XPost: alt.fan.heinlein   
   From: wthyde1953@gmail.com   
      
   Paul S Person wrote:   
   > On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:09:16 -0500, Cryptoengineer   
      
   >> While I have a lot of issues with the Catholic church, its   
   >> extreme takes on how close a relative could marry (7 degrees of   
   >> separation) had the good effect of avoiding this inbreeding,   
   >> and also flattening society by destroying the 'hereditary clan'   
   >> or 'tribal' layer of social organization, and encouraging far   
   >> flung social connections.   
   >   
   > Except, of course, for the nobility and the royalty. Hemophilia   
      
   Somewhere in her family tree, one of Victoria's ancestors, or Victoria   
   herself, had a mutation on her X chromosome which led to the most famous   
   cases of royal Hemophilia.  It was probably Victoria herself or her   
   mother, but it is just possible that it existed earlier and was never   
   passed to a male child.  Unlikely but possible.   
      
   Queen Victoria had no siblings, but she passed her defective X   
   chromosome to three of her children.  As the elder sons were healthy it   
   did not become clear for some time that she carried the disease.   
      
   Naturally the royalty of Europe were eager to marry into the royal   
   family of what was then the world's dominant power.  Some did this   
   before the disease was suspected, others took a chance, sometimes on   
   dubious medical advice (carriers generally bruise more easily than   
   non-carriers, and some experts were overconfident of their ability to   
   use this to detect a carrier).   
      
   Poor Leopold, Alexei and the others were not victims of their ancestor's   
   martial practices. Just of bad luck and sometimes, bad judgment.   
      
   There is a valley in Switzerland where a comparatively mild form of the   
   disease cropped up.  Mild enough that male sufferers often lived long   
   enough to have children.   
      
   As a result this population also had female hemophiliacs, otherwise   
   almost unknown.  A certain amount of inbreeding was involved in this   
   case of an isolated area, but IIRC that mutation is now extinct.   
      
     and   
   > the Habsburg chin are notorious examples of the result.   
      
   The Hapsburgs interbred by policy, more than any other royal family I   
   have heard of.  Their domains were scattered, and after Charles V they   
   were no longer united under one ruler.  It was considered best that the   
   various archdukes be related as closely as possible, so when no   
   profitable out-dynasty marriage presented itself, there was always a cousin.   
      
   It is possible that after the establishment of a united Austrian empire   
   and the loss of Hapsburg Spain  that this policy abated.  But Franz   
   Joseph II was very angry that Franz Ferdinand had married a woman who   
   was "only" a countess, even though her family had been noble for at   
   least 500 years and she had a trace of Hapsburg blood.  In fact the   
   marriage was at first forbidden, but Franz made it clear that he wasn't   
   marrying anyone else.   
      
   William Hyde   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)