Royals and Major (Catastrophic) Illnesses

Mom N Me · #1 08-13-2006, 12:38 AM

It came to my attention that with all of the illness in the world today, I have not heard of any Royal family who has had to deal with these illnesses first hand. Everyone knows someone who has now or has had a family member with: Cancer (of its many forms), Heart disease, Hypertension, Stroke, Diabetes, HIV/AIDS or many of the other catastrophic illnesses out there.

It only makes sense that the families have had some members who have had at least one of these illness. For example, known Cancer is not as uncommon as it used to be, due in large part to the ability to test and fight this terrible affliction.

Does anyone know of any member of a Royal family that has had to deal with this issue?

Thanks!

norwegianne · #2 08-13-2006, 04:04 PM

King Harald of Norway had cancer in 2003. He underwent an operation and quit smoking because of it.

Avalon · #3 08-13-2006, 04:35 PM

Kings, Queen, Princes and Princess are humans like the rest, thus they are fragile. Many of them died of 'serious' ilnesses. Here is a short summary of a few of them. And I didn't count cases like 'madness' (quite familiar in many Royal Families) and Hemophilia (not less familiar).
Both Mother and Grandmother of the Duchess of Cornwall suffered, and died, of osteoporosis. The Duchess is now President of the National Osteoporosis Society. Major Bruce Shand, father of the Duchess of Cornwall, also suffered from Cancer.
Ronald Ferguson, father of Duchess of York, suffered from Cancer (most sources say it was prostate cancer but Sarah has once stated it was skin Cancer).
Edward VII, George V, George VI all died as a result of smoking
Princess Margaret of the UK (Queen Elizabeth's sister) had cerebral thrombosis (stroke), which eventually became the reason of her death (smoking again).
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud suffered major stroke in 1995.
Emperor Friedrich III of Prussia (though he was Emperor of only 99 days) suffered and died of Cancer (he was a heavy smoker). His wife, Victoria Adelaide Mary, Princess Royal (eldest daughter of Queen Victoria) died of spine cancer
Prince Tomohito of Mikasa suffered from Cancer in 2003.
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (wife of Frederik, Prince of Wales and mother of George III of Great Britain) suffered and died of Cancer of the throat at the age of 52.
Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium suffered from lung Cancer
Queen Louisa of Prussia, suffered from stomach Cancer
Catherine of Aragon (first wife of Henry VIII) is said to have died of Cancer, as well as her daughter, Queen Mary I Tudor.

H.M. Margrethe · #4 08-13-2006, 04:41 PM

I think that Queen Margethe of Denmark had cancer in her uterus and had it remove for som years ago. I am glad that Queen Margrethe are so open about her illness and her operations with her knee and her back

Coquine · #5 08-13-2006, 04:43 PM

Baudoin, King of the Belgians, died of a cardiac arrest on the 31th of july 1993. Albert II, King of the Belgians, had heart surgery in 2000 and a cataract operation in 2006. I think he had back surgery as well but I'm not sure. Maybe one of the other Belgian members can give more details ? I don't know that much about the Belgian royal family.

Mari_* · #6 08-13-2006, 11:05 PM

Infanta Elena's husband Jaime de Marichalar Duke of Lugo had a stroke.

crisiñaki · #7 08-13-2006, 11:12 PM

Juan of Borbon and Battenberg, Count of Barcelona and father of King Juan Carlos of Spain died of cancer in 1993

Mom N Me · #8 08-14-2006, 01:03 AM

Thanks for all the replies.
I figured that stroke and heart were a good possiblility and since so many of the royals support Cancer charities that would figure into family history. But am surprised that there are so many.
Someone suggested to me that Princess Diana's father also had a stroke.

SusanE · #9 08-14-2006, 05:38 PM

Emperor Akihito of Japan had prostate cancer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2611161.stm

irishchic5 · #10 08-17-2006, 12:29 PM

Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein had a brain tumor, I believe.

bct88 · #11 08-19-2006, 10:40 PM

The late Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, I believe, had a stroke several years before her death due to cancer.

Archduchess Regina of Austria-Hungary had a stroke earlier in the beginning of this year or the end of last year.

The late Princess Gina of Liechtenstein, mother of Prince Hans-Adam II, died in 1989 as a result of cancer.

Apart from cancer, King Harald V of Norway had surgery last year for a heart condition.

I am not entirely sure, but I believe that Duchess Diane of Wurttemburg had cancer. (I am only speculating because for a while she wore a scarf around her head.)

