Meanwhile Beatrice’s carrier status proved to have equally tragic and devastating consequences for the Spanish royal family. Alexis proved to be affected and his severe bleeding prompted his mother to seek help from unconventional sources, most notably, and with tragic consequences, the ‘mad monk’ Rasputin, whose influence with the Czar’s wife contributed to the royal family’s decreasing popularity and eventual mass murder at Ekaterinberg in 1917. Alix married the Russian Czar, Nicholas II, with whom she had four daughters and a single son, Alexis. Irene married into the Prussian royal family and had two affected sons, Waldemar and Heinreich. Alice married the Duke of Hesse (in Germany) and had one affected son, Frederick, and two carrier daughters, Irene and Alix. Of much greater importance for European politics, two of Victoria’s daughters, Alice and Beatrice, proved to be carriers of haemophilia. Leopold, through his daughter Alice, had an affected grandson, Rupert, who died at age 20 years. One of her sons, Leopold, was affected with haemophilia and died at the age of 31 years as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage following a fall. Victoria had a total of nine children, four sons and five daughters. Her monarchy was associated with a period of unparalleled prosperity for Britain as the industrial revolution heralded the establishment of a Commonwealth which straddled the entire globe.Īlthough she herself enjoyed good general health, her genetic legacy proved to be disastrous for several of the royal houses of Europe (Fig 1). 218), reigned as British sovereign from 1837 until her death at the age of 81 years in 1901. Queen Victoria, the grand-daughter of George the Third (p. Photo of Queen Victoria at the time of her Golden Jubilee (1887)
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