![]() ![]() ![]() Ironically, Victoria's granddaughter (Victoria Eugénie) was brought into the Spanish Bourbon dynasty to revitalise their allegedly degenerate bloodline. While the past few generations of British royals have been haemophilia-free because they descended from Victoria's unaffected son Edward VII, other royal families of Europe have not been so fortunate. One of Victoria's sons, Leopold, died of it. Only a few haemophiliacs survived to reproductive age, because any external cut or internal bleeding after a bruise could be fatal. Queen Victoria herself was a carrier of this X-linked blood-clotting disorder, which at the time was untreatable in the affected males. The best-known example of a genetic disorder within the British monarchy involves blood more literally: It is haemophilia. when there was some little imperfection in the pure Royal descent that some fresh blood was infused'. Queen Victoria seemed to agree: In a letter to one of her daughters, she wrote, 'I do wish one could find some more black-eyed Princes and Princesses for our children! I can't help thinking what dear Papa said that it was. ![]() There's a widely held view that royal dynasties are a rather inbred lot, and maybe an injection of genes from a member of the populace would be a good thing: Inbred groups tend to have relatively high frequencies of genetic disorders. But to those with a genetic or genealogical bent, these royal goings-on are food for thought. As anyone who has seen the movie The King's Speech will know, marrying out of the aristocracy has hardly been embraced with joy in the past. While not exactly sweeping ashes for a living (the now Duchess is described as a 'former fashion buyer'), this Cinderella has broken new ground. The latest instalment has been the marriage of William, son of Charles and Diana, and second in line to the throne, to a 'commoner', Kate Middleton, on 29 April 2011. In many other nations, the royal family has been dispensed with or relegated to the status of minor celebrities, but the soap opera of the Windsors remains permanently at centre stage here. Whether they hate them or they love them, the British certainly are obsessed with their monarchy. ![]()
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