His grandfathers and his father served in the War of American Independence.
From the point of view implied by such words as these, it is only necessary to recall the mental attitude of our grandfathers to appreciate in some measure the revolution in thought that has been wrought in this field within the last half-century, largely through the instrumentality of Oriental archaeology.
Besides his grandfathers Anglo-Norman inheritance, he had received from his father Geoffrey the counties of Anjou and Touraine, and the predominance in the valley of the Lower Loire.
This prince, he said, had not been born at the time of his grandfathers death, and so lost any rights that might have passed to him had he been alive at that time.
At any rate his later years bear a considerable resemblance to the corresponding period of his grandfathers reign.
