The British Monarchy Miscellany
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wishes. None of this is proven however and his personal life prior to his death remains the subject of much speculation.
Nickname: Young Affie
27. Princess Marie of Edinburgh
(29 Oct 1875-18 Jul 1938)
Born to Prince Alfred
One of the most eligible granddaughters of Queen
Victoria, after turning down a marriage proposal from her cousin Prince George (see 8. above), she married Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania in 1893. She later served as a very popular Queen of Romania from 1914 to 1927.
Nickname: Missy
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28. Prince Harald of Schleswig-Holstein
(12 May 1876-20 May 1876)
Born to Princess Helena
He died as an infant shortly after his birth.
29. Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh
(25 Nov 1876-2 Mar 1936)
Born to Prince Alfred
Under pressure from her grandmother Queen Victoria
she married her cousin Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse (see 15. above) in 1894. The marriage however was deeply unhappy and they divorced in 1901, after Queen
Victoria’s death. She later married her teenage
sweetheart, Grand Duke Kiril Vladimirovich of Russia, to whom she was happily married for many years.
Nickname: Ducky
30. Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh
(1 Sep 1878-16 Apr 1942)
Born to Prince Alfred
She married Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1893, who briefly served as Regent of the Duchy of Saxe-Goburg-Gotha in Germany for her cousin Charles Edward before he came of age in 1900 (see 35. below). After the German Empire was abolished in 1918 she and her
husband became disillusioned with their new bourgeois lives and became members of the Nazi party.
Nickname: Sandra
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31. Princess Margaret of Connaught
(15 Jan 1882-1 May 1920)
Born to Prince Arthur
She married Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden in 1905, and in 1907 became Crown Princess of Sweden. The marriage was happy and produced five children but she died of infection at the age of 38 before her husband succeeded to the Swedish throne as King Gustav VI Adolf. Her
descendants today include the monarchs of both Sweden and Denmark.
Nickname: Daisy
32. Prince Arthur of Connaught
(13 Jan 1883-21 Sep 1938)
Born to Prince Arthur
A career officer in the British Army, he rose to rank of colonel and served in the Boer War and the First World War. He later served as Governor-General of South Africa in 1920-1924. He married his first cousin once removed Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, daughter of Princess Louise (see 11. above).
Nickname: Young Arthur
33. Princess Alice of Albany
(25 Feb 1883-3 Jan 1981)
Born to Prince Leopold
She married Prince Alexander of Teck, brother of the future Queen Mary, in 1904. He later served as Governor-General of both South Africa (1924-1931) and Canada 389
(1940-1946), where Alice served as Viceregal Consort.
She was the longest-lived of Queen Victoria’s
grandchildren and the last one to die, passing away at the age of 97 in 1981.
34. Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh
(20 Apr 1884-13 Jul 1966)
Born to Prince Alfred
She married Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera, a cousin of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, in 1909. The marriage was controversial as Beatrice initially refused to convert to Catholicism, and the union was later troubled by scandals because of her husband’s affairs. Nevertheless, they remained married until her death.
Nickname: Baby Bee
35. Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany
(19 Jul 1884-6 Mar 1954)
Born to Prince Leopold
Born four months after his father died, he inherited his father’s title of Duke of Albany at birth. At the age of 16
he also became Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Germany and was the last Duke to rule there before the Duchy was abolished by the German Republic in 1918. He
controversially chose to fight for Germany during the First World War and was therefore stripped of all his British titles in 1919 by his cousin King George V (see 8.
above). He later courted more controversy by joining the Nazi party and becoming a SA officer. Following
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denazification at the end of World War II he died as a private citizen, stripped of most of his wealth.
Nickname: Charlie
36. Princess Patricia of Connaught
(17 Mar 1886-12 Jan 1974)
Born to Prince Arthur
She married Captain Alexander Ramsay in 1919, a Royal Navy officer who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in the First World War. On her marriage she
voluntarily relinquished her royal title of Princess and became known instead as Lady Patricia Ramsay, although she continued to be involved in royal events until her death.
Nickname: Patsy
37. Prince Alexander of Battenberg
(23 Nov 1886-23 Feb 1960)
Born to Princess Beatrice
A very capable man, he joined first the Royal Navy, where he served until 1908, then the British Army where he rose to the rank of Captain during the First World War. He later also served as a Royal Air Force officer during the Second World War. Between the two wars he became
the first member of the Royal Family to work for a living.
At his death in 1960 he was the last surviving grandson of Queen Victoria.
