It always seemed to me that the inbreeding caused it to sponaneousely mutate in QV as her half sister Feodoria was not a carrier. But it doesn't seem to rule out something that Charlotte Zeepvat raised in QV Family, that perhaps this gene went back generations through the Duchess of Kent.
Zeepvat mentioned Feodora as a possible carrier in Leopold's biography. Feodora must have had a son who died young; I don't have the book on me, so I can't tell you any more than that. I'll check when I get home. Even so, if Victoria, Duchess of Kent was a carrier, she could have passed it onto Queen Victoria, but not Feodora. Not all daughters of carriers end up carriers themselves. Case in point - Empress Frederich, Princess Helena (possibly, though she may have been a carrier too), Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, etc.
Yes this was something that Zeepvat brough up that interested me, was the point that many infant deaths weren't attributed to hemophilia at the time but perhaps were, even through Feodoria wasn't considered a carrier, but as you pointed out she certainly did have a 50/50 chance of being a carrier. As far as interbreeding causing hemophilia, that isn't exactly what I meant. I do believe that it aggravated an already genetic situation. Especially if it WASN'T something far back in Victoria's line and occurred spontaneously.
The fact that hemophilia occurred in QV's very large family makes it an excellent case study for the disease, so it's very easy to fall back on the interbreeding theory. But hemophilia occurs of course in people who are very very unrelated. I was just wondering if the closeness of QV & PA and past generations of cousins marrying might have helped it along.
I must reiterate, as I have thought about this a great deal. The fact QV and PA were first cousins had NOTHING to do with hemophilia in their descendents. It started with QV herself. If she had married anyone, since she was a carrier, each child would have a fifty fifty chance of either being a carrier (if female) or having it (if male).
Therefore QV's half-sister Feodora was definitely not a carrier, and she had no chance of being one, as it started with QV. There were a lot of babies who died all over the world, throughout all classes in those days. It was the norm. If hemophilia had been prevalent in QV's mother's family, then why did no hemophilia sufferer grow up at least past infancy, this was not at all ucommon. In fact it appears to be the norm- Leopold, Aleksei, Waldemar, etc. etc. And then their symptoms would have been duly noted, and we could say that QV's mother's family contained hemophilia. As this never happened, we can safely say QV's mother's family did not have hemophilia. Anyone can get hemophila not because their ancestors had it, but because they were simply born with it themselves. Experts have concluded this was the case with QV almost certainly. It had nothing to do with inbreeding, as already stated QV's parents were not related, so she herself was far less inbred than MANY other royals of the time. Hemophilia can not be ''aggravate an already genetic situation'' it is a disease unto itself, which can occur in anyone, nothing to do with inbreeding. It only spread within royalty because QV's descendents married other royals, not because of inbreeding. If Alice, or Beatrice had married anyone, once again, their descendents would have had the same chance of having hemophilia.
