Line of Succession for the Royal House of Bradley 

Absolute Primogeniture (/ˌpraɪməˈdʒɛnɪtʃər, -oʊ-/)  

Is the right, by law or custom, of the "Firstborn Legitimate Child" to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child, or any collateral relative. In most contexts, it means the inheritance of the firstborn child (Absolute Primogeniture). 

Description: 

The common definition given is also known as male-line primogeniture, the classical form popular in European jurisdictions, among others, until the 20th century. In the absence of male-line offspring, variations were expounded to entitle a daughter or a brother or, in the absence of either, to another collateral relative, in a specified order (e.g., male-preference primogeniture, Salic primogeniture, semi-Salic primogeniture). Variations have tempered the traditional, sole-beneficiary right (such as French appanage) or, in the West since World War II, eliminated the preference for males over females (absolute male-preference primogeniture). Most monarchies in Europe have eliminated this, including Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. 

For the House of Bradley:

In this case, it is HRH Prince Carl's daughter and 1st born child, HRH Princess Christina Elisabeth-Ann Bradley.

*For all under the sovereign's house and subject to loyalty by letters patent, to the House of Bradley is as follows:

Primogeniture endures mainly in titles of nobility: any first-placed direct male-line descendant (e.g. eldest son's son's son) inherits the title before siblings and similar, this being termed "by right of substitution" for the deceased heir; secondly where children were only daughters they would enjoy the fettered use (life use) of an equal amount of the underlying real asset and the substantive free use (such as one-half inheritance) would accrue to their most senior-line male descendant or contingent on her marriage (moieties); thirdly, where the late estate holder had no descendants his oldest brother would succeed, and his descendants would likewise enjoy the rule of substitution where he had died. The effect of English primogeniture was to keep estates undivided wherever possible and to disinherit real property from female relations unless only daughters survived, in which case the estate thus normally resulted in division. The principle has applied in history to inheritance of land as well as inherited titles and offices, most notably monarchies, continuing until modified or abolished.

O Brolcháin Royal Princely Dynasty

Notes from Reeves "Life of St. Columba," by Adamnan XLVII - Flaithbertach Coarb 1150-1175.  

[Introduction, p. clxxx] Surnamed UA Brolchain. 615AD, and belonged to the Cinel Feradhaich, a clan so called from Feradhach, grandfather of that Suibhne Meann, the High King of Ireland, and was the fourth in descent from Eoghan, the son of Nail of the nine hostages. Eoghan was the founder of the Cinel-Eoghain race. The Cenel Feradhiach of Sept of the Royal Princely O'Brolchain family is now territorially represented by the barony of Clogher, in the southern part of the county of Tyrone. The first of the O'Brolchain family who is mentioned in the Annals was Royal Prince Maelbrighde O Brolchain, styled prim saer Erren "chief mason of Ireland"- Od Vers, whose obituary is entered in the ann. Ult. at 1029AD. 

