Haemophilia [ I expect you write 'hemophilia', same difference ] afflicted the male line of Queen Victoria.It hasn't occurred in her modern male descendants in Britain.

Does it 'die out' or is it always carried through the generations,without recurring, until some time perhaps several generations further on? For example, could Prince Harry's or the Princess Royal's [Anne's] children or grandchildren have it?

This is a genetic disorder whereby females are usually the carrier and males usually manifest the disorder.

quote:

The effects of this sex-linked, X chromosome disorder are manifested almost entirely in males, although the gene for the disorder is inherited from the mother. Females have two X chromosomes while males have only one, lacking a 'back up' copy for the defective gene. Females are therefore almost exclusively carriers of the disorder, and may have inherited it from either their mother or father.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemophilia

A female needs to carry the gene from both her mom and dad to get the disorder, a male gets the gene from his mother (it cannot be passed from father to son) and has a 50% chance of developing it but will pass the gene on to his daughters.

Supporting data:


http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/healt...hemophilia_what.html

http://www.hfindia.org/node/9

Queen Victoria was the first British Monarch to pass the disorder and since her 'father' didn't have the disorder, she must have been fathered illegitimately.

Victoria is the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II (current Monarch), and the great-great-great-great-grandmother of princes William and Harry.

Queen Elizabeth's current family tree. I am trying to trace back the lineage to determine risks of Hemophilia.

I found the Lineage of the Royal Monarchs of England from Victoria to present, but I am still working on the familial relationships.

Q. Victoria (b. 1819, 1837-1901), Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha.
K. Edward VII. (b. 1841, 1901-1910), Princess Alexandra
K. George V. (b. 1865, 1910-1936), Princess Mary
K. George VI. (b. 1895, 1936-1952), Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother) (b. 1900, d. 2002)
Q. Elizabeth II (b. 1926, 1952 to Present), Philip Duke of Edinburgh

According to what you have posted, Sher, a male doesn't have to have hemophilia to pass it on.

"...a male gets the gene from his mother (it cannot be passed from father to son) and has a 50% chance of developing it but will pass the gene on to his daughters.

But then you say:

"Queen Victoria was the first British Monarch to pass the disorder and since her 'father' didn't have the disorder, she must have been fathered illegitimately.

Both statements cannot be true. Further, you should also check Phillip's family tree, since Victoria is also his G-G-Grandmother. Elizabeth and Phillip are third cousins through Queen Victoria, and second cousins, once removed, through Christian IX of Denmark (Victoria's third cousin, twice, and a couple more distant relations). Tsarevich Alexei had the disease, and Victoria was his great grandmother. (He was also, I think, related to her in a few other ways through his father.) Many other European royals were similarly gifted by Victoria.

I'm not saying that Victoria's father was definitely her mother's husband (Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn), but the hemophilia issue doesn't rule him out. The fact that the father of Victoria's children was also her first cousin may have made things much worse for her descendants.


"Does it 'die out' or is it always carried through the generations,without recurring, until some time perhaps several generations further on? For example, could Prince Harry's or the Princess Royal's [Anne's] children or grandchildren have it?" - Fred

Yes. However, with genetic testing, it may be possible to know if one is a carrier, and that knowledge could, of course, be part of selecting a mate. I strongly suspect, given the interwoven fabric of all the British royals' ancestry, that such knowledge, if available, is both known to all of them but kept from the public.

Dorian, what I posted does pass muster. A male can pass the gene on only to his daughters, but a female passes it on to both sons and daughters.

A male has 50% chance of developing the actual disease but will definitely will pass the gene on to daughters.

I agree that the speculative statement about the paternity of Queen Victoria may not be accurate, but all her children defintely had the gene so they all would have passed them to their daughters and the females also to their sons.

I didn't find a chart mapping lineage between Victoria and Elizabeth, yet, so I am not sure whether a male would have interrupted the passing of the gene to current generations.

Since Prince Charles, if he had the gene couldn't pass it to his sons, they must be risk free.

This statement, that you posted

Females are therefore almost exclusively carriers of the disorder, and may have inherited it from either their mother or father.


belies the logic of your statement that "since her [Victoria's] 'father' didn't have the disorder, she must have been fathered illegitimately."

If the disease may be inherited from either parent, as you posted, then it follows that it is not necessary for the father to pass the disease.

Further, Diana was also of royal descent, and related to Charles.

On her father's side, she was a descendant of King Charles II of England through four illegitimate sons:

* Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, son by Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland
* Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox, son by Louise de Kérouaille
* Charles Beauclerk, son by Nell Gwyn
* James Crofts- Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, leader of a famous rebellion, son by Lucy Walter

She was also a descendant of King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter, Henrietta FitzJames. The descent is as follows:

* James II of England = Arabella Churchill (royal mistress)
* Henrietta FitzJames (daughter of James II) = Henry Waldegrave, 1st Baron Waldegrave
* James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave = Mary Webb
* James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave = Maria Walpole
* Lady Anna Horatia Waldegrave = Lord Hugh Seymour
* Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour = Elizabeth Malet Palk
* Adelaide Horatia Elizabeth Seymour = Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer
* Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer = Hon. Margaret Baring
* Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer = Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton
* John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer = Hon. Frances Ruth Burke Roche

Other notable ancestors included Robert the Bruce and King Henry IV. Source: Wikipedia

So exactly when did the hemophilia gene pop up in European royalty? It could have been present several centuries ago, but, until Victoria, the odds held true. Victoria, in marrying her first cousin, may have tilted the odds in favor of hemophilia manifesting itself as the dominant factor rather than the recessive factor.

As an aside, and noting that mistresses figure in the ancestry of Princess Diana, former wife of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales:

The current 'Mrs Wales', erstwhile mistress of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales,is herself descended from Alice Keppel who was the mistress of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.

That's what might be termed 'keeping it in the family'. One of Camilla's chat up lines to Charles was that she was descended from the mistress of the Prince of Wales, his ancestor.....

The family that plays together, stays together.

That's hilarious, Dorian!

Genetics is fascinating to me, always has been. I can see where both you and Sher are coming from regarding Queen Victoria. Without a way to test her father's genetics, we can't rule out her legitimacy. But either way, the fact remains that hemophilia seems to run rampant in royalty.

Which makes me wonder: How many Americans may be carriers and never know it? After all, we're a "melting pot," and any of our ancestors could have been descended, legitimately or otherwise, from European royalty. Since it doesn't seem to be a very often-seen disease here, I would imagine it's been "watered-down" through the generations. Or is it more prevalent, maybe in certain areas, and I'm just ignorant to the fact?