Is the Royal Family Inbred? People Seriously Want to Know

Inbreeding May Have Been a Practice of Old Royal Families however That Isn't the Case Today

Apr. 9 2021, Updated 12:22 p.m. ET

It's a identified incontrovertible fact that royal households are pretty inbred, however is that the case with the trendy British royal family?

From a scientific perspective, there is a coefficient of separation or a coefficient of inbreeding that determines whether or now not two friends have a better likelihood of producing offspring without deleterious health problems. The upper the C.O.I., the worse likelihood there is that a child shall be born with positive defects. Any C.O.I. that is 5 percent or less will most likely result in healthier offspring.

A C.O.I. that's between five and 10 p.c is thought to be potentially bad on the subject of effects on offspring, and anything else upper than 10 % is not going to simplest spell out problems for the children, however for the family's lineage as well. 

For example, in dogs, "Mating of first cousins produces a C.O.I. of 6.25 percent; in many societies this is considered incest and is forbidden by law. Mating of half-siblings produces a C.O.I. of 12.5 percent; mating of full siblings produces a COI of 25 percent."

Now, again to the royal family. Does inbreeding nonetheless happen?

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were in reality third cousins.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who were married for over 70 years, had been actually third cousins. Here's how that works.

They're both similar to Queen Victoria, who had 9 kids: 4 sons and five daughters. Her oldest son, Edward, took to the throne in 1901 after her death. Nine years later, his more youthful brother, George, became King in 1910 — that's Elizabeth's grandfather. 

His son, George VI, changed into king in 1936 and reigned for Sixteen years until 1952. His daughter, Elizabeth II become Queen and she or he has been the longest-ruling British monarch of all time since October of 2016 (and is nonetheless going robust).

So Elizabeth is similar to Victoria in that she's Vic's great-great-granddaughter. Philip is similar to Victoria on his mother's facet: Victoria's second daughter, Princess Alice, was born in 1843. She married Ludwig IV (Grand Duke of Hesse) and had seven kids. Her first child, Victoria, married Prince Louis of Battenburg in 1884 (with whom she used to be cousins) they usually had their first child: Alice.

Alice is Philip's mother. She married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903. Philip used to be the youngest of her children and he used to be born in 1921. This makes Elizabeth and Philip third cousins. 

While the practice of marrying not-so-distant relations was once once prevalent, that is not the case.

Twitter's filled with memes and remark about Queen Elizabeth II and Philip being similar, along with tidbits about different royal households breeding within the same gene pool (like the Spanish Habsburgs, who eventually died out from their incestuous relationships). But it is a apply that turns out to have ended with the third-cousin marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Philip.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfnsBuvs6ymKVllpa6qrjYZqCnmqKasQ%3D%3D