Auden told an interviewer at Swarthmore in 1943 that 'He had an uncle who wrote a large book on sulfuric acid [Dr. Harold Allden Auden (I37)], and a cousin, living in Toronto, who writes Latin grammars [Prof. Henry William Auden (I189), technically a cousin once removed], but outside of them no literary talent exists or existed in his family.' Quite apart from aggressively ignoring the copious writings of his own father, George Augustus Auden (I1), this statement omits mention any of the numerous literary and artistic figures to whom Auden was in fact related. It is impossible to tell whether Auden simply did not know about these links or, perhaps less likely but still in some cases possible, whether he unconsciously wanted to project himself as a one-off, the sole significant artist to have emerged from his family.
On all these 'Hotspots' pages, the 'I' number within parentheses following each name indicates the unique number assigned to the person in the 'Family Ghosts' database; a search on that number will produce the full record for that person. Numerous brief biographies for all individuals mentioned on this page are available on the Web and so, with exceptions, detailed personal histories are not given in 'Family Ghosts'.
Clicked on, the links listed will produce a diagram of the directest relation between the individual in question and Auden, including those constructed through marriage or (in genealogical jargon) 'connection', that is out-of-wedlock relationships. Limitations of the software used make it impossible to differentiate visually in these 'Relationship Charts' between marriages and connections. In these charts, all sexual relationships which produced children are subsumed under the rubric of marriage. No moral point is attached to this enforced generalization, and in all cases fuller, more accurate descriptions of the nature of the relationship(s) diagrammed are given in the records for the individuals concerned.
Individuals are ordered into a list here by date of death and, for convenience, segregated into centuries by the same criterion.
12th century
William IX of Aquitaine [Guilhem IX de Peitieus] (I2595), 1071-1126, the first troubadour poet, Auden was his 24 times great grandson; relation to Auden
13th century
Pero Gómez Barroso (I5526), Galician-Portuguese troubadour poet; relation to Auden
15th century
Geoffrey Chaucer (I2248), 1343-1400, poet; relation to Auden -- another connection between Chaucer and Auden exists thus: Chaucer was the brother-in-law of Katherine de Roët (I2244), the wife of John of Gaunt (I1269) (see here) and Auden was the 17 times great nephew of John of Gaunt (see here)
Pero López de Ayala (I5306), 1332-1407, Castilian poet and statesman; relation to Auden
Charles of Orleans (I2988), 1394-1465, poet, Auden was his fifth cousin 17 times removed; relation to Auden
Iñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana (I5655), 1398-1458, Castilian poet; relation to Auden
16th century
Gavin Douglas (I2880), 1474-1522, poet; relation to Auden
John Bourchier, Lord Berners (I1256), 1467-1532, translator of Froissart’s Chronicles, Auden was his 12 times great grandson; relation to Auden
Garcilaso de la Vega (I5659), 1501-1536, poet; relation to Auden
Henry Howard (I595), 1517-1547, poet; relation to Auden
Marguerite of Navarre (I2985), 1492-1549, author and patron, sister of Francis I of France, Auden was her seventh cousin 15 times removed; relation to Auden
Thomas Vaux (I558), 1509-1556, poet; relation to Auden
Philip Sidney (I2367), 1554-1586, poet; relation to Auden
17th century
Three faux-Shakespeares: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (I2941), 1550-1604; relation to Auden -- de Vere's first wife, Anne Cecil (I2942), was a cousin of another main candidate for Shakespearean pseudonymity, Francis Bacon (I1797; see also below), 1561-1626; relation to Auden; Auden was the second cousin 10 times removed of another, and the latest, such candidate, Sir Henry Neville (I3772), 1562-1615; relation to Auden
Edmund Tilney (I3662), 1535-1610, Master of the Revels and thus the official who oversaw the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage in London, Auden was his third cousin 13 times removed; relation to Auden
Walter Ralegh (I3757), 1554-1618, courtier, writer, adventurer; relation to Auden
Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (I2952), 1561-1621; relation to Auden
George Buck (I3683), 1560-1622, Master of the King's Revels during the Jacobean period; relation to Auden -- Edmund Tilney (I3662; see above), the previous Master of the Revels, to whom Auden was also related, had a cousin, Francis (or Frederick) Tilney (I3673), who was married to Sir George Buck's aunt, Margaret Buc (I3674)
Francis Bacon (I1797), 1561-1626, author, Auden was the 10 times great grandson of Sir Nicholas Bacon (I1791), Sir Francis Bacon's father; relation to Auden
George Herbert (I4100), 1593-1633, poet -- Lady Mary Egerton (I4095), Auden's sixth cousin 10 times removed, was the wife of Herbert's nephew Richard Herbert (I4094); relation to Auden
John Suckling (I1903), 1609-1641, poet; relation to Auden
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (I4096), 1583-1648, poet, philosopher, diplomat; relation to Auden
Mary Wroth (I2895), 1587-1651, poet; relation to Auden
Margaret Cavendish (I4544), ca. 1623-1673, writer; relation to Auden
Anne Bradstreet (I5558), 1612-1672, poet, Auden was her ninth cousin nine times removed; relation to Auden
Henry Herbert (I4129), 1594-1673, Master of the Revels; relation to Auden
