Over time, because of the relatively limited number of potential consorts, the gene pool of many ruling families grew progressively smaller, until all European royalty was related. This also resulted in many being descended from a certain person through many lines of descent, such as the numerous European royalty descended from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom or King Christian IX of Denmark.As a result, royal intermarriages became consanguine marriages, which lead to both new health issues arising and existing ones being compounded.
The House of Habsburg frequently practiced consanguine marriages as a way of consolidating the dynasty's political power, with both first cousin and uncle–niece pairings common. The most visible consequence of this was an extended lower chin (mandibular prognathism), which was typical for many Habsburg relatives over a period of six centuries; the jaw deformity is so closely associated with the family that it is commonly known as the "Habsburg jaw or Lip".The Spanish branch took this practice to an extreme: of the eleven marriages contracted by Spanish monarchs between 1450 and 1661, 9 contained some element of consanguinity.The last of the Spanish line, Charles II—who was severely disabled from birth and possibly impotent—possessed a genome comparable to that of a child born to a brother and sister.The House of Wittelsbach suffered from several cases of mental and physical illnesses,often attributed to their frequent intermarriages.Ancient Egypt had sibling marriages such as the Thutmoside and Ptolemaic dynasties.Inbreeding results in homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive traits.Autosomal recessive disorders occur in individuals who have two copies of an allele for a particular recessive genetic mutation.Except rare circumstances, such as new mutations or uniparental disomy, both parents of an individual with such a disorder will be carriers of the gene.These carriers do not display any signs of the mutation and may be unaware that they carry the mutated gene.Inbred royals suffered from mental and physical impairments, excess mortality, and reproductive problems.

This book examines the dark genetic consequences of royal inbreeding, from the Ptolemies to the European dynasties. Discover the impact on physical health, mental illness, and deformities. Witness the toll on monarchs in their desperate attempts to preserve power through intermarriage.

Interesting and informative, this book fails to take a scientific approach, instead relying on rumor and supposition. If you’re looking for entertainment, this is a good choice, but it’s not a scholarly work.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I knew there was a lot of inbreeding in the various royal families throughout history but I admit to being amazed at how much there was even when it became obvious there were some genes that were doing more harm than good. Of course, since progeny were either potential rulers or pawns in power games, volume was more important than health.

Insanity seems to have been the most pernicious trait that seemed to gallop through families. But there were other things like physical defects that would make the lives of those unfortunate enough to be the recipients a misery. One might think the wealth and privilege would be a salve for the pain but there were many whose most fervent wish was to be released from it. It is not too hard to feel some sympathy for those whose futures were determined by the desire to keep the bloodline pure. And in the attempt to ward off any outside influence we are talking about the closest of relationships with each other. Game of Thrones has nothing on some of these families.

Well researched and presented, the book offers insights into the costs of inbreeding. Four purrs and two paws up.

Royalty was supposed to rule by divine right and meant to preserve their bloodline, but in their zeal to do so lay the seeds of the madness and maladies that plagued many royal houses.

It’s always fun to read about mad royals. Removed by time and societal changes, they don’t feel real enough to be sorry for, and so you can fully indulge in ogling at the bizarre stories without shame. And with unlimited money and power at their disposal, there’s a lot of bizarre stories. Cummings tries to dial down the sensationalism in her book though, discussing why royals persisted in intermarrying and having children despite the (to us at least) obvious consequences of their actions.

Starting in antiquity but focusing more on families in the late medieval period onward, she discusses the stories of a number of royals who suffered from the effects of inbreeding, whether physical or mental, going in depth on families such as the Hapsburgs, the Hanovers, and the Wittelsbachs. I appreciated how she addressed the suffering royals with compassion and empathy, placing their strange-seeming actions in the context of the times.

However, I did feel that she was prone to speculation in places, for example when discussing the mental health of such royals as Cleopatra, Mary I of England, and Mary Queen of Scots – without real evidence produced to support her arguments, they felt flimsy. I enjoyed the book most where she focused on one or two figures for the length of a chapter; I wondered if I would have enjoyed the book more had the author narrowed its scope, especially if she’d jettisoned much of the less factually-supported first half.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Dnf'ed at page 44

Facts are described as myth and myths are described as fact.

The chapter about ancient history was enough for me to be convinced this wouldn't provide a neutral view, but one coloured by the authors own ideas.

Sort of interesting if you like weird historical stuff like this. I could have done without the mentions of inbreeding in Appalachia since I am from there and there are already too many stereotypes about us as is. I know the author was just stating facts but I came to read about royals, not people around here.

I was highly very intrigued by the concept here. Knowing what I do of history and monarchies, there seemed to be a wealth of possibilities for the book, all of which hit my curiosity high points. Unfortunately, I found the actual book a little less edifying than I'd hoped. Much of it feels like a history-of-monarchy lesson, with call-outs to the mental and physical illnesses well documented throughout monarchical history, but without much evidence tying the two together. Much of the "evidence" seems correlative rather than causal, which was a bit disappointing, and there seemed to be a lot of repetition in the chapters. It was interesting enough on the whole, but not quite what I expected.