O'BROLCHAIN, FLAIBHERTACH (d. 1175), first bishop of Derry, belonged to a family which produced several learned men and distinguished ecclesiastics from the twelfth to the thirteenth century. They were descended from Suibhne Meann, king of Ireland from 615 to 628, and their clan was called Cinel Fearadhaich, from the king's grandfather Fearadhach, who was fourth in descent from Eoghan, son of Niall Naighiallach, so that they were one of the branches of the Cinel Eoghain. Flaibhertach O'Brolchain was abbot of Derry in 1150, and as such was the chief of the Columban churches in Ireland, and entitled Comharba Choluim Chille, or successor of Columba. Derry had been burned in 1149, and in 1150 he made a visitation of Cinel Eoghain, obtaining grants from the whole territory—a gold ring, his horse and outfit from Muircheartach O'Lochlainn [q. v.] as king of Ireland, and twenty cows as king of Ailech; a horse from every chief, which would have given him about fifty from the Cinel Eoghain; a cow from every two biatachs, or great farmers; a cow from every three saerthachs, or free tenants; and a cow from every four diomhains, or men of small means. In 1158, he attended an ecclesiastical convocation at Bric Mic Taidhg in Uí Laeghaire, a district of Meath, at which a papal legate was present; and it was resolved that he should have ‘a chair like every other bishop.’ This is generally considered the foundation of the bishopric as distinct from the abbacy of Derry. After the synod, he visited the territory of Uí Eachdhach Cobha, now Iveagh, co. Down, and Dal Cairbre, the site of which has not before been determined, but which is no doubt the same as Dalriada, the part of Antrim north of the mountain Slemish, called after Cairbre Riada, son of Conaire II, king of Ireland. Flaibhertach thus visited the two parts of Ulidia, or Lesser Ulster, and obtained from its king, O'Duinnsleibhe, a horse, five cows, and a ‘screaball’—probably a payment in some kind of coin—an ounce of gold from the king's wife, a horse from each chief, and a sheep from each hearth. In 1161, he freed the churches and communities of Durrow, Kells, Swords, Lambay, Moone, Skreen (co. Meath), Columbkille (co. Longford), Kilcolumb, Columbkille (co. Kilkenny), Ardcolum, and Mornington, from all dues to the kings and chiefs of Meath and Leinster and visited Ossory. He pulled down more than eighty houses which stood adjacent to the cathedral of Derry and built around it an enclosure of masonry called Caisil an urlair, the stone close of the floor, in 1162; and in 1163 built a limekiln at Derry seventy feet square in twenty days. This was probably in preparation for rebuilding his cathedral, which he did in 1164, with the aid of Muircheartach O'Lochlainn. He made it eighty feet long, a vast extent compared with the very small churches then common in Ireland; but, as it is recorded to have been finished in forty days, it cannot have been an elaborate structure. In the same year (Annals of Ulster), Augustin, chief priest of Iona; Dubhsidhe, lector there; MacGilladuibh, head of the hermitage; and MacForcellaigh, head of the association called the Fellowship of God, and others, came to ask him to accept the vacant abbacy of Iona. The Cinel Eoghain, Muircheartach O'Lochlainn, and Gilla-Mac-Liag, coarb of Patrick, all opposed his leaving them, and he did not go. He died at Derry in 1175 and was succeeded in the abbacy of Derry by Gilla MacLiag O'Branain, of a family which furnished several abbots to Derry. Other important members of the learned family of O'Brolchain are: Maelbrighde O'Brolchain (d. 1029), who is called in the ‘Annals’ priomhshaor or archwright of Ireland. 

Maelisa O'Brolchain (d. 1086), who lived for the first part of his life in Inishowen, Co. Donegal, at Bothchonais, where an old graveyard and a very ancient stone cross, with an ox carved on its base, still indicate his place of residence. He afterwards migrated to Lismore, Co. Waterford, and there built a dertheach or oratory. He is described in the ‘Annals’ as learned in literature (filidhecht) in both languages, i.e., in Irish and Latin. He died on 16 Jan. 1086. Colgan states that he possessed some manuscripts in the handwriting of Maelisa O'Brolchain.

