FitzClarence

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Bookplate showing the arms granted to the Fitzclarences Bookplate-Lord Frederick Fitzclarence.jpg
Bookplate showing the arms granted to the Fitzclarences

The FitzClarence family was an illegitimate branch of the House of Hanover. Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, who later became King William IV of the United Kingdom, had at least ten children with his mistress Dorothea Jordan, all of whom took the surname FitzClarence. All of them were also granted by their father the rank of a marquess' younger sons or daughters.

The Duke of Clarence's eldest surviving illegitimate child, George FitzClarence (1794–1842), was created Earl of Munster in 1831 and his male-line was continued until the death of the 7th Earl of Munster in 2000. Two of Lord Munster's brothers, Frederick and Augustus (a clergyman), had issue that were also part of the family. Five daughters of William IV and Dorothy Jordan were married to nobles or prominent military figures, including the 18th Earl of Erroll, the 10th Viscount Falkland, and Admiral Lord John Hallyburton. Only one, Mary, had no children.

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Fitz was a patronymic indicator used in Anglo-Norman England to help distinguish individuals by identifying their immediate predecessors. Meaning "son of", it would precede the father's forename, or less commonly a title held by the father. In rare cases, it formed part of a matronymic to associate the bearer with a more prominent mother. Convention among modern historians is to represent the word as fitz, but in the original Norman French documentation, it appears as fiz, filz, or similar forms, deriving from the Old French noun filz, fiz, meaning "son of", and ultimately from Latin filius (son). Its use during the period of English surname adoption led to its incorporation into patronymic surnames, and at later periods this form was adopted by English kings for the surnames given some of their recognized illegitimate children, and by Irish families when anglicizing their Gaelic patronymic surnames.

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