I just finished Julia Baird's new biography "Victoria: A Queen". While I knew that three of Victoria's children either had hemophilia (Leopold) or were female carriers of the gene (Alice and Beatrice) I was a little surprised the author did not address hemophilia's sudden appearance, considering the impact it had on many royal families for the next few generations (Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their son Tsarvich Alexis come to my mind first.)
I tried searching the Internet but the only item I found was a Wikipedia article stating that while Victoria or her mother may have been a female carrier, it was most likely a result of "spontaneous generation/mutation". I'm taking that with a grain of salt, because Wikipedia. Can anyone shed some light on how hemophilia, which (as far as I'm aware) was not present in the generation(s) prior to Victoria's reign, yet suddenly appeared in three of her eight living children? And how it now seems to have disappeared? Any suggestions for articles and books to read would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
There are a couple theories on this. One is the spontaneous mutation theory which does sometimes happen. In Victoria's case, it may have had something to do with Albert being her first cousin. Another theory (can't remember the exact source off hand) is that Victoria did have ancestors on her mother's side who suffered from hemophilia but the cases were not recognized as such at the time. There was very little medical knowledge about hemophilia even in the early 20th century when the Tsarevich Alexei suffered from it. Doctors really did not know what it was or how to treat it and some even suggested to Victoria that Prince Leopold might grow out of it.
Hemophiliacs in the 19th century usually did not live long. It was really pretty remarkable that Leopold lived as long as he did and was able to father children. I think the most concise answer for why hemophilia seems to have disappeared from the royal families of Europe is that many of the carriers died before they had a chance to reproduce. Furthermore, many of the royal houses were deposed during/after the First World War, so even if their descendants continued to pass it on, it's not necessarily something we would have known about.
The current Queen of England is descended from Victoria through Edward VII, who was not a sufferer or a carrier of the disease. Prince Phillip is a descendent of Princess Alice, who was a carrier, but who only passed the gene on to two of her four daughters (that we know of-Ella never had children). Prince Phillip's grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, was Alice's eldest daughter but was not carrier.
I would suggest Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard. (Can't think of other titles off hand but will update as they come to me.)