What was wrong with Queen Victoria’s blood, why did it make her a genetic time bomb and what was the royal disease she unwittingly caused? This is the tragic story of how Queen Victoria spread haemophilia through Europe’s royal families.
Haemophilia is an inherited blood disorder; a rare genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting properly, leading to excessive bleeding from even minor injuries. Today it is treatable, but in the 1800s it was often a death sentence. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is widely believed to have been a carrier of haemophilia B, likely caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation and not linked to the fact that she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Although she herself showed no symptoms, every time she became pregnant with one of their nine children, she risked passing the gene to them. A third of Victoria and Albert’s offspring got this piece of damaged royal DNA.
Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, suffered from haemophilia and died at the age of 30 after a fall. Two of her daughters, Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice, were carriers. Through them, the disorder entered the royal houses of Germany, Spain, and Russia as royal strategic marriages allowed it to spread deeper into the descendants of the grandmother of Europe (which was Queen Victoria’s nickname).
One of the most famous cases was Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, Victoria’s granddaughter. Alexei’s haemophilia caused constant fear for the future of the Romanov dynasty and led Alexandra to rely on the mystic Rasputin, whose perceived ability to ease Alexei’s suffering damaged the credibility of the Russian monarchy and contributed to growing political unrest.
This British royal history documentary from History Calling explores the science behind haemophilia, Queen Victoria’s pivotal role, how a single faulty gene left a lasting mark on European history and why the royals of Europe don’t have haemophilia anymore.
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