Author Topic: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?  (Read 11130 times)

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Offline Превед

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Re: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?
« Reply #15 on: May 16, 2014, 12:54:13 PM »
That's fine, but it's more important for the audience to understand, quickly and easily, who is being referred to. Not addressing the by then deceased Queen by her full formal title is acceptable in my opinion. After all the focus of the scene was on Alexei's disease not on the Queen herself. But I understand your point...people sometimes come off as too, shall I say "familiar", in these types of productions than was surely the case in reality.

Oh yes, she was even dead by then. So it must have been "Your Majesty's late grandmother". I understand the need to identify her quickly and easily, but actually I don't think that people not knowing that QV was AF's grandmother have any clear picture of who QV was anyway. The solution would have been to let the doctors talk among themselves of "the Empress's blood must be carrying the same hereditary defect as her grandmother's. Queen Victoria also had a hemophilic son".
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Kalafrana

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Re: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?
« Reply #16 on: May 16, 2014, 02:01:57 PM »
I think they would indeed have pressed on regardless.

However, those around them could have seen danger and given warnings which were then ignored.

By 1890 Alexandra had had an uncle, a brother and a nephew with the disease. Irene and Heinrich produced Waldemar (haemophiliac) nine months after their wedding, so fertile young couple conceiving during the honeymoon. There were then six years and eight months between Waldemar and Sigismund, which strongly suggests that they were trying to avoid having more children. Heinrich had six healthy nephews, so  producing heirs was not an issue, however.

Remember, it was not enough to have sons. They needed healthy sons. Alexander III was a second son. Alexandra herself had been considered as a bride for Albert Victor, who died at 28, leaving his brother as heir. Both AV and Nixa had reached adulthood in apparently good health. And so on.....

A deadly disease which only occurred in boys, and kept cropping up in Alexandra's close family.......

Ann

Offline edubs31

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Re: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?
« Reply #17 on: May 16, 2014, 04:08:53 PM »
The other mystery was to what knowledge of the disease Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna had. It's natural to assume that had Alexandra's knowledge been limited, considering it was her family line the disease ran in, then it's even more likely the reigning Tsar and Empress of Russia (in the 1890s when Alix's name started popping up as a suitor for their eldest son) were pretty clueless.

That said they did have some strong reservations about Nicholas marrying Alix. We are told that it had to do with Alix's quiet and somewhat unlikable reputation, the difficulties involved in integrating her into Russia culture, and the fact that they sought a "better catch" for their son. But did hemophilia, even given their limited understanding of the disease, appear at all on their radar? Any questions about her ability to produce a healthy make heir?

Of course had it been a primary concern of Alexander and Maria they surely would have forbade their son from marrying the Princess from Hesse.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

Offline TimM

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Re: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?
« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2014, 05:17:21 PM »
As I said, it could have gone either way.  Wilhelm II was a direct descendent of QV, her grandson, yet he didn't have it.
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Offline Kalafrana

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Re: Did Nicholas II and Alexandra know their son could have hemophilia?
« Reply #19 on: May 18, 2014, 01:51:51 AM »
Indeed, it could have gone either way. QV had four sons, but only the youngest was haemophiliac, whereas Irene and Heinrich had two haemophiliac sons out of three. Two of QV's daughters were carriers, two were not. Louise was childless, so may have been.

But once haemophilia had shown itself in the Hesse family, the risk was identifiable.

Ann