Solving the puzzle of Henry VIII

Southern Methodist University ^ | March 3, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Could blood group anomaly explain Tudor king's reproductive problems and tyrannical behavior?

DALLAS (SMU) – Blood group incompatibility between Henry VIII and his wives could have driven the Tudor king's reproductive woes, and a genetic condition related to his suspected blood group could also explain Henry's dramatic mid-life transformation into a physically and mentally-impaired tyrant who executed two of his wives.

Research conducted by bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley while she was a graduate student at SMU (Southern Methodist University) and anthropologist Kyra Kramer shows that the numerous miscarriages suffered by Henry's wives could be explained if the king's blood carried the Kell antigen. A Kell negative woman who has multiple pregnancies with a Kell positive man can produce a healthy, Kell positive child in a first pregnancy; But the antibodies she produces during that first pregnancy will cross the placenta and attack a Kell positive fetus in subsequent pregnancies.

As published in The Historical Journal (Cambridge University Press), the pattern of Kell blood group incompatibility is consistent with the pregnancies of Henry's first two wives, Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. If Henry also suffered from McLeod syndrome, a genetic disorder specific to the Kell blood group, it would finally provide an explanation for his shift in both physical form and personality from a strong, athletic, generous individual in his first 40 years to the monstrous paranoiac he would become, virtually immobilized by massive weight gain and leg ailments.

"It is our assertion that we have identified the causal medical condition underlying Henry's reproductive problems and psychological deterioration," write Whitley and Kramer.

Henry married six women, two of whom he famously executed, and broke England's ties with the Catholic Church – all in pursuit of a marital union that would produce a male heir. Historians have long debated theories of illness and injury that might explain the physical deterioration and frightening, tyrannical behavior that he began to display after his 40th birthday. Less attention has been given to the unsuccessful pregnancies of his wives in an age of primitive medical care and poor nutrition and hygiene, and authors Whitley and Kramer argue against the persistent theory that syphilis may have been a factor.

A Kell positive father frequently is the cause behind the inability of his partner to bear a healthy infant after the first Kell negative pregnancy, which the authors note is precisely the circumstance experienced with women who had multiple pregnancies by Henry. The majority of individuals within the Kell blood group are Kell negative, so it is the rare Kell positive father that creates reproductive problems.

Further supporting the Kell theory, descriptions of Henry in mid-to-late life indicate he suffered many of the physical and cognitive symptoms associated with McLeod syndrome – a medical condition that can occur in members of the Kell positive blood group.

By middle age, the King suffered from chronic leg ulcers, fueling longstanding historical speculation that he suffered from type II diabetes. The ulcers also could have been caused by osteomyelitis, a chronic bone infection that would have made walking extremely painful. In the last years of his life, Henry's mobility had deteriorated to the point that he was carried about in a chair with poles. That immobility is consistent with a known McLeod syndrome case in which a patient began to notice weakness in his right leg when he was 37, and atrophy in both his legs by age 47, the report notes.

Whitley and Kramer argue that the Tudor king could have been suffering from medical conditions such as these in combination with McLeod syndrome, aggravated by his obesity. Records do not indicate whether Henry displayed other physical signs of McLeod syndrome, such as sustained muscle contractions (tics, cramps or spasms) or an abnormal increase in muscle activity such as twitching or hyperactivity. But the dramatic changes in his personality provide stronger evidence that Henry had McLeod syndrome, the authors point out: His mental and emotional instability increased in the dozen years before death to an extent that some have labeled his behavior psychotic.

McLeod syndrome resembles Huntington's disease, which affects muscle coordination and causes cognitive disorder. McLeod symptoms usually begin to develop when an individual is between 30 and 40 years old, often resulting in damage to the heart muscle, muscular disease, psychiatric abnormality and motor nerve damage. Henry VIII experienced most, if not all, of these symptoms, the authors found.

FETAL MORTALITY, NOT INFERTILITY IS THE KELL LEGACY

Henry was nearly 18 when he married 23-year-old Catherine of Aragon. Their first daughter, a girl, was stillborn. Their second child, a boy, lived only 52 days. Four other confirmed pregnancies followed during the marriage but three of the offspring were either stillborn or died shortly after birth. Their only surviving child was Mary, who would eventually be crowned the fourth Monarch in the Tudor dynasty.

The precise number of miscarriages endured by Henry's reproductive partners is difficult to determine, especially when various mistresses are factored in, but the king's partners had a total of at least 11 and possibly 13 or more pregnancies. Only four of the eleven known pregnancies survived infancy. Whitley and Kramer call the high rate of spontaneous late-term abortion, stillbirth, or rapid neonatal death suffered by Henry's first two queens "an atypical reproductive pattern" because, even in an age of high child mortality, most women carried their pregnancies to term, and their infants usually lived long enough to be christened.

