Grandmama of Europe : The crowned descendants of Queen Victoria by Theo Aronson

Author:Theo Aronson [Aronson, Theo]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The Royal Disease

1

With this gradual spread of Queen Victoria’s descendants throughout the courts of Europe, so was something more sinister being passed on. Haemophilia, the dreaded bleeding disease, was being introduced into the royal families of the Continent.

Queen Victoria had always been worried about the quality of the blood of the British royal family. Both she and the Prince Consort had felt strongly about the necessity of revitalizing what the Queen called the ‘lymphatic’ blood of their house. ‘I do wish one could find some more black eyed Princes and Princesses for our children!’ she had once written to her daughter Vicky. ‘I can’t help thinking what dear Papa said – that it was in fact a blessing when there was some little imperfection in the pure Royal descent and that some fresh blood was infused … For that constant fair hair and blue eyes makes the blood so lymphatic … it is not as trivial as you may think, for darling Papa – often with vehemence said: “We must have some strong dark blood’.”

At the time of writing this letter, it is doubtful whether the Queen knew exactly what was ‘wrong with her family’s blood. Later, she had learnt rather more. Haemophilia was rife in her family.

The disease was, and is, a strange and frightening one. The blood of a haemophiliac lacks the qualities necessary to cause it to coagulate and so stop the flow of blood: clotting takes place either slowly or not at all. Any wound suffered by a haemophiliac can be fatal. Even an apparently harmless bump, causing internal haemorrhage, often leads to death.

A peculiarity of the disease is that it occurs exclusively in males and is carried by females. However, not every male in a family will automatically suffer from it; nor will every female in the family be a carrier. Not until a woman has children will it be known whether or not she is a transmitter; not until a son first bleeds will it be known whether or not he has haemophilia.

The disease first manifested itself in Queen Victoria’s family in her fourth son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. From childhood, Leopold had been described as ‘very delicate’ and throughout his short life he had suffered severe haemorrhages. As any cut, or bump, could lead to death, he could not lead the life of a normal youngster. It had been necessary to keep him always under strict surveillance. Once, when a Prime Minister suggested that he go to Australia to open an exhibition, the Queen had been adamant in her refusal. ‘She cannot bring herself to consent to send her very delicate son who has been four or five times’ at death’s door and who is never hardly & jew months without being laid up …’ she protested.

Prince Leopold died, at the age of thirty-one, in 1884, as the result of a minor fall.

Anguished and bewildered by the fact that this mysterious disease had appeared in one of her sons, the Queen could only protest that it did not come from her side – the Hanoverian side – of the family.

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