The Sillery Project - The Royal Connection

Is there a Royal connection??

Getting some clarity about what the REAL connection with Royalty is proving to be a real hard slog. I'm still nowhere near complete, so if anyone has any additional information please email me. This is what I have so far:

The advisor: Nicolas Brulart de Sillery was a very close advisor to Henri IV of France, the first of the French Bourbon Kings. His biography tells the details, and this is very well documented. However, I haven't yet found the connection between our family and Nicolas Brulart. But as our first Sillery (Andrew) turns up in Ireland shortly after Nicolas and his son fall out of power in Paris, and this was during the Protestant wars in Northern France when many Hugeneots fled to Ireland, it is still quite possible that this is the link.

The distant relative: According to 'The Royal Mariner', by Charles Doyne Sillery, he is the 4th great grand nephew of the wife of King James II, Anne Hyde - daughter of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. Edward was a descendent of William the Conqueror, James was a Scottish Stuart, and grandson of Henri IV of France. Anne and James II daughters Anne and Mary were also Queens. This is not a blood relationship between Sillery and the Stuarts, but interesting none-the-less. Assuming it's true of course, and many people have expressed doubt over this.

My latest research has identified that there is no relevant information about Edward's children or the Sillery connection in the "Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal'. However Edward had estates in Co. Meath, and fled there during the 'troubles', so there is still possibly a link, as that is when Andrew Sillery shows up there. Looking through other people's family trees though, I can find no mention of Edward's daughter Lucretia that CD Sillery mentions in "The Royal Mariner" (she is the link to the Sillerys), while there IS mention of 8 other children (he supposedly had 8 children), namely: Anne, Laurence, Henry, James Maurice, Edward, Frances Catherine, Samuel and Nicholas. The link is looking increasingly unlikely at the moment. Unless you know different!

The distant relatives 2: I have found 2 other mentions of marriage of Sillery's to "Royal Blood". Ralf Sillery Benson married Fanny Catherine Alice Gilbert-Cooper ("Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal") on 27 Dec 1876. Alice Mary Sillery (daughter of Frederick Sillery, Bishop of Northwood co Middx.) married Claude Cyprian Thornton ,Vicar of Greasley (desendant of Lady Isabella Plantagenet, "Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal") on 12 September 1905.

The cuckold: Finally, we have the famous authoress wife of Charles-Alexis Brulart de Sillery - Madame de Genlis. According to her letters to him and her memoires, she was the lover of Louis-Phillipe duc D'Orleans otherwise known as Phillipe Egalite; who was father to the last Bourbon King of France. Rumour has it that her 'adopted' daughter Pamela, was in fact Phillipe's also.