This is an interesting collection and summary of known consequences of inbreeding within royal families. If you're a reader invested in learning about European royalty and beyond, you'll likely already be familiar with the people written about in this book.

I feel like readers who want a basic understanding of these people could read this one, but I'd look into other books for more in depth information. I also feel like this book did a decent job at not dehumanizing the individuals mentioned.

Interesting, very interesting. I had not realized how very inbred the European royal families were! Interesting to read about the results of the inbreeding.

*Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This was such a good read, and it had a lot of interesting information. The information was laid out in an easy to understand format, and was easy to understand. I enjoyed how each chapter was set up and truly learned so much from this book. I recommend this book to anyone who has a fascination with history or even genetics.

I found this book to be very uneven. I enjoyed the science section, which was woefully short. I found the practical application of the science to the historical record to be lacking. The whole historical section was badly structured, references to ancestors were inaccurate in some cases and unclear in others. Not enjoyable.

‘While each dynasty may have had different formalities, they all had one thing in common: intermarriage was intentional.’

Juliana looks into inbreeding and the consequences of this taken place.

We learn about Tutankhamun’s painful afflictions to King George III’s mental health and the rare blood disorder that affected Queen Victoria’s family to name but a few.

Juliana has clearly done a lot of research into this topic, and I found myself surprisingly consumed with every chapter.

The key message from this book? Don’t sleep with your relatives!!!

However, throughout history this has been ignored either due to naivety or because of the strong desire to keep ‘their bloodlines pure’.

You can read this book without knowing any prior history.

I always find with these history books, that they add many more books to ones TBR!

‘Philip and Mariana were convinced that the death of their children was a punishment from God and had no understanding that the family’s incessant inbreeding likely caused it.’

4.5 stars. It just missed the 5 star mark because towards the last few chapters I was losing interest.

A must read for history lovers. Very interesting and unputdownable.

This topic has always fascinated me to some degree. I learned a lot of new things. I thought the book flowed well and did not get too technical. I felt I could easily follow and it certainly kept my interest. We learn about European royalty and Egyptian royalty. This was a great non fiction book with evident research. I read it in two sittings!! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review.

In Julia Cummings latest nonfiction book we learn about the Royals and the effects and breeding his head on the family from prince Charles to the doomed czar Alexander and his family there’s lots to discuss the family has married from Spain to Germany Austria Portugal and other places and it’s all too closely related relatives and then one case and uncle to his niece and although a half niece still… Gross! She even wrote about how some of the treatments only exacerbated the issue and it’s some Cason hasten the death of the sufferers . From madness to hemophilia to all the stillborn babies they were many consequences to marrying in family and she even talked about in the beginning of the book other families that married each other from Australia to America and even Europe I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I loved how she put historian and medical experts best guess at what really may have happened to these historical figures the one I felt most badly for however it was queen wanna The two men who should have been mostly looking out for her best which was her husband and her father were only looking out for their self and then sadly her son when he became king he did it as well. I couldn’t believe when I came to write my review for this awesome book that anyone would give this a two or a one star because just the work that goes into writing a nonfiction book with such great well researched information not to mention the interesting way she presented it deserves way more than just a blasé dismissal because you think what the author wrote about queen Isabella putting queen wanna on the stretching rack isn’t true but keep in mind historians disagree and I’ve come to take nothing for granted when it comes to what’s written in history because not only are they finding new documents every day writing such an anxty review really makes the reviewer look bad and not the author of this fabulous book. This is only my third book by Miss Cummings but like the ones before it will not be my last. This is a great book well researched and well executed and it is a book I highly recommend a total five-star read. I want to thank Pen and Sword press and Net Galley for my free Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Royal Inbreeding and Other Maladies by Juliana Cummings is a novel that focus on the strange but true history of Europes ruling families throughout history.

Cummings begins with the Egyptian rulers tradition of keeping the bloodline pure by marrying siblings together. History knows that Cleopatra married both of her younger brothers in her time on the throne of Egypt, but she never had children with either of them. Had she done so, what would the lives of these children have been like? Would they have ended up like King Tut, who researchers are know learning may have had a clubbed foot, full breasts, and numerous other genetic conditions from having been the off spring of a line derived of genetic siblings of several generations?

Even European Royals did not escape these genetic disasters. While it became more understood that siblings should not be wed, the royals had no concerns about marriage of close relations, such as uncles and nieces, or first cousins. You will find the results of centuries of inbreeding in prime examples such as the Hapsburg ruler Charles, who’s jaw was so wide he could not close it and continually drooled all the way to more modern royals, such as the Romanov’s, where poor Alexei suffered from the royal disease, more commonly known as hemophilia. Hemophilia was carried through out Europe to many families, as all of the children and grandchildren of Queen Victoria married and entwined even further together.

