I’ve been reading a fascinating account lately of five of Queen Victoria’s grand daughters, entitled ‘Born to Rule’ by Julia Gelardi. Gelardi analyzes the lives (and similarities) of Victoria Eugenie of Battenburg (later Queen of Spain), Sophia of Prussia (later Queen of Greece), Maud of Wales (later Queen of Norway), Alix of Hesse (later Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia), and Marie of Edinburgh (later Queen of Romania). Although I disagree with the way that Gelardi has segmented the accounts (rather than following one Queen’s life in it’s entirety, she jumps all over the place, backtracking and foreshadowing and making it hard to keep track of the general story), the lives of the women alone are interesting enough to warrant picking up the book to read, so if you’re interested in the history of the monarchy ‘Born to Rule’ is recommended.

One of the most diverting issues which frequently pops up throughout the account is haemophilia. Queen Victoria, of course, was one of the most famous historical figures to carry the haemophilia disease (although she showed no signs of it herself, a common trait of female sufferers), and her extended family lived in fear that they too would fall prey to the illness or pass it on to their children. Queen Victoria’s son Leopold had the disease, as did (unknowingly) many of Queen Victoria’s daughters, who in turn passed it on to their children. In all, seven of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren exhibited signs of or passed on haemophilia, and seven of her great-grandchildren (not including the daughters of Empress Alexandra of Russia who were killed before they had children and thus it cannot be determined if they themselves had the disease).

According to wikipedia, 1 in every 25,000 male births have haemophilia - quite a large number when you consider the world population of a few billion. There is no cure for the disease either, other than to be pumped full of clotting products which your body will eventually develop an intolerance for. Such clotting products were involved in a contamination scandal in the 1970s and 1980s, which resulted in haemophiliacs all over the world becoming contaminated with HIV. As if they didn’t have enough problems already, HIV-infected haemophiliacs then had to deal with yet another debilitating illness.

Although Julia Gelardi’s book is titled ‘Born to Rule’, the frightening reality of haemophilia has made me wonder whether it should have instead been titled ‘Born to Die’. Far from welcoming new heirs to the respective infected royal families, the royal parents and their court would hold their collective breath to see if the dreaded ‘Royal Disease’ had been passed on. What a change from the glorious celebrations of times past when a royal baby was born!