Alexander Armstrong
Comedian Alexander Armstrong searches his family's history.
Comedian Alexander Armstrong always knew his family background was likely to be privileged, but he's keen to find out exactly how posh he is...
Appropriately enough Alexander's journey begins with Burke's Irish Landed Gentry, a register of Britain's landed families. He quickly finds his own name listed under his mother's family name, McCausland, and decides to follow this line to find out more. Moving up the family tree he finds a relative who holds an honoured position in the Royal household of the day.
Delving into more family papers, Alexander finds a letter from a direct ancestor over two hundred years ago, complaining about the shortcoming of her wastrel eldest son Edward. Alexander discovers that Edward inherits his baronetcy from a cousin and that foul play is suspected. Alexander's aristocratic roots are confirmed.
Searching even further back following a fascinating trail of ancient documents Alexander finds out that he has even more titled relatives descended from one of the richest families in Britain and intimately connected to the King. One is a Royalist military leader during the Civil War, who ploughs all his money into the King's cause. But in a curious twist of fate he ends up being tried for High Treason and finishing his days in a most unexpected way.