Toledo · #12 08-19-2006, 10:50 PM

BCT88, that last line of yours reminds me of the time Princess Caroline lost all her hair and used to go around with a scarf. It was years ago and I'm not sure if it was stress related.
Anyone knows?

zarat · #13 09-04-2006, 07:16 AM

For everybody really interested in royal diseases I can highly recommend a book entitled " The death of Kings. A medical history of Kings and Queens of England" by Clifford Brewer.The author, a senior surgeon introduces his readers into the world of royal diseases from Edward Confessor to queen Victoria.
I really admired his meticulous analysis of symptoms and probable reasons of death.
One could think that the most probable place for a king to die (in the past of course) was a battlefield but according to Mr. Brewer kings and queens were dying p.ex because of something "usual' like kidney failure ( Charles II, Henry IV, VIII, Anne). In most of cases there was more than one letal reason.
So these who want to know what king died of perforation of rectum or simply because of senility should acquint with Mr Brewer's work.
PS. but to be honest I have to warn you that there's a lot of medical vocabulary to go through

Henri M. · #14 09-04-2006, 07:34 AM

HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Prince Bernhard died of cancer at the age of 93 on 1 December 2004; until his death he suffered from malignant lung and intestinal tumors.

HM Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld
From the mid-1990's, Queen Juliana suffered from the progressive onset of senility (attributed to Alzheimer's disease by many although this was denied by the Royal Family) and so did not appear in public after that time. At the order of the Royal Family's doctors, Juliana was placed under 24-hour watch by two nurses. Prince Bernhard publicly admitted in a TV interview in 2001 that she could no longer recognize her family. Queen Juliana died in her sleep on March 20, 2004, aged 94, at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn from complications of pneumonia.

HRH Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg
Prince Claus suffered various health problems during his life, such as depression, cancer and Parkinson's disease. He died on October 6, 2002 after a long illness.

juliana · #15 09-04-2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henri M.

HRH Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg
Prince Claus suffered various health problems during his life, such as depression, cancer and Parkinson's disease. He died on October 6, 2002 after a long illness.

I have always been impressed with Beatrix's ability to cope with her husband's devestating illness. What would impress me more however is for the children to set up support for a research foundation for the nightmare Parkinson's disease. Just imagine the money they could make for it- it could be the Dutch equivalent of The Prince of Wales' Prince's Trust.
However has that been done already? Perhaps someone could enlighten me if that is the case.

Henri M. · #16 09-05-2006, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juliana

I have always been impressed with Beatrix's ability to cope with her husband's devestating illness. What would impress me more however is for the children to set up support for a research foundation for the nightmare Parkinson's disease. Just imagine the money they could make for it- it could be the Dutch equivalent of The Prince of Wales' Prince's Trust.
However has that been done already? Perhaps someone could enlighten me if that is the case.

Instead of focussing on the late Prince's illnesses, the Government honoured him with a Prince Claus Fund to promote for his lifelong ideals: increasing cultural awareness and promoting exchange between culture and development.

The Fund receives some € 6.000.000,-- a year (appr. $ 7,500,000.--) besides the rents on the foundation capital, which was given as a cadeau for the late Prince's 70th birthday in 1996.

juliana · #17 09-05-2006, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henri M.

Instead of focussing on the late Prince's illnesses, the Government honoured him with a Prince Claus Fund to promote for his lifelong ideals: increasing cultural awareness and promoting exchange between culture and development.

The Fund receives some € 6.000.000,-- a year (appr. $ 7,500,000.--) besides the rents on the foundation capital, which was given as a cadeau for the late Prince's 70th birthday in 1996.

An admirable fund but I do think that a fund for the research into Parkinson's cure would also be ideal. It is a devestating illness and as far as I am aware Claus is the only royal who has been publically acknowledged to die from it. Medical research is needed . Check out the Michael J Fox site and look at the huge sums of money his foundation has been able to provide for research. I am sure Claus' sons could do the same. It would be a lovely gift to the millions who die from it each year.
http://www.michaeljfox.org/

Jackswife · #18 09-05-2006, 02:01 PM

I think Caroline of Hanover's hair loss was determined to be stress-related.
George III had porphyria.
The hemophilia of Tsarevich Alexei (also Queen Ena's two sons)
Queen Alexandra had fever as a child and was deaf as a result but that may not be considered a "catastrophic" illness. Ditto for Princess Andrew of Greece who was deaf and also suffered from depression, as did Prince Claus.

Furienna · #19 09-20-2006, 09:49 PM

Princess Sibylla, the mother of King Carl XVI Gustaf, died of cancer in 1972. And her mother-in-law Crown princess Margareta died very prematurely in 1920, when she was only thirtyeight years old. If we should include accidents, we can't forget Margareta's son and Sibylla's husband, Prince Gustaf Adolf, and his fatal airplane crash.

morhange · #20 09-20-2006, 10:17 PM

Crown Princess Margareta was pregnant with the sixth child when she died :'(

Prince William of Gloucester also died in an aeroplane crash, as did his uncle, Prince George, the Duke of Kent, but these aren't really illnesses. Crown Prince Rupprecht and Crown Princess Marie Gabriele of Bavaria had three of their children die early. His eldest son and heir-apparent, Prince Luitpold, b. 1901, had polio and died in 1914; his daughter Irmingard, also died young, but I don't know what she died from. Their youngest son, Prince Rudolf, died of diabetes, I think. Marie Gabriele also died shortly before Luitpold, but I can't remember what from.