How many times has incest occured in the royal family's family tree?

Question

How many times has incest occured in the royal family's family tree?

Answer 1

Well, from what I know about history and such, incest occured quite often with the royal heads of state throughout europe.

This was how the royals retained power over the years by marrying their first cousin, sometimes brothers sisters.  It wasn't unusual.

Many of the royal families of different countries were directly related to each other also, sometimes by incest.

Answer 2

I suppose this question could be interpreted in more than one way.

Royals do sometimes marry people who are related to them, but not closer than cousins in recent history.  This is not uncommon and in no way is it considered incest.

Now for the other kind of incest.....the "dirty" kind.  If it has occurred no one is mentioning it for the most obvious of reasons.

best of luck to you!

Answer 3

VERY often. it was the only way to have pure "royal" blood running through the veins of their children. it was either marry your cousin, (because the entire royal community was in someway or another related) or marry a political figure of a neighboring country (of royal status ofcourse) to promote an alliance between them. anyway, incest was not considered a weird thing as it is today. back then it was common, and in the royal family, favored.

Answer 4

The practice of "incest" or "inbreeding" is a royal tradition that occurred around the world for over thousands of years. From the Ancient Egyptians to the current British royal family's family tree, you'll find marriages between close relatives that occurred frequently.

Prince Charles of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are 9th cousins, Queen Elizabeth II is second cousin once removed from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The late Diana, Princess of Wales was also a distant relative to Prince Charles of Wales, she is a descendant of Charles II of England through an illegitimate son, and of King James II of England through an illegitimate daughter.

Sarah, Duchess of York and Prince Andrew, Duke of York is also distant cousins. She is also a distant cousin of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and an aunt of Queen Elizabeth II.

Answer 5

i think never because i think we would know because the news would be the first to let it out.

Answer 6

Perhaps Edward VIII (the Duke of Windsor) and George VI were the only members of the Royal family within the last 300 years who didn't marry a near or distant cousin.  Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip are second cousins once removed as well as 3rd cousins.  Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Charles and Diana Spencer were very distant cousins as are both Charles and Camilla.

Then again, as the Habsburg lip will testifify, the Hapsburgs, Bourbons, and Willelsbachs married aunts, uncles, cousins, and nephews. Of course, royals don't necessarily marry cousins more than ordinary folk, it's just better documented.  Worldwide, 20 percent of all married couples are cousins, and in some Middle Eastern countries, almost half of all married people are wed to cousins.  In the United Kingdom, for example, 55 percent of all Pakistanis are married to a first cousin.  Arranged marriages between first or second cousins are, of course, a way of keeping land and property within the family.  

Between 1550 and 1917, the Roman Catholic Church prohibited marriage within a 4th degree of relationships (i. e. first cousins).  Before that time, consanguinity within seven degrees was prohibited without dispensation.  During the Middle Ages, the urban middle class had the best chance of marrying someone other than a cousin.  

Incidentally, upon compiling a genealogy, I was shocked to find out that one of my great-great maternal grandmothers was the offspring of double cousins. And yes, they were from the American South (Alabama--a generation removed from Scotland).

Answer 7

There has certainly been close family intermarriage with cousins etc.in all the European royal families, but not incest as in brother-sister, father-daughter or mother-son marriages, at least not in recent centuries. Marrying a 2nd or 3rd or even 1st cousin was often the only way to find a spouse of royal blood. But in recent years the trend has been to marry non-royals.

  

The British weren't anywhere close to the Ptolemies (Macedonian rulers of Egypt) for example, where sibling marriage was the rule rather than the exception.

Someone published a book (can't remember who, it was some professor, I believe) a few years ago on attitudes to incest in Britain and the royal family, and mentions a rumour that Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was actually his illegitimate daughter.