![]() ![]() The famous Egyptian queen probably married her own brother as a result. The Ptolemaic dynasty, to which Cleopatra belonged, adopted this practice. This is not a matter of artistic liberty: the actual skulls found on many of Egypt’s royal tombs feature this alien-like deformity.Īs per custom, Egyptian brothers and sisters married often, as well as mothers and sons, cousins and cousins, and fathers and daughters. If you look at the archaeological busts, a particular feature stands out: strange-looking heads due to having deformed skulls, strangely elongated in the back. 2005Ancient Egyptians were also famous for interbreeding. Image by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt, and National Geographic Society. One of her own children died from it, as did five of her grandchildren later on. When Queen Victoria married her first cousin, who also carried the deadly gene, she unknowingly ensured that her descendants-who were numerous-suffered from hemophilia. Since she inherited the gene and developed the mutation herself, her line and intermarriage policy ensured that almost every royal corner of the Western world shared the condition. ![]() Though it wasn’t she who popularized royal incest, she was particularly adept at securing marriages across the whole of Europe. It is said that Queen Victoria is among the political culprits for the spread of hemophilia. That’s why hemophilia became known as a disease of royalty.Ĭarriers often don’t have the symptoms of the condition, so parents are generally unaware of the deadly genetic load they are about to pass onto their children. Since different monarchies carried the gene for hemophilia, royal intermarrying basically guaranteed that it would be passed on across royal lineages throughout Europe. While hemophilia isn’t necessarily a direct product of inbreeding, its rampant spread is. Even minor bumps might result in internal hemorrhage and death. Via Reddit.Hemophilia (or haemophilia) is a rare bleeding disorder that prevents the blood from clotting, which means that its victims are prone to bleed out. By the 18th century, the line was so deteriorated that it became infertile, which marked the literal extinction of the House of Habsburg in 1740. He also suffered from hallucinations and convulsions. He was the result of over two centuries of inbreeding, and it was noticeable. His jaw was deformed to such an extent that he was utterly unable to chew, and his engorged tongue, hugely swollen and enlarged, made him drool continually. Usually, aggressive and dramatic inherited diseases are what is known in genetics as “recessive”-they require both parents to be “carriers” of a gene that could cause trouble for the offspring.Ĭharles II of Spain, for example, is infamous for having one of the worst instances of this condition on record. The feature is easy to appreciate in the family portraits. One of the most recognizable features of the later family members was a distinct deformity: a genetic disorder where the lower jaw outgrew the upper, which resulted in an extended chin and a terrible crossbite. In all the centuries they ruled, inbreeding became the norm-and the later generations paid a steep price for it. Their incredible status also drove them to constant incest, as they believed marriage should occur only between people of equal ranks and prestige. The House of Habsburg was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe, occupying the throne of the Holy Roman Empire continuously from 1438 to 1740, as well as ruling over several other kingdoms and empires, including Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, Galicia, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Spanish Empire.īut there was a problem. Otherwise known as mandibular prognathism, there’s a good reason why this particular condition is popularly called the Habsburg jaw. Here are 10 crazy diseases and mutations caused by actual royal inbreeding. But we did see it in plenty of cases about real historical figures. We don’t really see that in the show’s Targaryens. Any psychological issues tended to be accompanied by noticeable bodily deformities, all of which ultimately rendered the victim probably infertile and completely unable to function properly in day-to-day affairs. In fact, the actual diseases and defects brought about by royal inbreeding were much less subtle, and often far more physical. ![]() ![]() And by mad we don’t mean believing oneself to be made of glass-just plain-old evil I-want-everyone-to-die kind of mad. Daenerys is supposed to be the product of an incestuous Targaryen tradition that dates back generations, and though a big point of the show is that this practice has terrible psychological consequences, we’re told the effects are almost nothing but a tendency to go mad at some point. Of all the things Game of Thrones gets wrong, probably one of the most important-yet elusive-ones is the actual effects of centuries-old inbreeding. ![]()
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