Royal Inbreeding and Other Maladies

A History of Royal Intermarriage and its Consequences

Juliana Cummings

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781399012201
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

When we think of kings and queens, we conjure up illusions of a magnificent kingdom where His and Her Majesties live in the lap of luxury and want for nothing. While this may be true, life wasn't always as perfect. With the history of royal families comes a long and twisted history of genetics and family intermarriage that is often swept aside. In Ms Cummings' latest book, she takes us through the complicated spider's web of royal marriages. She tells us of the atrocities of the Ptolemy Dynasty as they continued to marry brothers and sisters to fend off political outsiders. She tells us about the centuries of intermarriage in European's most prominent royal family, along with the devastating results that came with it. We will learn of the devastation of mental illness that befell reigning monarchs of The Hundred Years War and plagued George III of England, Juana of Castile and the Wittlebach Empire. She will also tell us of the desperation that fell upon the Russian Royal Family as their only heir to the throne grew ill with haemophilia. She will also go into depth about the notorious Hapsburgs, the decades of physical and mental ailments that tormented them, and how their empire ended with the most inbred royal in history, Charles II of Spain. After hearing the heartwrenching stories of these great monarchs, you'll find that you can't help but sympathize with them as you read about how genetics was the ultimate game-changer in most families.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter One A History of Genetics and What Happens When It Goes Wrong
• Chapter Two The Monarchy and Why It Was so Important
• Chapter Three Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, and The Ptolemy Dynasty
• Chapter Four The House of Valois and Lancaster and Two Mad Kings
• Chapter Five The House of Aviz, Trastamara and the Sad Story of Juana the Mad
• Chapter Six The House of Tudor, Stewart, James V of Scotland and the Three Troubled Queens
• Chapter Seven House of Hanover and Mad King George
• Chapter Eight Queen Victoria’s Haemophilia Trait
• Chapter Nine Tsarevich Alexei’s Royal Disease and the End of the Russian Monarchy
• Chapter Ten The Habsburgs: A Family Notorious for Inbreeding
• Chapter Eleven House of Wittelsbach and the Mad Cousins
• Work Cited
• Bibliography
• Plates