I would have liked more unique information in this novel, as a lot of this is a rehashing of mostly common knowledge facts that have been repeated through out time. I found myself comparing it to another novel I had read, “Royal Babylon.” However, there were some parts of history, that I did appreciate being dived more deeply into, such as with Juana “the Mad” of Castile, Empress Sisi of Austria and her cousin King Ludwig. This is definitely a novel for fans of history, but while not ground breaking, will certainly provided a fun and quick read.

I would like to thank Pen& Sword as well as NetGalley for the e-advanced reader copy.

This book is fascinating and terrifying, it had a great concept and was everything that I wanted from this book. It was a interesting concept a uses the history of royal inbreeding is interesting and I appreciated it showing the consequences. Juliana Cummings does a great job in showing the research and glad it was so well done.

0.5/5

Inbreeding is the reproduction between closely related individuals which increases the chances of the offprings being affected by recessive traits that can affect their physical and mental health. Until the work of Gregor Mendel, and other scientists who embraced his ideas, this wasn't understood and thus there's a lot of historical evidence of people affected by this practice. While maybe not as common within the regular people, those of royal birth and high status practiced inbreeding to keep power between the same small group of individuals, often with disastrous consequences. This book attempts to untangle the web of incest that plaged the royal families for centuries and give us a taste of the repercussions of said practice in historical events.

For a book that seems interested in shedding light on the tangible consequences of intermarriage there is too much speculation and supposition. While anecdotal evidence can be a helpful start point for developing the big picture it cannot be given the same weight as actual confirmed sources, especially when we're talking about biology. I understand that we cannot, say, perform an autopsy on any of the historical figures mentioned in this book but the author could have dug depper into the science of inbreeding itself instead of just making wild guesses. There were too many instances of simply assuming that someone was mentally ill because of inbreeding with zero explanation of the relation between those two points or any exploration of other reasons. Sure, genetics play a part in things like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc, but how? why?

I find myself distrustful of anything I read in this book due to some glaring mistakes and assumptions. I see a lot of hearsay being taken as fact, like saying Caligula had incestuos relationships with his sisters which is something that we have no proof of and that was first mentioned in a biography 80 years after his death. Or assuring readers that Philip Christoph von Königsmarck was buried under the floor of Sophia Dorothea of Celle's rooms when yes, bones were found there but investigations have come to the conclusion that they're probably not his and are a mix of multiple humans and animals. All along the book you will find instances of gossip being presented as truth or places where the author has omitted extra information that doesn't fit the tone of the book or the point she's trying to make. There are probably more examples of this, I've caught a couple more but that's only because I am familiar with some of the history it's referring to or because it sounded so ludicrous that I had to at least google it. Who knows what else I've missed.

There are also editing mistakes and while I understand that this is an ARC it inspires even less confidence in the contents of this book. Paragraphs repeating, names changed (saying Ferdinand was Charles V's father for example when he was actually his grandfather), missing words, and incorrect attribution of sources. Where were the editors? The fact checkers? Besides all that I've previously mentioned the book isn't particulary interesting. There is no new approach or innovation regarding the subject matter. The book concludes with one (1) paragraph and that's it. I fear that this was only a vehicle for salacious gossip and speculation. Save you time and skip it.

An interesting subject, but the book fell short in execution. Poorly structured and with way too much speculation, all presented as fact.

An interesting look at European history circa 1500 - 1920, with a brief look at the ancient Egyptians and some modern rural Appalachian and Australian farming families at the beginning, all focused on the problems - both physical and political - when people reproduce with their close relatives.

I was amused at Cummings surprise that out of all the inbreeding examples, the Ptolemy's showed the least amount of physical and mental problems, despite all the brother / sister and uncle / niece marriages. Personally, I am absolutely convinced that more than one Polemic queen accidently helped save the family from inbreeding by cheating on their brother-husbands. After all - who do you want to sleep with - the hot royal guard or your sulky little brother? And an Egyptian princess is going to have a much easier time having a quicky and getting in and out of a simple linen sheath dress while any Hapsburg princess needs about half a day and four handmaids to get in and out of those Rennaissance get ups.

Anyway, its a very important lens to look at history, considering what an impact biology had on politics, given that the inbreeding was being practice by those with the most power. It can be difficult to diagnose from such a distance, but Cummings does a good job showing how many actions and traits were most likely caused by the overlay of recessive genes.

I would have liked if the book had been more chronological instead of doubling back to cover first Queen Vicotria and then Tzar Nicholas before doubling back to cover the Hapsburgs, but all of the royal families were fascinating in just how wrong things could go. It does stick very much to Europe - I would have loved to have learned more about the inbreeding in Japan's royal family and what kind of restrictive marriages other countries had, but what is here is fascinating.

This detailed, thoroughly researched book covers many decades and countries to give an intriguing insight into the health of royal families across the world. There are some well known cases included but also many more obscure cases which are equally fascinating. The author does a very good job of exploring cases within their historical context, noting how the beliefs and biases against homosexuality and mental illness influenced the treatment of people; For those reading on kindle, it’s well worth continuing past the end notes to review the photographs and diagrams included.