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (I3373), 1609-1674, historian; relation to Auden
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (I3417), 1647-1680, poet; relation to Auden
Thomas Killigrew (I3825), 1612-1683, playwright; relation to Auden
Anne Killigrew (I3834), 1660-1685, poet; relation to Auden
John Dryden, (I4424), 1631-1700, poet, dramatist; relation to Auden; Auden was also the fifth cousin eight times removed of Lady Elizabeth Howard (I4423), ca. 1638-1714, the wife of Dryden -- see here (see as well Jonathan Swift below)
18th century
Samuel Pepys (I1787), 1633-1703, diarist; relation to Auden
Jonathan Swift (I4437), 1667-1745, satirist; relation to Auden (noteworthy also is that Dryden (I4424), see above, and Swift (I4437) were second cousins once removed: see here)
Henry Fielding (I1744), 1707-1754, novelist; relation to Auden
Mary Wortley Montagu (I1711), 1689-1762, author; relation to Auden
Edward Young (I3530), 1683-1765, poet of Night-Thoughts; relation to Auden -- the pious Young married the granddaughter of the half-brother of the debauched Earl of Rochester (I3417; see above)
John Laurens Bicknell (I399), 1746-1787, abolitionist poet, Auden was his three times great nephew; relation to Auden
Horace Walpole (I1883), 1717-1797, author and artistic patron; relation to Auden
Mary Wollstonecraft (I4983), 1759-1797, author; relation to Auden
19th century
James Woodhouse (I345), 1735-1820, rural poet, Auden was his first cousin four times removed; relation to Auden -- NB Woodhouse is the only relation of all those listed on these "Hotspots" pages to come from Dr. Auden's side of the family and not from that of his wife, Constance Bicknell
Benjamin West (I4045), 1738-1820, history painter; relation to Auden
Percy Bysshe Shelley (I4499), 1792-1822, poet, Auden was his 16th cousin, three times removed; relation to Auden
George Gordon, Lord Byron (I4852), 1788-1824, poet, Auden was his 16th cousin four times removed; relation to Auden (Shelley (I4499) and Byron (I4852) were 17th cousins twice removed: see here)
Walter Scott (I1596), 1771-1832, novelist; relation to Auden
William Godwin (I4980), 1756-1836, philosopher and novelist; relation to Auden
John Constable (I75), 1776-1837, painter; relation to Auden
Theodore Edward Hook (I3900), 1788-1841, Tory essayist, hoaxer, literary enemy of Leigh Hunt (and ultimately his brother-in-law); relation to Auden
Mary Shelley (I4994), 1797-1851, writer; relation to Auden
Leigh Hunt (I3437), 1784-1859, radical essayist, literary enemy of Theodore Hook (and ultimately his brother-in-law); relation to Auden
G. H. Lewes (I3508), 1817-1877, essayist; relation to Auden
George Eliot [Marian Evans] (I3509), 1819-1880, novelist; relation to Auden
Samuel Laurence (I1219), 1812-1884, Victorian portrait painter; relation to Auden -- Laurence's son-in-law was Sir George Scott Robertson, a medical administrator in India; Sir George's first wife had been Catherine Edith Birch, the third cousin of Auden's mother
Richard Burton (I4723), 1820-1891, explorer and author; relation to Auden
20th century
E. A. Mackintosh (I5273), 1893-1917, First World War poet; relation to Auden
W. S. Blunt (I5247), 1840-1922, poet and adventurer; relation to Auden
Klaus Mann (I16), 1906-1949, writer, Auden was his brother-in-law; relation to Auden
Lord Berners (I1854), 1883-1950, author and musician, Auden was his eighth cousin; relation to Auden
Thomas Mann (I8), 1875-1955, novelist, Auden was his son-in-law; relation to Auden
Dorothy Wellesley (I2014), 1889-1956, poet, editor, friend of Yeats; relation to Auden -- Auden referred to her as "Dotty Wellesley"
Winston Churchill (I2135), 1874-1965, author and politician; relation to Auden
Charlotte Franken (I1607), 1894-1969, author and journalist; relation to Auden
Erika Mann (I6), 1905-1969, writer and cabaret artist, Auden was her husband; relation to Auden
James Pope-Hennessy (I173), 1916-1974, biographer, Auden was his second cousin; relation to Auden
Chester Kallman (I681), 1921-1975, poet and librettist, Auden was his companion; relation to Auden
E. F. Schumacher (I741), 1911-1977, economist; relation to Auden
Golo Mann (I17), 1909-1994, writer, Auden was his brother-in-law; relation to Auden
John Pope-Hennessy (I172), 1913-1994, art historian, Auden was his second cousin; relation to Auden
Naomi Mitchison (1580), 1897-1999, author; relation to Auden
Lesley Blanch (I1505), 1904-2007, historian; relation to Auden
Literary "subjects"
Byrhtnoth (I2448), about 930-956, an ealdorman of Essex whose bravery was commemorated in the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon, Auden was his 31 times great nephew; relation to Auden
Malcolm III of Scotland (I1296), 1031-1093, killer of the usurping king Macbeth, as dramatized by Shakespeare in Macbeth, Auden was his 25 times great grandson; relation to Auden
Mary Butler, Duchess of Ormonde (I3966), 1665-1733; relation to Auden -- Auden wrote in his lecture "Making, Knowing and Judging" that one of the four questions with which he would test any critic is whether that person likes, "and by like I mean really like, not approve of on principle.... Conscious theatrical exaggeration, pieces of baroque flattery like Dryden’s welcome to the Duchess of Ormonde" ["To Her Grace the Dutchess of Ormond, With the following Poem of Palamon and Arcite, From Chaucer"]
Joseph Bell (I2379), 1837-1911, forensic scientist, the model for Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes; relation to Auden
Alice Liddell (I2053), 1852-1934, the model for "Alice" of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; relation to Auden
©2008 Nicholas Jenkins