Posted on 11/29/2019 8:28:47 AM PST by US Navy Vet
Long before the concept of "designer babies" created in a lab became the stuff of science fiction, inbreeding in royal families was viewed as a way to ensure genetic purity. Intermarriage ensured that no "common" blood sullied pure, aristocratic blood lines. What could go wrong?
A lot, actually. Birth defects caused by inbreeding were rampant in royal families from Russia to Portugal and even in ancient Egypt, where the practice of sibling marriage was considered godly behavior. Hereditary diseases caused by inbreeding get handed down through thin gene pools, particularly in the many cases where intentional close marriage is used to ensured that royal blood (and its recurrent flaws) are kept in the family. For example, Queen Victoria, a major proponent of pure blood lines, married her cousin Albert, and the two had nine children who then passed hemophilia to royal families throughout Europe. Both King Tut and Charles II of Spain were so deformed by inbreeding that they were unable to walk unaided. Meanwhile, mental illnesses ran rampant throughout many royal families, leading to some very odd royal behavior.
While all these families hoped close intermarriage would keep their royal families stronger, in many cases, illness, madness, and infertility caused by inbreeding wound up tearing them apart.
(Excerpt) Read more at ranker.com ...
Two of my aunts married their first cousins. They had to get a dispensation from the pope to do so.
It was explained to me as being a result of not really having a social life like Americans had eventually but seeing only family really.
I never saw any unpleasant results. One couple had no children and one couple had three.
Inbreeding usually take time to show up, a few generations, as pro-lifers will tell anyone who wants to abort a baby because it was conceived in incest.
Consanguineous!
Story goes that the Lewis & Clark expedition came across a Indian tribe that had inbreedr1ing problems.
The tribe leaders looked upon and asked that the lone black man in the expedition to breed with all their women.
He got permission from Lewis and Clark got down to business with the squaws.
Hapsburgs.
The Hapsburg jaw and fleshy lower lip. One ugly dude.
That’s Charles. Poor guy couldn’t even eat.
“Where the White women at???”
Thanks US Navy Vet.
more about Charles II of Spain, search on hapsburg inbreeding
Another slow week -- here are the other GGG topics introduced since the previous Digest ping:
The Saudi Royals, apparently have long lists of DNA/inherited diseases/disorders.
Hapsburg English spelling. Habsburg German.
Royals Who Suffered From Hereditary Mutations And Defects Caused By Inbreeding
I’m not sure that’s inbreeding, could be he’s just a freakin’ gargoyle.
I have a friend that goes to Europe on occasion and takes pics of gargoyles on old buildings. There is a vague resemblance..........................
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