Hemophilia in Queen Victoria's Family

Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that affects the body's ability to form blood clots and stop bleeding. It is a sex-linked X-chromosome disorder, which means that because it is carried on the X chromosome, only males (who have one X chromosome) will inherit it. Women, who have two X chromosomes and therefore a "back-up" if the defective gene is passed down, are instead the carriers who pass it down to their sons who became sufferers or daughters who likewise become carriers.

A female who is a carrier for hemophilia has a 50% chance of passing the disease on to her son (a potential sufferer) and daughter (a potential carrier). However, a hemophilia sufferer's daughter has a 100% chance of inheriting the carrier gene since her X chromosome from her father will be affected. A hemophilia sufferer's son, unless his mother is a carrier, will be neither a carrier nor a sufferer, as his X chromosome is inherited from his mother.

One of the most famous instances of hemophilia in a family is in the case of Queen Victoria, who passed down the disease to two of her five daughters (who became carriers) and one of her four sons (a sufferer). Oddly, though it is a genetic condition, her family had shown no signs of this disease before her son was born. There are a few reasons for this: either when she was conceived, a rare mutation occurred making Queen Victoria a carrier; her mother's family (who she would have had to inherit the gene from) had sufferers who went undiagnosed and the disease really was present in the family beforehand; or her father, Edward, Duke of Kent was not really her biological father and she inherited the disease from an unknown hemophilia sufferer. Most agree that it was simply the result of a genetic mutation.

Of Victoria's four sons, only one, Leopold, Duke of Albany, suffered from hemophilia. Interestingly, he is the only sufferer in Queen Victoria's family to marry and have children. He had one child, Alice, before his death. His son Charles was born shortly after he died. As Charles inherited a healthy X chromosome from his mother, neither he nor his descendants were at all affected by the disease. Alice, on the other hand, as the daughter of a hemophilia sufferer, automatically inherited the disease. She had three children: one daughter and two sons. The daughter, May, who had a 50% chance of becoming a carrier, ultimately was not. However, unfortunately, both sons were sufferers. Rupert died at age twenty in a car accident, while Maurice lived for only a few months.

Queen Victoria had five daughters and, seemingly, only two were carriers of hemophilia.

One, Louise, had no children, so it is impossible to determine whether she was or not. The second oldest daughter, Alice, who was married to Ludwig, the Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine, had seven children (five daughters and two sons) and passed the disease down to two daughters and one son. Her son Friedrich died as a result of a fall as a young child. Irene, her third daughter, married Prince Henry of Prussia and had three sons, two of whom, Waldemar and Sigismund, were sufferers and died before having children. Alix, her fourth daughter, is perhaps the most famous hemophilia carrier of all time. She married Tsar Nicholas II and became Tsarina Alexandra. She had five children, four daughters and one son. Her son Alexei is perhaps the most famous hemophilia sufferer of all time, as his parents were so troubled by his disease that they sought help from the mad monk Rasputin who claimed he could cure the boy. The Russian people, who had no idea that the Tsarevitch had such a disease, did not understand why their Tsar and Tsarina were spending so much time with such a corrupt person as Rasputin. Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918, long before any of the children could produce children that would have determined whether or not any of the daughters were carriers.

Queen Victoria's fifth daughter and youngest child, Beatrice, was her only other child affected by hemophilia. She was a carrier who passed the disease to two of her four children. Her son Leopold (ironically, he was named after his Uncle Leopold the hemophilia sufferer) had hemophilia and died from a knee operation before having children. Beatrice's daughter Victoria Eugenie was a carrier of the disease. She was married to Alfonso XIII of Spain and introduced hemophilia to the Hapsburg family by passing it on to two of her seven children, including the heir to the throne. Her sons Alfonso and Gonzalo were sufferers and both died young in car crashes. None of the rest of her children were sufferers or carriers. Unfortunately, whereas the hemophilia diagnosis of their son brought her cousin Alexandra and her husband Nicholas close together, it drove Victoria Eugenie and Alfonso apart.

While the diagnosis of hemophilia was in general a horrific one for the family, it was not as devastating numerically as many would have you believe regarding Queen Victoria's family. Of her nine children, forty grandchildren, and eighty-eight great-grandchildren, ten males were sufferers and six females were sufferers. This was certainly not as widespread as some would say -a professor once told me that the disease spread to every royal house in Europe, a definite falsehood that can be easily proven. Where it did show up, however, as in the case of Russia and Spain, it could be devastating on the marriages, families, and countries involved.

Queen Victoria's Descendants by Marlene A. Eilers. 1987. Genealogical Publishing Co.