Maelcoluim O'Brolchain (d. 1122), bishop of Armagh. Maelbrighte O'Brolchain (d. 1140), bishop of Armagh. Maelbrighte Mac an tSair O'Brolchain (d. 1197), bishop of Kildare. Domhnall O'Brolchain (d. 1202), prior of Iona. He built part of the existing cathedral at Iona, and on the capital of the south-east column, under the tower, close to the angle between the south transept and choir, are the remains of an inscription, which was perfect in 1844, ‘Donaldus O'Brolchan fecit hoc opus,’ but has since been defaced, and now shows only some fragments of letters at the beginning and end. He died on 27 April 1202. The Iona Cathedral of the Isles NB: The broadly supported petition to the Vatican, 18 December 1443. [CSSR, iv, no. 968.] - From Alexander, Lord of the Isles, James King of Scots, Abbot MacKenzie, and other temporal lords and nobles of the Isles: - Annulment of letters to Fyngon Fyngonni [MacKinnon]; Mandate issued 8 Jan 1444. ("Acts of the Lords of the Isles; Appendix B-16; Munro and Munro; 1986.) By c.1450, due to MacKinnon's corruption, “the monastery was collapsed, impoverished in its rent and of extreme poverty.” Iona Abbey Church as it stands today (restored 20th c.) is due to the resources and rebuilding by the CLAN DONALD HIGH CHIEF, LORD OF THE ISLES, “JOHIS DE YLE COMIS ROSSIE DOMINI INSULARUM”, c.1450-80 (1461: John’s grand expectations of the Treaty of Ardtornish-Westminster with Edward IV.)  The right of patronage is hereditary (haereditarium), e.g., “entitled to the right of presentation, honorary rights, utilitarian rights (iura utilia) and the cura beneficii.” And so are the responsibilities: “If the church connected with the patronage is threatened with total ruin, or the endowment with a deficit, if those first bound to restore it are not at hand, the bishop is to exhort the patron to rebuild (reœdificandum) or renew the endowment (ad redotandum).” “It was the founder of a house and his heirs who provided the impetus to build or rebuild, who might contribute ideas, and who furnished resources to finance the project” (Monastic and Religious Orders; p.152; Burton, J., 1994). Lord John II’s enterprise employed Donaldus O'Brolchan of the Lordship’s long-serving hereditary chief masons, church-wright's and personal secretaries from the Derry family of Abbots/Bishops, past Coarbs of the St Columba Familia and Chief Lectors, Prime Artificers of Ireland. ["Donaldus O'Brolchan fecit hoc opus" ('Donal O Brolchain made this work') – incised on the capital of the south pier, east crossing (late 15th c.).] Elaborate enhancements to the greatly enlarged abbey church were lastly superintended by John’s first cousin, Angus MacDonald II, Bishop of the Isles, with his CATHEDRA firmly set on Iona. His grandfather, DONALD (II) of Harlaw had acquired and gifted to the Abbey c.1412-21 the priceless “Hand of St Columba” - a rarity and the only corporeal relic of St Columba repatriated from its five centuries of safekeeping in Derry, Ireland - a prestigious, sacred “Hebridean Holy Grail”. Donald and his artists enshrined it in a ‘charismatic’ gold and silver reliquary of ‘dazzling, wondrous beauty’. This event, of momentous religious significance and high political status, was achieved after a three decade's three-decade-long partnership with his 2nd cousin, the Iona Claustral Prior and reforming Abbot John MacALASANDAIR from a senior line of Clan DONALD [now MacAllister]. Flann O'Brolchain (fl. 1219), abbot of Derry, was elected coarb of St. Columba in 1219. He was elected by the Cinel Eoghain, and the community of Derry opposed him. Aedh O'Neill put him into office, but the community of Derry soon after expelled him and elected another abbot.[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vols. ii. and iii.; Annals of Ulster, ed. McCarthy, vol. ii. Rolls Ser..; Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy, vol. i. Rolls Ser..; Reeves's Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore; Reeves's Life of St. Columba, written by Adamnan, Dublin, 1857; Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ.] Here are excerpts from an article in the Irish Times of Monday, February 16, 2009: "Genetic studies show our closest relatives are found in Galicia and the Basque region ... "Our closest relatives are found in various parts of Galicia and the Basque Country, according to genetic studies led by Prof Dan Bradley of Trinity College Dublin’s Smurfit Institute of Genetics. He presented his research over the weekend at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago. "He was joined by Queen’s University Belfast archaeologist and linguist Prof James Mallory, who talked about efforts to link these DNA studies with the transmission of languages across western Europe. The genetic DNA evidence supports these claims. "The Book of Invasions from the 8th century talked about an invasion by the Spanish king Milesius, he said. "His group also looked for genetic linkages between people sharing a common surname, something passed along from the male lineage like the Y chromosome. "They found linkages that traced back to the famous Ui Neill kindred, from whom Niall Noigiallagh, Niall of the nine hostages, was descended. ..." See: Researchers Trace Roots of Irish and Wind Up in Spain by Nicholas Wade, published on March 23, 2000, in the National Science/Health section of the New York Times; Basques are Brothers of the Celts, an article of April 3, 2001, by Robert Highfield of The Daily Telegraph. The Milesians were the fifth and last Celtic people to invade and settle in Ireland. The family trees were extracted from the fifth volume of Lebor Gabálá Erenn: The Taking of Ireland (translated and edited by R. A. Stewart Macalister)." See also, on Timeless Myths, the page on the Book of Invasions: "The people of Ireland in medieval times had never believed that the Gaelic-speaking people were native to their land. They had believed that Ireland was invaded and settled by successive Celtic tribes over different periods. Their history is based largely upon the pseudo-historical Lebor Gabala, translated into English as the 'Book of Invasions', and Cath Maige Tuired, or the 'Second Battle of Maige Tuired'." And here is a quotation from Tapestry: Weaving the Myth, History, and Archeology of Ancient Ireland. - The Milesians: "Once again, a better-organized force overcame the defenders, unused to large-scale invasions, and Sovereignty of Ireland passed to the Milesians in the Year of the World 2746, or 1268 BC. The mythological invasions of Ireland were over. 

