Original Article : "Michael Abney Hastings Britain's Real Monarch?" http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_21.htm
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In 2004, a documentary entitled "Britains Real Monarch" was aired on Channel 4 and presented by Tony Robinson. The programme put forward the claim that the present queen, Elizabeth II, is not the legitmate monarch, which they claimed, should be Michael Abney-Hastings, an Australlian fork lift truck driver and the direct descendant of George, Duke of Clarence. The programme claimed that they had discovered evidence to the effect that Edward IV was illegitimate, making Clarence's premier descendant the real King of England.
Rumours persisted at the time, which are articulated in Shakespeare's Richard III, that in the summer of 1441, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York had an affair with an English archer named Blaybourne at Rouen. In the documentary, the respected historian of the medieval period, Dr Michael K Jones, revealed evidence from an entry dated 1441, in the archives at Rouen Cathedral, which he discovered while researching the Hundred Years' War. The entry in question records that the clergy were paid for a sermon for the safety of the Duke of York, going to Pontoise on campaign. He was on campaign from July 14 to August 21, 1441, at the time several days' march from Rouen. Proponents of the theory of Edward IV's illegitimacy claim it is unlikely that Edward was born prematurely. By calculating back from Edward's birth on April 28, Edward's conception must have occured around the first week of August 1441 at a time the Duke of York was not in Rouen, and therefore, it was claimed, neither Edward nor his descendants had any valid claim to the throne. The cathedral archives also revealed that the christening of Edward IV was a hushed up affair, which took place in private in a side chapel of the cathedral, while in contrast, the whole cathedral was used for the christening of the couple's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland. It should however be added that Richard, Duke of York, never disclaimed paternity of Edward IV and several historians have argued that it was possible that the Duke visited his wife at Rouen during the debated period.
With the aid of Debrett's,Tony Robinson traced the descendants of the Duke of York's third surviving son, the Duke of Clarence, (the second Edmund, Earl of Rutland had died childless) through his daughter, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury (1473-1541) known as the last of the Plantagenets, to Michael Edward Abney-Hastings, 14th Earl of Loudoun, now living in Jerilderie, New South Wales, Australia. Originally Michael Edward Lord (the name was changed by deed poll), he is the son of Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun, (great great great granddaughter of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings) and Captain Walter Strickland Lord. The current and 14th Earl of Loudon left for Australia in 1960 where, a republican, he has since preferred to be known as Mike Hastings and has 5 children and a number of grandchildren. It is however, unlikely that he will be moving into Buckingham Palace within the near future.
