Royal Maladies: Inherited Diseases in the Ruling Houses of Europe

by Alan R. Rushton

An intensive study of the hereditary diseases hemophilia and porphyria in the personal and political lives of the European royal families, spanning history from the ninth century to modern times

Genres: Royalty, Nonfiction, History

276 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2008

Reviews

[tracy.anne8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves history and loves medicine, this book was very interesting sto read. I was unaware of what porphyria was or that is was so prevalent in the royal family. It was also interesting to read how hemophilia came into the royal family through Queen Victoria. As someone who is also directly related to King Edward I (through one of his daughters), it at times felt like reading a family history. Though there was some parts that I didn't understand very well (only because science is not always my forte), the author overall did a good job in the subject and made the book interesting.