#Queen victoria family tree hemophilia series

Despite both being young, the union produced no heirs. Via/ Wiki Commons InfertilityĪugusta Victoria of Hohenzollern was married to her cousin, King Manuel II of Portugal, in 1913. In recent years arsenic poisoningfrom cosmetics has also been suggested as cause of the king’s ill health and mental illness. However, given the other evidence there may have been many other mad members of European royal families whose ailments were kept secret or which were mistaken for other diseases. This ailment was thought to be most prevalent in the British royal family, especially given that King George III, grandfather to Queen Victoria, famously went mad during the last decade of his life. Queen Victoria was Alexi’s great-grandmother. No cure for hemophilia exists even today, so it’s hard to imagine what -if any- help was given to the boy.

#Queen victoria family tree hemophilia series

The notorious Grigori Rasputin was brought in as a healer for the boy, which led to a series of tragic events including Rasputin’s own extended death scene. Before their murders during the Russian Revolution, the failing health of his son and heir, Alexi, prompted special help to be sought outside the medical establishment. Russian Czar Nicholas II’s family was also affected. Victoria and Albert were first cousins and their son, Leopold, suffered his whole life, eventually dying at age 31 from hemophilia. The coupling of these defective genes from an in-family union is why inbreeding is so dangerous and unpredictable. Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Consort Albert, were both carriers of the disease, which requires one set of recessive genes from each parent to pass to the children. Prince William, Duke of Glouchester, died in 1700. The Hapsburg line was also said to have suffered from this condition. The couple were each both descended from King Frederick II of Denmark, being closely related cousins. William was one of a heart-wrenching 17 children that the couple lost. Bacterial infection and hydrocephalus were the confirmed causes of death upon autopsy of 11-year-old Prince William, Duke of Glouchester, the oldest surviving child of Queen Anne and Prince Consort George of Denmark. Hydrocephalus causes water on the brain at birth, something which can result in a wide variety of problems from minor symptoms to severely debilitating and lifelong consequences and even death.īut, the disease also affected the British royals. This was again most prevalent in the Spanish royals since they had mercilessly defended the crown through inbreeding for many generations.

Via/ Wiki Commonsīased on known familial marriages of the Hapsburg dynasty, experts estimate that many of the related couples shared nearly 10% of the same DNA. (1629-1685), and the notorious Hapsburg jaw seen on both. Family resemblance between Carlos II of Spain (1661-1700) and Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria However, there were other problems that were less visible at first glance, like problems with the formation of the tongue which led to speech problems for Charles II, the last of the Hapsburg rulers of Spain. The external effects of this were most readily seen in the male members of the Hapsburgs, and less so in the female members, although both exhibited the Hapsburg Jaw. This was most prevalent among the Spanish line of descent. But, of course there might even be others that we do not know know about. Here are some of the most well-known problems that plagued the royal families. The inbreeding among the royals of Europe wasn’t simply about second cousins marrying: first cousins and even uncles and nieces were wed to each other in what turned out to be a hapless experiment in genetics. Indeed, even many illnesses were not understood back then, leading to vague diagnoses and charlatan healers offering spiritual cures. The results of inbreeding, however, were not well understood at the time. Princess Beatrice with her mother, Queen Victoria in 1881. With only a portion of the royal children eligible to rule, keeping alliances between different branches of the family was seen as a necessity and at the time inbreeding was the way many royal lines achieved this end. This meant that most royal unions focused on having male heirs.

For centuries only male children could inherit the throne in most areas. In the days when royals literally ruled each country, who became king or queen was of grave importance to the then-current rulers.