OT: Alphonso XII's inbreeding

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John Parsons

OT: Alphonso XII's inbreeding

Legg inn av John Parsons » 04 nov 2004 11:31:01

The following extracts are from Elizabeth [countess of] Longford's
magisterial biography, *Queen Victoria: Born to Succeed [US title] (New
York: Harper & Row, 1964):

p. 187: "At the end of the visit the King [Louis-Philippe of France] leant
over the side as the two yachts were drifting apart and once more confirmed
the complicated bargain with Lord Aberdeen: Queen Isabella [II of Spain]
should be left to make her own choice of a husband from among the Spanish
princes, while her younger sister... would be dealt with under a separate
clause.... Isabella was almost certain to marry her Spanish cousin
Francisco, Duke of Cadiz, a despicable character generally supposed to be
impotent...."

p. 191: "...Palmerston sent a despatch to Madrid on 19 July 1846 listing the
possible candidates for Queen Isabella's hand, among them once more the
controversial name of Prince Leopold [of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Kohary].
Isabella was by now sixteen and according to Princess Lieven hungering for a
mate: unless they got her married quickly the heir would arrive before the
husband. At the mention of Leopold's name, Louis Philippe decided that
Palmerston had torn up the Anglo-French bargain. He retaliated instantly by
arranging the notorious Spanish marriages: Queen Isabella to the 'impotent'
Francisco and Fernanda to his own son, the Duke of Montpensier.... Queen
Isabella... having divested herself of the odious husband nevertheless
became officially *enceinte* at the end of 1849. Queen Victoria wrote:

'It is a very good thing & no one will be inclined to cavil as to who was
the *real father* considering her very peculiar & distressing
marriage--for which *she* poor young creature is in no wise to blame....'"


I won't quote directly from James Michener's *Iberia* here, but he adds a
few diverting details from the Madrid gossips of the day.

Isabella II did marry her cousin, whom Madrid society considered homosexual
(the fact that he lies buried at the Escorial among the queens of Spain has
always amused the Madilenos). A story put about by Isabella's ladies in
waiting had it that the morning after the wedding, when Isabella was having
her hair dressed, the smirking ladies asked her about her experiences the
night before. The queen shrugged & remarked sourly, "What can I say? He
had more lace on his nightshirt than I did." Spanish society was
subsequently regaled with such tidbits as the *bon mot* that Isabella's
dentist went to the palace to fill more than cavities, & it is known from
other sources that among her many lovers was an American Civil War general
who had distinguished himself by nearly losing the battle of Gettysburg for
the Union army & kist a leg there. Well, maybe Isabella liked amputees.
Anyway there is a rich irony in the fact that the first Madrid underground
sewer system was named after her & there are still a few manhole plates
around the city stamped "Canal Isabel II."

I believe the identity of Alfonso XII's "real father" remains unknown. But
if Queen Victoria was able to accept the situation, I think we must
acknowledge that it was true. (Politically, of course, it was from
Victoria's point of view a thousand times better that Isabella gave birth to
a non-Borbon heir than that the heir to the Spanish throne should have had a
French father.)

Incidentally, for those aware that Francisco de Asis' father, Francisco de
Paula, was most probably not the son of King Carlos IV but of his wife Queen
Maria Luisa of Parma and her lover Manuel de Godoy, none of the above has
any bearing on the present Spanish royal family's claim to the throne. King
Juan Carlos' rights derive from Isabella II, not from her husband of record,
& as Alfonso XII was born to a married woman he was in law Isabella's
legitimate heir. But the paternity of Alfonso XII and of the Infante
Francisco de Paula do bear directly on the claims of the present duke of
Cadiz to be head of the (French) House of Bourbon & the Capetian dynasty,
since the duke of Cadiz' claims to that dignity rest upon his claim to be
Francisco de Paula's senior male descendant. Not only is the duke of Cadiz
not a descendant of Francisco de Paula through the latter's eldest son
Francisco de Asis, Francisco de Paula himself was almost certainly not a
true Borbon by descent.

