Haemophilia In European Royalty

[kwanfan]

I thought this topic was somewhat related to genealogy. Here's a link from wikipedia discussing the disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemoph...ropean_royalty
The disease passed through the houses of Spain, Germany, and Russia. Are there any other genetic diseases that spread through European royalty with all the interhouse marriages?

[Furienna]

Haemophilia is the most known one, but there could be others. The dyslexia, that King Carl XVI Gustaf and Crown princess Victoria suffer from, comes from the king's father, Prince Gustaf Adolf. But where did he get it from? His father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, was very intellectual and sure not dyslectic. Maybe he had inherited it from his mother, the Brittish princess Margareth of Connaught? I don't know if she was dyslectic or not. But it's also very possible, that it started with Prince Gustaf Adolf.

[chrissy57]

Margaret of Connaught is not impossible though as dyslexia is also present in the present British RF - Beatrice has admitted to being dyslexic.

Of course the dianosis is relatively recent with people in the past being put down as 'dumb' - not even intellectually challenged or something like that.

When you analyse what is known about the learning levels of various members of the RFs of Europe it is possible that there were quite a few undiagnosed dyslexics.

[Oppie]

It could be that dyslexia was passed through the family, but there hasn't been a definitive link between genetics and dyslexia so it might just be a coincidence (5-15% of the population has dyslexia). People with dyslexia also tend to have high IQ so it would be possible for someone to have been dyslexic but have done a good job of covering it up.

It doesn't appear if anyone currently from QVD is haemopliliac, but I wonder if there are carriers.

[juliamontague]

Porphyria was another genetical illness in the british royal Family and it spread to Prussia through QV's oldest daughter Victoria who had that illness and passed it to her daughter Charlotte, who herself passed it to her daughter Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen.

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by chrissy57

Margaret of Connaught is not impossible though as dyslexia is also present in the present British RF - Beatrice has admitted to being dyslexic.

I don't think Margareth was dyslectic though. Didn't she write books? And I even wonder if Gustaf VI Adolf would have wanted a woman, who people thought was stupid.

[Jackswife]

Actually, a lot of people with dyslexia tend to score highly on intelligence tests, so it's not necessarily a matter of being "dumb". Dyslexics often learn to compensate for their disability by developing phenomenal memories and other ways to cope. It's more a matter of difficulty in processing information, rather than any retardation or "stupidity." :)

[Furienna]

I said "that people thought was stupid". I was refering to what Crissy said about how people thought about dyslectics before.

[Russian]

Last Russian emperor Nikolas II and its wife Alexandra (on mother the grand daughter of English queen Victoria) had a unique son who too suffered from this such terrible and heavy illness as a haemophilia. I think, their four daughters could inherit genes which are carriers of this illness from mother. Only after Ekaterinburg tragedy of 1918 they have not left any posterity

[Toledo]

Anyone knows if the gene has been removed from the current Royals we discuss in here?

[Benjamin]

I believe that the gene has completely disappeared from the descendants of Queen Victoria.

[Toledo]

That's a relief. We discuss so many Royal babies lately it would be a tragedy one of them comes up with the Queen Victoria legacy.

[Russian]

If we now do not know any member of any European royal family which would suffer this illness, whether means it, what genes which are carriers of this illness can disappear?

[SusanE]

Originally Posted by Toledo

Anyone knows if the gene has been removed from the current Royals we discuss in here?

Hemophilia is transmitted on the X chromosome and it is a recessive trait. Women have XX chromosomes and men have XY chromosomes. Each person gets 1 chromosome from each parent. A woman has XX chromosome so she can only pass an X chromosome onto her children. A man has XY and can pass either chromosome on so the father determines the child's sex. If the father passes the X, it's a girl and if the father passes the Y, it's a boy. Now let's look at a woman carrying hemophilia. The hemophilia gene will be on only 1 of her chromosomes so the carrier mother has a 50% chance of passing on the chromosome with hemophilia. If she passes the chromosome on to a daughter, that daughter will be a carrier. The daughter will not have hemophilia because she has a healthy X chromosome from her father. But if the mother passes that X chromosome on to a boy, he will be a hemophiliac. The only way for a female to be a hemophiliac is for her to be the daughter of a carrier and a hemophiliac. The daughter of a hemophiliac will always be a carrier because her father can only pass on an X chromosome with hemophilia on it. However a hemophiliac's sons will not have hemophilia because the hemophiliac father will pass on a Y chromosome and his wife will pass on a healthy X chromosome.

