Queen Victoria & hemophilia

[grandduchessella]

I think they understood as much as they could at that time. Vicky had commissioned a study about it back in the late 1870s when Wilhelm had decided he wanted to marry Ella. The chance that Ella could be a carrier had defnitely occurred to Vicky by then.

Harold died at just a few days old--I don't think it was ever thought of that he could be a hemophiliac since the symptoms usually manifested themselves later than that. Marlene said once how he died, I just can't remember it.

Helena seems less of a mystery because neither of her 2 adult sons were hemophiliacs and there is no evidence the 3rd one was. There's no way of knowing anything about Louise's chances since she left no children. Of Queen Victoria's 9 children, 4 seem ruled out (Vicky, Bertie, Alfred, Arthur), 3 were affected (Alice, Leopold, Beatrice) and 2 have some question (Helena, Louise).

[eejm]

I think they understood as much as they could at that time. Vicky had commissioned a study about it back in the late 1870s when Wilhelm had decided he wanted to marry Ella. The chance that Ella could be a carrier had defnitely occurred to Vicky by then.

Harold died at just a few days old--I don't think it was ever thought of that he could be a hemophiliac since the symptoms usually manifested themselves later than that. Marlene said once how he died, I just can't remember it.

I meant more that I'm surprised that there is still little interest in Helena's status as a carrier now, or in retrospect rather, especially since more is known about the disease.  My guess is that it has to do with the lack of effect Helena's family had on other European royal families.  Unlike Alice and Beatrice, none of Helena's descendents married into these families and had hemophiliac/carrier children.  So, despite a great geneological, medical, and historical interest in the way hemophilia affected European royalty, little attention has been paid to Helena and whether or not she carried the disease. 

[grandduchessella]

But I think it's because of what we stated--no evidence in her 2 grown sons, a 3rd died at about 1 wk old, neither of her daughters left children (one didn't even marry) so it's rather hitting a brick wall.

[alixaannencova]

Just a thought, but I have been pondering this for ages! Had Victoria had a fifth son who had suffered from haemophilia, the heritable nature of the disease may have been more obvious to others much earlier and would no doubt have lead to a much altered dynastic outcome for her grand children! I have read that the chances of a child inheriting the gene are fifty percent, which in the case of Alice and Beatrice is quite accurate (If Vicky and Bertie are excluded from the data!) but I keep wondering about the idea if Beatrice had been a boy with haemophilia, how things would have been so different in the long term! 

[LisaG]

I'm reading Charlotte Zeepvat's book on Leopold, and it struck me:  Did the hemophilia stop in the great-great-grandchild generation?  Just off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone mentioning hemophilia past Ena's boys.  I guess it's because by then, they could treat it.

[Margot]

There is currently one publicly known descendent of Queen Victoria's who apparently does have haemophilia. His name is Ferdinand Soltmann (b.2005) and he is a great x5 grand child of Queen Victoria via Alice and a great x4 grand child via Alfred.

[Kalafrana]

If Ferdinand Soltmann is a haemophiliac (poor lad!), then he must have inherited it via Alice, not Alfred, as Alfred, as a man, could only have passed the gene to a daughter and thence to later descendants had he been a haemophilic himself. How exactly is Ferdinand Soltmann descended from Alice?

[Margot]

Ferdinand's descent from QV via Alice goes as follows:-

Queen Victoria - Alice - Victoria of Hesse Darmstadt - Alice of Batteneberg - Margarita of Greece - Kraft of Hohenlohe - Langenberg - Xenia of Hohenlohe - Langenberg - Ferdinand Soltmann

It is debated that this may be another case of spontaneous mutation in Princess Xenia's genes akin to that suspected to have happen to Queen Victoria as there have been no other reports of haemophilia amongst the descendants of Victoria Milford Haven. It is a very strange situation as the spontaneous mutation theory occurs so rarely as it is, and with Ferdinand's lineage it may be possible that haemophilia did descend through the line and that it was just kept private

If one ponders the theory that VMH may have been a carrier and that she was lucky that both her sons were unaffected and that Alice was a carrier, it is possible that Alice may have transmitted the disease to Margarita. It certainly does not appear that  Kraft Prince of Hohenlohe Langenberg suffered from the disease but perhaps he did and just kept it private. He would have had to have been afflicted though in order to transmit the disease to his daughter Princess Xenia, Ferdinand's mother. It is possible that this is the case but until the family speaks on the matter we can only speculate!

[Romanov_fan]

It is certainly interesting that this recent descendent of Queen Victoria's has this disease.There's no evidence of hemophilia in Alice's line except for this, as far as I know,so it may have been sponteanous.I think it would have become public if Kraft of Hohenlohe- Langenberg had that disease, he would be a cousin of the British Royal Family, but who knows.I just think it would be strange for hemophilia not to appear somewhere else in this family line (beyond Alice), that of VMH and Alice of Battenberg who both had fairly large families, if I recall correctly.I'll have to read more on this.