Regards

John P.



From: "Leo van de Pas" <leovdpas@netspeed.com.au
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Alphonso XII's inbreeding
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 17:42:17 +1100

Dear James,

First, there is an offical family tree and there is an un-official
one----the un-official one removes lots of the inbreeding. But why do you
call Marie Amelie de Wettin by that name?
She had a very distant ancestor who build the castle of Wettin but that
doesn't make it her surname/family name or title. She was a Princess of
Saxony.
Best wishes
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia


----- Original Message -----
From: "James Dow Allen" <jdallen2000@yahoo.com
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 4:46 PM
Subject: Alphonso XII's inbreeding


Although Alphonso XII King of Spain wasn't medieval,
I hope s.g.m'ers will forgive me for posting his pedigree.
(After all, he did have medieval ancestors!)

I hope the pedigree is correct; please inform me if not.

Alphonso XII's parents were double cousins which by itself
would give him a WIC (Wright's Inbreeding Coefficient) of
0.125. However when other connections are considered he
gets a WIC of .25, as much as for the offspring of siblings.
This is the highest WIC of anyone in my database, except for
those who actually were the offspring of siblings.

From the following partial pedigree a WIC of .234 can be
computed for Alphonso XII. Only two of Alphonso's great
great grandparents are missing from the diagram; these
are Philip's wife (who was Philip's own 1st cousin once
removed) and Ferdinand I's wife (who was Ferdinand's own
2nd cousin once removed). These and other inbreedings
bring the WIC up to .250.

If you want to try your hand at computing the WIC manually
in this complicated pedigree, check your work (or check mine)
with the relevant path lengths I've shown below.


Philip V Isabella
K of Spain ===== Farnese
/ \
/ \
Philip Charles III Marie-Amelie
| K of Spain ====== de Wettin
| / \
| / \
Marie-Louise Charles IV Ferdinand I
of Parma ===== K of Spain of Sicily
/ | \ |
/ \ \ |
/ \ \ Frances I of
/ \ Isabel ===== Two Sicilies
/ \ / \
/ _____\________/ \
/ / \ \
Francisco Louise of Ferdinand VII Cristina Maria
de Paula ==== Two Sicil. K of Spain ==== of Two Sicil.
\ /
\ /
Francisco Isabel
de Asis ===== Q of Spain
|
|
Alphonso XII
K of Spain

The Wright Inbreeding Coefficient of Alphonso XII
--------------------------------------------------
Common Ancestor Path-lengths WIC (in diag)
Maria Luisa 6,7,7 0
Charles IV 6,7,7 0
Francis I 6 0
Isabel 6 0.0625
Charles III 9,9,10,10 0
Marie-Amelie 9,9,10,10 0
Philip V 2*10,6*11,2*12 0
Farnese 2*10,6*11,2*12 0
------------------------------------------------
Alphonso XII WIC=0.2324 = 119/512 (+.002 due to Isabel's WIC)

James D. Allen



John Brandon

Re: OT: Alphonso XII's inbreeding

Legg inn av John Brandon » 04 nov 2004 23:23:12

If the American general had really "kist" legs at Gettysburg, maybe he
had "tendencies" as well ...

James Dow Allen

Re: OT: Alphonso XII's inbreeding

Legg inn av James Dow Allen » 06 nov 2004 07:34:54

carmi47@msn.com ("John Parsons") wrote in message news:<BAY11-F15N59C4Vifda0000fc22@hotmail.com>...

.... Queen
Isabella... having divested herself of the odious husband nevertheless
became officially *enceinte* at the end of 1849. Queen Victoria wrote:

'It is a very good thing & no one will be inclined to cavil as to who was
the *real father* considering her very peculiar & distressing
marriage--for which *she* poor young creature is in no wise to blame....'"

Thanks for the education! How common are such wrong but "official"
pedigrees among nobility/royalty?

James

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