The arrival of the Milesians coincides exactly with the Late Bronze Age (13th-9th centuries BC)." "The Uí Néill sample population was composed of the following surnames (sample number): (O’)Gallagher (12), (O’)Boyle (9), (O’)Doherty (5), O’Donnell (4), O’Connor (3), Cannon (3), Bradley (2), O’Reilly (2), Flynn (2), (Mc)Kee (2), Campbell (1), Devlin (1), Donnelly (1), Egan (1), Gormley (1), Hynes (1), McCaul (1), McGovern (1), McLoughlin (1), McManus (1), McMenamin (1), Molloy (1), O’Kane (1), O’Rourke (1), and Quinn (1)."  The Irish Modal Haplotype (IMH) of the Moore/Trinity study was determined by an analysis of the Y-DNA of 59 members of 25 families traditionally associated with the Ui Neill. Gallagher (Donegal), Boyle (Donegal), Doherty (Donegal), O'Donnell (Donegal), Connor (Kerry), and Cannon (Donegal) made up 36 members of the 59 whose DNA, whose Y-DNA was studied. The County listings in parentheses indicate where the surname was most common in the 19th century according to Irish Ancestors. Other names used in the study were primarily associated with the following counties: Bradley (Derry), Reilly (Cavan), Flynn (Cork), McKee (Down), Campbell (Down), Devlin (Tyrone), Donnelly (Tyrone), Egan (Tipperary), Gormley (Tyrone), Hynes (Galway), McCaul (Monaghan), McGovern (Cavan). McLoughlin (Donegal). McManus (Fermanagh), McMenamin (Donegal and Tyrone), Molloy (Offaly), Kane (Derry), Rourke (Leitrim), Quinn (Tyrone). McLaughlin of Dun na nGall. Several good articles on the DNA readings of the Northwest Irish (NWI) haplotype will be found under DNA on John D. McLaughlin's website: McLaughlin of Dún na nGall. In his article entitled Ui Neill DNA, McLaughlin assigned the surnames used in the Trinity study to the following clan affiliations: 

Cenel Eoghain: Bradley, Gormley, Devlin, Donnelly, McLoughlin, O'Kane, Campbell, McCaul, Quinn ("Note: Campbell and McCaul are in this case both probably anglicized forms of MacCawell.") Cenel Conaill: O'Gallagher, O'Boyle, O'Doherty, O'Donnell, Cannon, McMenamin. 

Connachta: O'Connor, O'Reilly, Flynn, Hynes, McGovern, McManus, O'Rourke. Unknown: McKee, Egan, Molloy, McLaughlin, then includes pedigree charts showing the traditional descent of these families from Niall Noígiallach "of the Nine Hostages," and Niall's ancestors, including his father, Eochaidh Mugmedon. Irish Ancestors' surname dictionary lists Bradley with the Gaelic Ó Brolcháin and says:  

"Bradley. Very numerous: widespread, especially Ulster and Leinster. Ireland. Ó Brolacháin".

An Ulster sept of note in Derry.  

It seems likely that some Bradleys are of English origin, as the name is widespread there. SGG. "Ó Brolcháin. Brollaghan, Bradley: an-líonmhar mar Bradley i dtuaisceart Uladh. Bhí baint acu le Doire le fada. Clann ionráiteach sa mheán-aois: Mael Íosa Ó Brolcháin (+1086) a chum "Deus meus adiuva me", iomann atá i bhfeidhm fós. Bhí craobh i gCorcaigh faoin mbréagriocht Bradley, ach is cosúil gur sloinne Sasanach Bradley i Cúige Laighean. IF. "Ó Brolcháin. rare: Dublin, etc. Ir. Lang. See Bradley." From Under the Oak: 

Saint Máel Ísu Ua Brolcháin: "Máel Ísu Ua Brolcháin was a religious poet from Donegal who was a member of the Armagh community. His death in Lismore is mentioned in the Annals of Innisfallen in 1086. He is recognized as one of the primary poets of his age, and there is a full-page account of his life and family in the 16th-century Acta Sanctorum by Colgan. He was educated in the monastery of Both Chonais, Gleenely, beside the present-day Culdaff, Co. Donegal. His death is mentioned in all major annals ...  Flaithbertach O Brolcháin, who died about 1175. was abbot of Derry and head of Columban churches in Ireland.