar the Peaceful. The royal house of Wessex was founded by Cerdic of Wessex in 519 A.D., and the Wessex kings were some of the earliest kings of England.
When my small branch of the Wessex/Dunkeld line moved to England, they took on the surname Dalton. I’m from those Daltons. They later immigrated to the United States of America, where I was born. The Dalton coat of arms (pictured above) has a lion and fleur-de-lis because of my family’s hereditary association with the Scottish royal house of Dunkeld. It’s similar to King Alexander II of Scotland’s royal coat of arms.
──── by Lync Dalton ────
