A woman has two X-chromosomes but only one of them goes to each child. This means that half of the male children of a female hemophilia carrier will have the disease and half of the female children will carry the disease but will not get it.
The only way a woman can suffer from hemophilia is to get the defective gene from both of her parents. By far the most likely way for this to happen would be for her parents to be related to each other. For this reason, almost all societies have incest taboos that brothers and sisters cannot marry each other, because of the possibility of hemophilia and other genetic diseases.
It is also not a good idea for cousins to marry each other. However, in Middle Eastern Countries like India it is still common for cousins to marry. This is done because of the dowry system and to keep the money in the family. It was also common until recently in Europe and in Colonial America. For example, Thomas Jefferson married both of his white daughters to their cousins. This was done because it was thought to strengthen the purity of the blood.
The Royal Families of Europe at that time were almost required to marry each other. For example, if a girl was a princess, she had to marry a prince. He did not have to be a prince from her own country, however. For example, a princess of England could marry a prince of Spain, of France, of Germany or of any other place. It did not matter what he was a prince of, as long as he was a prince of something.
Disaster struck when Queen Victoria turned out to be a carrier of the defective X-chromosome which carries a gene for hemophilia. Queen Victoria had nine children and all of them married into the royal families of various countries of Europe. In this way, all of the Royal Families of Europe caught the gene for hemophilia. Among the nine children of Queen Victoria, three, Alice, Leopold and Beatrice, are known for certain to have had the gene for hemophilia.
For example, Queen Victoria had a daughter named Alice Maud Mary, Princess of SAXE-COBURG. Her daughter was Alexandre Fedorovna, Czarina of Russia. She married Czar Nicholas II of Russia and their son was Alexis Nicolaievich Romanov, who had hemophilia.
As can be seen from this example, the defective X-chromosome can be carried hidden down an unbroken line of females until a male child is born who is afflicted with the disease.
It has often been stated that hemophilia hit the Royal Families of Europe because of inbreeding. However, this was not really true. First, it was a common practice among all families of Europe, both high and low, to marry cousins. Also, the royal families of Europe were not really that inbred. The fact that a princess from Germany could marry a prince from Russia provided more diversification than perhaps could be enjoyed by common people, who usually married within their own town or village.
An often unnoticed fact about the case of Queen Victoria is that she was the first member of European Royalty to carry the gene of hemophilia. The question then arises: From where did she get that gene?
The inescapable conclusion is that, since no other member of European Royalty prior to Queen Victoria had hemophilia, this must mean that some unknown man who was not royalty popped her mother. In other words, stated differently, Queen Victoria was a bastard! More than that, since virtually the entire European royalty is descended from Queen Victoria, this means that all of the Royal Families of Europe are bastards! (Of course, we already knew that!)
Now, the question is: From where did this bastard gene originate?
While the defective X-chromosome could have come from a long way up the female line, it turns out that we do not have to look far to find a likely suspect, because something seems to be strange or irregular about Queen Victoria's father. Her supposed father was Edward Augustus, son of King George III. (You remember him. He was the one who lost the colonies.) Edward Augustus was born 2 November 1767 and died 23 January 1820. He married only once. That was to Victoria Mary Louisa of SAXE-COBURG, whom he married on 11 July 1818. She was the mother of Queen Victoria, who was born on 24 May 1819. She was the only child.
Doesn't this seem a bit strange? Edward Augustus was the son of the King of England. He presumably could have had any woman he wanted. King George I, King George II and King George III were all known to have had many mistresses and illegitimate children. Yet, Edward Augustus, who would have been the King of England had he lived longer, did not get married until age 51, and then fathered a child who was born only ten months after he got married, and then he died only eight months after Victoria, the future queen, was born.
What do I think? I think that Edward Augustus was a gay blade who got married as a cover up and that he was not Queen Victoria's real father. I think that Queen Victoria's real father was an unknown hemophiliac who died probably very soon after fathering Victoria and almost certainly was dead by the time that Queen Victoria was born.
What do you think?
Sam Sloan
Since they're not too hard to find (and not too relevant to soc.genealogy.medieval), I won't say more about them here :)
Ceterum censeo DSH delendam esse.
William Addams Reitwiesner
wrei@erols.com
You are absolutely correct. I have not looked at the entries in the parish registers and in the Hausarchives for what is said in the death records of the brothers of Queen Victoria's maternal grandmother.
The maternal grandmother of Queen Victoria was Augusta Carolina (1757-1831). Her father was Henry XXIV.
I take it from your comment that the brothers of Augusta Carolina died from hemophilia related diseases. I do not have any brothers for her in my database, so I will have to search. That would certainly solve the question of where Queen Victoria got the gene for hemophilia from.
To those of you who do not know, William Addams Reitwiesner works for the Library of Congress and is presently writing a book on the genealogy of that poor, unfortunate, mentally retarded moron in the White House, so he tends to know what he is talking and his comments are deserving of the highest respect.
Sam Sloan