Laurence Gardner is an internationally reknowned genealogist and historian to the Royal House of Stewart, so who better to
tackle a book tracing the lineage of Jesus Christ. The first thing that you have to take on board is that this is a purely
historical and factual book and in no way is designed to analyse or re-evaluate the religious events that it includes. One major leap of historical faith must be made to allow the book to be valid, that is, if we are to examine the historical descendents of Jesus, we have to assume that he had children and was therfore also married, in itself a very controversial starting point. Once you are comfortable that this is the case, the book will then open up a
fascinating insight as to who his descendants were, and indeed are in todays world.
The book begins with some new ideas on the Holy Grail, that mythical vessel that sybolizes the bloodline of Jesus. If the vessel is seen not as a cup of symbolic blood, but a person who has the familys blood in his veins, then the grail seems to make more sense. If the Grail represents the son of Jesus, who later came to Europe, then we have a whole different take on history. We then briefly travel back in time to examine the ancestors of Jesus family, the likes of David and the early patriarchs, before examining his bloodline in Europe. Using records that are only available to a person of Gardners pedigree he follows the bloodline through the Frankish kings and Dark Age Britain, through Jacobite nobility and the Holy Roman Empire of the middle ages to the modern age.
Along side the geneaology, there are some fascinating histories revealed.The research into Dark Age royal families and their interactions make more sense against the background of the preservation of an important bloodline. The Knights Templars and the whole chivalric ideal are re-examined and the complex unifications of the royal families of Europe begin to fall into place.
There is a lot of information to be taken on board with this book, at around 600 pages its a daunting task. But the rewards are there and the book will give you a great insight into the machinations and intrigues surrounding the bloodlines of Europe.
One problem is that you have to take the facts on face value, as the infomation presented is sourced from secret and private libraries and so is not checkable by those of us in the normal world. Another consideration is that Gardner is the Jacobite Histographer Royal, the book is endorsed by the Duke of Albany and the House of Stewart does take a pivitol role in the story. This could be seen as an agenda on their part, the placing in the public eye of information that will work as propaganda on their part.
Even if this is the case the book is still an interesting read, the research is comprehensive and the whole idea is fascinating. If there are descendants of Jesus in the world today, what power could they bring to bear on the order of things, should they chose to reveal themselves.