The authors explain that if a Kell positive father impregnates a Kell negative mother, each pregnancy has a 50-50 chance of being Kell positive. The first pregnancy typically carries to term and produces a healthy infant, even if the infant is Kell positive and the mother is Kell negative. But the mother's subsequent Kell positive pregnancies are at risk because the mother's antibodies will attack the Kell positive fetus as a foreign body. Any baby that is Kell negative will not be attacked by the mother's antibodies and will carry to term if otherwise healthy.

"Although the fact that Henry and Katherine of Aragon's firstborn did not survive is somewhat atypical, it is possible that some cases of Kell sensitization affect even the first pregnancy," the report notes. The survival of Mary, the fifth pregnancy for Katherine of Aragon, fits the Kell scenario if Mary inherited the recessive Kell gene from Henry, resulting in a healthy infant. Anne Boleyn's pregnancies were a textbook example of Kell alloimmunization with a healthy first child and subsequent late-term miscarriages. Jane Seymour had only one child before her death, but that healthy firstborn also is consistent with a Kell positive father.

Several of Henry's male maternal relatives followed the Kell positive reproductive pattern.

"We have traced the possible transmission of the Kell positive gene from Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the king's maternal great-grandmother," the report explains. "The pattern of reproductive failure among Jacquetta's male descendants, while the females were generally reproductively successful, suggests the genetic presence of the Kell phenotype within the family."

###

Catrina Banks Whitley is a research associate in the Office of Archaeological Studies at the Museum of New Mexico. Anthropologist Kyra Kramer is an independent researcher.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

[Tennessee Nana]

Henrys Dad was also Henry, not Edward...

[muawiyah]

The Cornish native culture was crushed by nascent English nationalism.

I'm sorry you don't know more about the country. In the 7th, 8th and 9th Centuries AD many Cornish knights shipped out to Spain where they joined the remaining natives to fight back against the invading Moors in a multi-century long war called the RECONQUISTA.

Most of your top Spanish noble families have names or "titles" traceable to Cornwall.

The Cornish were not different than the Welsh in North Wales, and the Britons who moved to Brittany in the 7th and 8th centuries. They are closely related to the Irish, the Manx, and the Welsh in Southern Wales. Earlier, they were part of the polity known as Roman Brittain.

The Angles and Saxons (Sassanach) were allowed into Brittain by a king known as Arthur (or Ad in Gaellic) some time in the 6th Century.

He expelled the native population of what are now Wessex, Essex, North Essex, North Wessex, East Wessex, and West Essex ~ who immediately moved to a then unpopulated Brittany (had a rough half dozen winters and everybody and everything died there ~ which is one of the reasons all those Angles and Saxons wanted to get on to Britain).

The English are descended, for the most part, from Angles and Saxons ~ who were not the native people in Britain.

Cornishmen are descended, for the most part, from Britons, who are, of course, the native people.

This is BASIC HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLES stuff ~ you should check up on it someday.

A number of Eastern Roman Emperors were drawn from the ranks of Welsh and Cornish noblemen (before the withdrawal of Roman troops from the island).

Yes, they are different ~ REALLY DIFFERENT ~ even if they don't speak differently, or wear strange clothes.

No, on to Scotland. It used to be called Alba. Today's Ireland was called Scotia or Scota.

Then, in the 8th and 9th centuries some time the Norse in Scandinavia figured out how to build large seaworthy boats and they found Alba. At the same time enterprising Irish in Scotia discovered that they could readily deal with the remaining natives in Alba and invaded.

Together the Scandinavian peoples (there's more than a dozen different ethnicities and even a couple of genetic isolates there) joined with the Scotians to conquer Alba. They created a new ethnicity ~ the Scot. They renamed Alba "Scotia" or "Scotland", and there we have it. That's why so many Scots have such interesting bumps on their heads ya' know. It's the vigor of the genes, the claymores and the kerry knobs eh!

[Tennessee Nana]

Also henry’s mother never had any children from a previous marriage...

She was never married beofere she married Henry VII, the father of Hentu VIII

Who told you you were descended from her ???

[Cheburashka]

Others have pointed out that Henry VIII’s father was Henry VII, not an Edward. You may be referring to Elizabeth Woodville, the mother of Henry VII’s queen and the grandmother of Henry VIII. Elizabeth Woodville was married once before she married Edward IV, who was Henry VIII’s grandfather.

[SunkenCiv]

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[wontbackdown]

Yes, you are right - I did get the grandmother confused with the mother. Yes, it was Elizabeth Woodville that I was referring to. Thanks for straightening it out!

[SunkenCiv]

Henry VIII May Have Suffered Traumatic Brain Injuries
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3405986/posts

[SunkenCiv]