Victoria's youngest son Leopold was a hemophiliac. He had 2 children: a daughter Alice, who had to be a carrier and a son Charles who had to be unaffected as I just explained. Alice had a son and a daughter. The son was hemophiliac and died in a car accident at age 21 so his line stopped. It is possible Alice's daughter was a carrier but so far none of her descendants have hemophilia but that doesn't necessarily mean she was not a carrier.

Victoria's 2nd daughter Alice was a carrier. Alice married Grand Duke Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt. Their son Friedrich (Frittie) was hemophiliac. When Frittie was 3, he came running into Alice's room and was running so fast that he fell out the window. By evening he was dead due to the uncontrollable bleeding.

Alice's daughter Irene married Prince Henry of Prussia. They had 2 hemophiliac sons but no daughters. One of Irene's sons died at age 4. The other, Waldemar, actually survived for quite a while. Waldemar died at age 56 and he had married but had no children. So the hemophilia from Frittie and Irene died out.

Alice's youngest surviving daughter was Alix who married Nicholas II of Russia and became Alexandra Feodorovna. And as we know, their son Alexei was a hemophiliac. We do not know if any of their 5 daughters were carriers but it is probable. So hemophilia did not descend through this line since all the children were killed.

Victoria's youngest daughter Beatrice was also a carrier. Beatrice had 3 sons and 1 daughter. Her son Leopold was a sufferer but he died at age 23 with no children. Her son Maurice also died at age 23 with no children...he MAY have had hemophilia. So there is no hemophilia descent through Beatrice's sons. Her daughter Victoria Eugenie known as Ena was a carrier and brought hemophilia into the Spanish Royal Family. Ena married King Alfonso XIII of Spain and they are the grandparents of King Juan Carlos of Spain...but there is no hemophilia in that line. Three of Ena's sons had hemophilia...one was stillborn. Her son Alfonso had it but he died in a car accident at age 31. He married but had no children. Her son Gonzalo also had it and he died in a car accident at age 20. So there is no hemophilia descent through any of Ena's sons. Now Ena had a daughter Beatriz and she is a possible carrier but none of her descendants have hemophilia. If it still exists, it is in the descendants of Beatriz, who was King Juan Carlos's aunt or in the descendants of Alice, the daughter of Prince Leopold. All the other lines have died out.

[Warren]

Thank you SusanE for this excellent rundown. :)

[Furienna]

Is anybody else freaked out by the fact, that so many of these haemophiliacs died in car accidents?

[Oppie]

Car accident happen often, for most people they would hardly be seroius but for a heamophilic it could be deadly, especially since there would be time needed to move from the accident site to a hospital.

[Furienna]

Well, yes, I guess that's how it must be. They didn't survive what others would have survived.

[Toledo]

I think it was not until the 1970's that the laws were enforced for car makers to have seat belts. So many of these old vehicles where like 50 % transportation and 50 % a grave with wheels.

By the way, I read the actress Brooke Shields is connected to Queen Enna's Tornolia family. This thread made me wonder on her and her kids too. But Brooke Shields' DNA is safe since her ancestor is Princess Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, the sister of Alesandro Tornolia, who married Doña Beatriz de Borbón-Battenberg, Queen Victoria Eugenia's (or Enna for shorts) daugther.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by Furienna

Is anybody else freaked out by the fact, that so many of these haemophiliacs died in car accidents?

They were also probably well-aware of their mortality, and rather than play safe were more inclined to go for broke. The alternative was to wrap themselves in cotton-wool, and even then face a very problematic future.