👑 What secrets hide in royal bloodlines? They ruled empires, wore crowns, and lived in palaces — but behind the splendor lay generations of hidden suffering. Why did so many royal families suffer from strange illnesses, unusual appearances, and dramatic fates? 🕯️💔 From the “Habsburg jaw” to a young pharaoh’s twisted legacy, discover the haunting cost of keeping power in the family… The full story awaits in the article below.👇
In today’s world, marriages between relatives are widely considered unacceptable. Most countries have laws that penalize incest, and such relationships are also condemned by societal moral standards.
Do you remember the fun song “All Kings Can Do”? It says that there’s one thing even kings can’t do — marry for love. Today we often see princes and princesses choosing to marry the people they truly love, even if they’re not from noble families. But in the past, royal marriages were mostly arranged for political reasons. Feelings didn’t matter — many future rulers were promised to each other as babies. Even a big age gap wasn’t seen as a problem. And if one of the future spouses passed away before they could marry, their close relative was chosen to take their place in the arranged marriage.
In some European countries, kings and queens were only allowed to marry someone from their own royal family. Because of this rule, over time, nearly all the royal families in Europe became related. A well-known example is Queen Victoria of England, who is often called the grandmother of Europe’s royal houses. She married her cousin, and many of her ancestors had also married within the family. These repeated close marriages led to the spread of hemophilia — a serious blood disorder — in many ruling families. Interestingly, women who carried the gene often didn’t get sick, but male heirs did. One example is Tsarevich Alexei, the son of one country’s last emperor, Nicholas II. Even a small injury could have been life-threatening for him because his blood didn’t clot properly.
Alexei with his mother, Alexandra Feodorovna
Another famous example is the powerful Habsburg family. Over many generations, their royal features became more and more noticeable — especially the “Habsburg jaw.” This was a large, heavy lower jaw combined with a small upper jaw and a long nose. This look appeared even in the family’s princesses, though it was more common among the men.
The famous “Habsburg jaw”.
The Spanish branch of the Habsburgs ended with King Charles II. His jaw deformity is clearly visible even in his portraits, which were usually painted to flatter royalty. He was the child of an uncle and niece, and suffered from many health problems that slowed his development. He got the same defective genes from both sides of his family — he was the great-grandson of Juana the Mad through both his mother and father. Until the age of 10, he had to be carried everywhere. He had trouble speaking, walking, and could not have children in either of his two marriages. He wasn’t able to rule properly, and only lived to age 38 thanks to the constant care he received as a royal.
In ancient Egypt and the Inca Empire, marriages between close family members — even between brothers and sisters or parents and children — were normal among rulers. Inca emperors were especially focused on keeping their bloodline “pure.” Their wives had to be daughters of the previous ruler, known as “daughters of the sun.”
Modern technology has helped scientists rebuild the face and body of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs — Tutankhamun. The way he looked shows he had many health issues. His father, Akhenaten, was also the father of his wife, Ankhesenamun, and had married her two older sisters as well. Later, Tutankhamun’s sisters were married to his widow after he died.
Digital reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s appearance.
When royal families married within their own bloodlines for generations, harmful genes were passed on again and again. As a result, many children were born with serious health problems, and some couldn’t survive. This might have been nature’s way of trying to stop these inherited issues. For instance, Prince William of Denmark was the last of his family line. He had hydrocephalus — a condition where fluid builds up in the brain — which caused his head to be much larger than normal. He was born to cousins and only lived for 11 years. His mother, Anne Stuart, had 17 pregnancies, but only five babies were born alive — and four of them died as infants.
When two people from different families marry, the chance of passing on a genetic disease is much lower. That’s because one healthy gene can usually balance out a faulty one. But when both parents are closely related and carry the same altered gene, the risk of serious illness in their child becomes much higher.
