ROBERT HARDMAN: How the Mail traced Trump’s family tree… and found out he’s the King’s cousin

The late Queen may have used it, President Obama and Trump used it, and the King liked to use it in his days as Prince Charles.

But don’t expect him to wax lyrical about the ‘special relationship’ this week.

A senior government source told the Daily Mail that British diplomats now prefer to use terms such as ‘enduring relationship’ or ‘extraordinary alliance’ when describing UK/US links, rather than the famous phrase first coined by Winston Churchill 80 years ago.

This decision, we are told, pre-dates the current administration and has nothing to do with President Trump’s recent attacks on Sir Keir Starmer.

On the contrary, boasting a ‘special relationship’ with the most powerful nation in the world is seen as very un-British and perhaps a little arrogant. It also annoys other allies.

Despite all this, the relationship may be about to get even more “special” after the Daily Mail discovered that President Trump and the King are related.

We know that President Trump, an avowed royalist, already regards the King as ‘a great man’ and ‘a warrior’ – he told me as much himself recently – but his affection for the monarch and the Royal Family may now become even more evident when he learns that he and the King are descended from the same Scottish nobleman.

Detailed research carried out on behalf of the Daily Mail revealed that King Philip II of Scotland. He showed that they shared a common ancestor in the form of the 3rd Earl of Lennox, grandson of James; This is Donald Trump and III. It means Charles is a 15th cousin. But their common ancestor met an unfortunate end.

Lord Lennox became involved in a bitter power struggle to control the infant King James V and was eventually defeated at the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge in 1526.

After being captured, he was killed by a rival landowner known as the Bastard of Arran. His son, the 4th Earl of Lennox, produced Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Their son became King James I of England, from whom the Stuarts and eventually the House of Windsor would descend.

Lord Lennox had many children, including a daughter named Lady Helen, who married the 11th Earl of Sutherland. Their son, the 12th Earl, survived an attempted murder by poisoning (which killed the 11th Earl) and gave birth to a daughter named Lady Jane.

She later married one of the chiefs of Clan Mackay and their son, the polygamist Donald Mackay, was created 1st Lord Reay – he was also a staunch supporter of another King Charles.

From this Donald, through generations of Mackays and later MacLeods (including another Donald), the line goes back to Mary Anne MacLeod of Lewis, who emigrated to the US in 1930. There she married real estate developer Fred Trump and had five children. Donald Trump, born in 1946, came in fourth.

The President had previously visited his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He mentioned that he was a ‘big fan’ of Elizabeth, and he pretty much agreed.

As he explained to me while writing a biography of the late Queen: ‘I had a really good relationship with her. It was incredible. ‘I liked him and he liked me.’

He was particularly struck by the Queen’s refusal to name her favorite president, despite the Queen doing her best to name him at their first meeting in 2018.

The meeting had gone so well that what was supposed to be a brief courtesy visit lasted almost an hour, and was followed by a full state visit the following year; This made President Trump the last state visitor of his reign.

He was equally excited by the state visit to Windsor last year, at the invitation of the King. ‘He’s a great guy and fought so hard. “He’s a warrior,” Mr. Trump told me. “We’re close. I have a really good relationship with him. Let me just give you the bottom line. He’s a great guy and he’s grown a lot over the last decade, especially the last few years as King. His fight showed that.”

US President Donald Trump met with King Charles at the White House on Monday

The King paid an official visit to Washington with Queen Camilla to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

All this means that the President would be pleased to discover a direct linear connection with the House of Windsor.

Online genealogists have previously struggled to pinpoint a clear line of Mr. Trump’s ancestry due to confusion and gaps in the keeping of ancient Scottish records.

However, Robert Barrett, former investigations editor of the Daily Mail and experienced genealogist, has examined numerous land registers, church records and Scottish noble papers to put together this intriguing research. For example, Mr. Trump’s descent from Donald Mackay is confused with his daughter’s first marriage to a Macdonald and subsequent marriage to a clergyman named Hugh Munro, from which Trump’s ancestry comes.

This previous Donald/King Charles relationship was definitely ‘special’. Donald Mackay was a staunch royalist who fought for King Charles I in the English Civil War, was imprisoned for a time, and eventually exiled in Denmark, where he died.

He was also a man who loved to argue, and was briefly detained in the Tower of London by the King to prevent him from taking part in a duel.

President Trump might be equally pleased to learn that his pedigree also ties him to the royal families of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This puts a new perspective on plans to annex Danish-controlled Greenland from King Frederik X, as both men are descendants of King Christian I of Denmark.

Time will tell whether this will make the President more possessive or diplomatic on the Greenland issue.

Yesterday, Donald and Melania Trump informally welcomed the King and Queen to the White House with a cup of tea and a look at the presidential beehives. The official welcoming ceremony will take place today, and President Trump plans to surprise his royal guests with an extra special event.

Charles and Camilla wrapped up yesterday’s program with a garden party for 600 British and American guests on the grounds of the famous Lutyens-designed British Embassy in Washington. The invitation to enjoy scones, clotted cream and tea with the monarch was one of the warmest in Washington this year.

All of this points to a relationship that remains ‘special’ no matter what diplomats say. But Mr. Trump’s newfound royalty presents him with a problem. He is now related to the ‘tyrannical King’ George III, whose expulsion from these shores in 1776 is exactly the reason the US celebrates its 250th birthday this year.