Nickname: Drino
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38. Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
(24 Oct 1887-15 Apr 1969)
Born to Princess Beatrice
She married King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906 and
reigned as Queen Consort until 1931 when the Spanish monarchy was abolished and they both went into exile.
The marriage was fraught with tension as Alfonso blamed her for transmitting haemophilia to two of their children.
Nickname: Ena
39. Prince Leopold of Battenberg
(21 May 1889-23 Apr 1922)
Born to Princess Beatrice
Named after his uncle Leopold who had died of
haemophilia five years before his birth, he inherited the same disease from his mother. He managed to serve in the First World War I in a non-combat role, but he later died from haemophiliac complications from hip operation at age 32. He never married.
40. Prince Maurice of Battenberg
(3 Oct 1891-27 Oct 1914)
Born to Princess Beatrice
He joined the British Army and later enrolled in the same regiment of his cousin Prince Christian Victor (see 12.
above), who had died whilst serving in the Boer War.
Tragically, he too died in military service when he was killed in action at the First Battle of Ypres in 1914, in the first months of World War I.
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Haemophilia in the
Royal Family
Haemophilia appeared in the family of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. Through the royal intermarriages of Victoria’s descendants it spread to other European royal families, and because of its rarity among the general population it began to be called ‘the royal disease’.
Following below is some basic information about
haemophilia and the people it affected in the British Royal Family.
What is Haemophilia?
Haemophilia is an inherited genetic disorder preventing the blood to clot properly when blood vessels are broken, so that persons affected experience longer and
potentially fatal bleeds. It was first mentioned in ancient times and began to be diagnosed medically in the 19th century. No cure exists for it but the condition can be controlled today with infusions of missing clotting factors via blood or plasma transfusions, given either as
prop
hylaxis or after injuries. Before these infusions began 393
to be used in the 1960s haemophilia sufferers usually died as a result of uncontrolled internal bleeding after falls and traumas.
There are two types of haemophilia: Haemophilia A, the most common, which affects 80% of all sufferers; and Haemophilia B, a rarer form which affects only 20% of haemophilia sufferers. In two-thirds of all haemophilia cases the condition is inherited, however in one-third of haemophilia sufferers the condition is the result of spontaneous genetic mutation at conception by non-carrier parents.
Haemophilia is found in both males and females,
however due to the position of the faulty gene causing the disease in the human chromosome only males show symptoms of haemophilia. Females generally are carriers only, and it is extremely rare to find females showing symptoms of haemophilia. Because of genetic
transmission mechanisms, female carriers can transmit the faulty gene to children of either gender, though the transmission is not automatic: some children will inherit the faulty gene whilst others will not, with no established pattern of transmission. Male carriers, on the other hand, exhibit automatic transmission patterns: all female children of male carriers inherit the faulty gene, but no male children of male carriers ever inherit the disease.
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Origin in the Royal Family
Haemophilia in the British Royal family first appeared in Queen Victoria’s children. It is thought that the genetic mutation causing haemophilia generated spontaneously either at Victoria’s conception in 1818 or at the
conception of her mother, Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-
Saalfeld, in 1785. Some research suggests that children born to older parents have a higher chance of developing spontaneous mutations for haemophilia, in which case it is more likely that the faulty gene arose at Queen
Victoria’s conception as her mother was 32 at the time, and her father was 51. Research in 2009 on the remains of Tsarevich Alexei of Russia—a great-grandson of Queen Victoria—showed that Royal Family members carried the genetic mutation for Haemophilia B, the rarer form of haemophilia which affects only 0.002% of the human
population.
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Royal Family Members Who Were
Carriers or Sufferers of Haemophilia
( indicates death from haemophilia)
Queen Victoria (1819-1901)
Carrier. She transmitted haemophilia to three of her nine children: Princess Alice, Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice, as noted below.
THE LINE OF PRINCESS ALICE:
Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Rhine (1843-1878)
Carrier. Third child of Queen Victoria. Married Grand Duke Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Rhine, and
transmitted haemophilia to three of her seven children.
Prince Friedrich of Hesse (1870-1873)
Sufferer. Fifth child of Princess Alice. He died of internal bleeding at the age of 2 years and seven months after falling 20 feet off a window. He was the first member of the Royal Family to die of the disease.
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Princess Irene of Hesse (1866- 1953)
Carrier. Third child of Princess Alice. Married her cousin Prince Henry of Prussia and transmitted haemophilia to two of her three children.
Prince Waldemar of Prussia (1889-1945)
Sufferer. First child of Princess Irene. Despite his condition he managed to live a normal life until his 50s and married, though no children were born for fear they would be sufferers also. He died of a haemophilia attack at age 56 at the end of the Second World War, when
blood could not be found for a needed transfusion.
Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1900-1904)
Sufferer. Third child of Princess Irene, brother of Prince Waldemar. He died of a brain haemorrhage at age 4 after falling off a table.
Princess Alix of Hesse, later Empress Alexandra of Russia (1872-1918)
Carrier. Sixth child of Princess Alice. Married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and transmitted haemophilia to at least one of her children (see below). It is unclear if any of her four daughters were carriers of haemophilia as they were all murdered during the Russian Revolution before marrying and having children. However some DNA
research done on their remains in 2009 seems to indicate that one of them was a carrier.
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Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (1904-1918)
Sufferer. Fifth child of Empress Alexandra of Russia. A known sufferer of haemophilia since he was a baby, he was supposedly healed of some haemophiliac episodes by his mother’s mystic confessor Grigori Rasputin. He survived the disease until the age of 13 when he was murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Russian
Revolution.
There are no known descendants of Princess Alice alive today who are either carriers or sufferers of haemophilia.
The last known carrier, Princess Irene of Hesse, died in 1953.
THE LINE OF PRINCE LEOPOLD:
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884)
Sufferer and carrier. Seventh child of Queen Victoria.
Leopold was the first member of the Royal Family to be diagnosed with haemophilia in 1853-54. Despite the
limitations imposed by his condition he determined to live a full life: he attended university, travelled through Europe and North America, and fathered children. He died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 31 after a minor fall off a staircase. He transmitted haemophilia to one of his two children (see below).
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Princess Alice of Albany, later Countess of Athlone (1883-1981)
Carrier. First child of Prince Leopold. She married Prince Alexander of Teck and transmitted haemophilia to at least one of her three children. It is unclear if her third child, Prince Maurice, was a sufferer of haemophilia as he died aged 5 months of ill-health unrelated to the
condition.
Prince Rupert of Teck, later Viscount Trematon (1907-1928)
Sufferer. Second child of Princess Alice. Like his grandfather, Rupert refused to allow haemophilia to limit his life. He attended university, was a keen hunter who shot wild game in Africa, and even served as a train engine fireman during the General Strike of 1926. He died of a brain haemorrhage at age 20 after suffering a minor skull fracture in a car accident near Lyon, France. He never married.
There are no known descendants of Prince Leopold alive today who are either carriers or sufferers of haemophilia.
The last known carrier, Princess Alice of Albany, died in 1981.
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THE LINE OF PRINCESS BEATRICE:
Princess Beatrice (1857-1944)
Carrier. Ninth child of Queen Victoria. She married Prince Henry of Battenberg and transmitted haemophilia to at least two of her four children. It is unclear if her fourth child, Prince Maurice, who died in combat during World War I at the age of 23, was a sufferer of haemophilia.
Prince Leopold of Battenberg, later Lord Leopold Mountbatten (1889-1922)
Sufferer. Third child of Princess Beatrice. In a tragic twist of fate, Leopold was named after his haemophiliac uncle who had died five years before his birth, and he also inherited the same disease. He tried to live a normal life and managed to serve in World War I in a non-combat role, but died at the age of 33 from haemophilia
complications following a leg operation. He never
married.
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, later
Queen of Spain (1887-1969)
Carrier. Second child of Princess Beatrice. She married King Alfonso XIII of Spain and transmitted haemophilia to two of her six children (see below).
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Alfonso, Prince of Asturias (1907-1938)
Sufferer. First son of Queen Victoria Eugenie and heir to the Spanish throne before the monarchy was abolished in 1931. Alfonso renounced his succession rights in 1933 to marry a Cuban commoner, whom he divorced in 1937. He remarried in 1937 to another Cuban commoner whom he also divorc
ed in 1938. He died of internal bleeding in September 1938 after he drove a car into a telephone booth in Miami, Florida. He had no children from either of his wives.
Infante Gonzalo of Spain (1914-1934)
Sufferer. Sixth child of Queen Victoria Eugenie. He died at age 20 of internal bleeding following a minor car accident in Austria, in a vehicle driven by his elder sister Beatriz.
He never married.
There are no known descendants of Princess Beatrice alive today who are either carriers or sufferers of haemophilia. The last known carrier, Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, died in 1969. There is a very small chance however that the disease might still be present in some female descendants of Princess Beatrice who are descended exclusively through a female line.
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Current Blood Relations
of the British Royal Family
to Other European
Royal Families
The English, Scottish and British royal families have been intermarrying with other European royal houses for over 1,000 years, resulting in multiple distant relationships.