FW: Re: Henry VIII's fertility: separating fact from fiction

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John Parsons

FW: Re: Henry VIII's fertility: separating fact from fiction

Legg inn av John Parsons » 28 sep 2005 03:59:02

Thank you, Dora, for this interesting information. I've interlineated a few
comments below.

From: "Dora Smith" <villandra@austin.rr.com
To: GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Henry VIII's fertility: separating fact from fiction
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 18:53:27 -0500

[snip]

What is more, the high levels of lead and alcohol children ingested in
those
days almost certainly contributed to the high rate of porphyria-type
illness
in royal children, such that it did not take two of the defective gene to
produce life-threatening attacks of illness before puberty. A nephew of
George VI of England was medically confirmed to have porphyria; I have the
book by the man who interviewed the doctor.

Prince William of Gloucester (1941-72) was diagnosed w/porphyria in
adulthood when he arrived in Africa, went out into the midday sun (mad dogs
& Englishmen...) and immediately broke out in blisters. He died not of any
form of illness, but in an airplane crash.

George VI's attacks of
illness (as an adult) were more classically typical of porphyria than were
George III's very severe and highly aggravated attacks. Months-long
attacks of abdominal pain and vomiting with extreme restlessness and
anxiety. George VI had his first attack as an infant; the alcoholic
nurse
wasn't feeding him, wasn't keeping him (and probably also the nursery)
clean, in an environment surely heavily painted with lead paint, and dosed
the kids with alcohol and probably stronger stuff to keep them from crying.
Both he and David were affected, and it is not well known that the father
of
the porphyric nephew had even worse health than George VI's.

But Prince Henry, first duke of Gloucester, badly undermined his health by
severe drinking, which led to his parking several of his cars in ditches,
something the papers in those days politely ignored though it probably
didn't help with his insurance premiums. He was the heaviest drinker among
all George V's sons, and that's saying something.

The youngest
child, John, had severe progressive neurological damage adn died just
before
puberty. Both parents were perfectly inbred descendants of the 18th
century kings of England and Prussia.

John's neurological damage was caused by extremely violent epileptic
seizures that presumably resulted from birth injuries. Queen Mary was in
labor for some 50 hours before his birth. It is not certain that John's
heredity, albeit heavily inbred, had anything to do with his tragic history.
The immediate cause of his death in 1919 was severe heart strain caused by
an exceptionally violent seizure. His seizures had become increasingly
violent as he reached puberty, which is not uncommon in juvenile epileptics.

Regards

John P.

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