Pointless host Alexander Armstrong has discovered his ancestor was a key figure in the English Civil War who bankrolled the king and led a failed invasion of Gloucester.
Alexander learned he is descended from Edward Somerset, the sixth Earl and second Marquess of Worcester, on the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?
He was told that Somerset was one of the monarchy's biggest supporters during the Civil War, which broke out in 1642.
His ancester loaned King Charles I funds worth £70million in today's money.
Historian Mark Stoyle told Armstrong his ten times great-grandfather was "one of the most fascinating characters of the Civil War".
He said: “Edward Somerset promises to raise an army for the king, and he sets about doing that in late 1642/early 1643, and soon has raised a force of well over 2,000 men.
"With that army, Edward Somerset marches towards Gloucester, a very strongly Parliamentarian town, and prepares to besiege the town."
Somerset's army was not big enough to fully besiege Gloucester, so the troops billeted themselves just outside of town, in Highnam, for a month.
However, Somerset then made the "fatal mistake" of heading to Oxford to meet with Charles I, leaving behind his troops.
Gloucester's Parliamentarian forces attacked, rendering Somerset's army helpless as their leader had left them.
The troops surrendered with "barely a shot fired", and embarrassingly became known as the "Mushroom Army" due to being established and then dissolved very quickly.
In his later years, before his death in 1667, Somerset indulged in his passion for science and invented what he called a "water commanding engine" – now seen as one of the earliest steam trains.
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