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Queen victoria european family tree4/6/2024 ![]() (His eldest living descendant in the male line today is Ernest Augustus, Prince of Hanover and present husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco.)Ī couple of weeks ago, I read and reviewed a new book by British author Deborah Cadbury, "Queen Victoria's Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages that Shaped Europe". and who would that have been? This is quite a fascinating detective story, investigating in considerable depth the private lives of the Coburgs, and it leaves one to wonder how the 19th century in Britain might have been different if Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and subsequently king of Hanover (a very distasteful individual by all accounts, and a very unpopular ruler), had become king of Great Britain. ![]() In which case, the throne should rightfully have gone to King William III’s next closest relative. The duchess certainly did have a lover, and it’s also possible, from all the evidence, that her husband the duke was sterile. And since her father, Edward, Duke of Kent, did not have the disease, that would mean Victoria was illegitimate, the offspring of a hemophiliac lover of the Duchess of Kent. Where did the defective gene Victoria carried come from? There are only two medical possibilities: Either she was the victim of a random mutation - one chance in about 50,000 - or her father was hemophiliac. But Victoria’s son, Leopold, also died of complications of the disease, and it made its way into the Spanish royal family, as well. One of the first instances of "genetic genealogy" was the investigation into the roots of the hemophilia that plagued the czarevich Alexei of Russia, the only son of Nicholas II, who probably wouldn’t have lived long enough to become czar even if the Bolsheviks hadn’t liquidated the imperial family. The index was far from comprehensive: eg on more than one occasion Frederick the Great (of Prussia) is cited in the text but he doesn't appear in the index nor William of Gloucester, cited above, diagnosed with porphyria, the malady which afflicted George III (and Mary Queen of Scots amongst others) so surely worthy of one. Reference is made to ‘descendants’ of Frederick the Great. I began to doubt its veracity after spotting a number of inaccuracies, two of which are : Prince William of Gloucester (1941-72), described as a nephew of George V. Was Queen Victoria legitimate and if so where did the haemophilia gene come from? A big question, particularly in view of the havoc the gene wreaked on the international royal stage.Īn interesting read at least in part but it lacked structure and the later chapters were rambling. An alternative might be: ‘Coburg Ambition and Queen Victoria’s Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family’. An odd book which doesn’t quite match its title.
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