Queen Victoria's Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family

By Professor D M Potts and W. T. W. Potts

Queen Victoria's son, Prince Leopold, died from haemophilia, but no member of the royal family before his generation had suffered from the condition. Medically, there are only two possibilities: either one of Victoria's parents had a 1 in 50,000 random mutation, or Victoria was the illegitimate child of a haemophiliac man. However the haemophilia gene arose, it had a profound effect on history. Two of Victoria's daughters were silent carriers who passed the disease to the Spanish and Russian royal families. The disease played a role in the origin of the Spanish Civil War; and the tsarina's concern over her only son's haemophilia led to the entry of Rasputin into the royal household, contributing directly to the Russian Revolution. Finally, if Queen Victoria was illegitimate, who should have inherited the British throne? The answer is astonishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780752471969

Reviews for Queen Victoria's Gene

[briandrewz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the story of the emergence of hemophilia into the British royal family and its subsequent scattering through the royal families of Europe. One of the books main focuses is perhaps the most well known story, that of Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia and their afflicted son, Alexei. The authors make the supposition that World War I may have been avoided had Alexei not been a hemophiliac. In my mind, one of the best features of this book is the break-down of the way that hemophilia works and its effects on its victim.