What happens to royals who might have disabilities?

Question

I watched a video about Prince John (who appears to have had autism per things I have read) who was somewhat disconnected from the royal family (at least per the things I have read and the video). I also am aware of Poom Jensen who was a Prince in Thailand but not heir to the throne and he had autism which was not hidden or the prince hidden. His condition brought about autism awareness in Thailand. I was wondering how often in the past a child has been born to a royal family anywhere in the world at any time, and had a disability? Obviously the birth of the new baby in England and the media coverage of it prompted my curiosity. I am not slamming any royal family. I am not wishing anything bad on this new child. I am simply curious from a historical perspective if a royal has ever been born blind or deaf etc etc and how Royal families in the past or present might deal with that.

Thanks

Answer 1

Prince Erik of Sweden was also an epileptic like Prince John, and I think I read somewhere that he also had severe learning disabilities, or may have been mental retarded, because his mother took medications during her pregnancy with him that she probably shouldn't have, but doctors probably didn't know would have any adverse effects.



Princess Charlotte of Prussia and her daughter, Feodora, both I think were confirmed to have porphyria, which is what made George III so,... crazy.



There were also a lot of hemophiliac princes. Alfonso, Gonzalo and Alexei , there was also Prince Waldemar and Henry of Prussia (the nephews of Kaiser Wilhelm, not his brothers) Prince Leopold of GB, Prince Rupert of Teck, Prince Friedrich of Hesse, and Prince Leopold of Battenberg. I think I may have read that Princess Sibylla of Luxembourg's brother Paul, who died young, might have been a hemophiliac, but I don't know.



http://www.abc.es/informacion/boda/r...pana/index.asp

and read the profile of Queen Victoria Eugenia



I don't know if this counts but Alfonso Pio (*1907,1938) and Gonzalo (*1914,1934); the eldest and the younger sons of King Alfonso XIII of Spain were hemophiliacs.



Zarevich Alexei, the heir of Nicholas II of Russia was an hemophiliac as well



Prince John suffered from epilepsy and, most likely, Asperger syndrome which is a form of autism.

He was 13 years of age when he died in 1919.

Prince John Charles Francis was the youngest child of Their Majesties, the King George V & Queen Mary (formerly, Duke & Duchess of York).

The little Prince resided at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate and was well taken care of until his passing, especially by his devoted nurse & confidante, Miss Charlotte Bill. (there is a movie on him which you mentioned--The Lost Prince-us that the one?--very touching movie)



Most give up the throne not being able to fulfill all it demands, often care for by away from public eye



Many far the past. (who were known to to crazy--may have had more of a medical condition that we know more about today) Many just seem to have accidents or killed.



(Hate to point this out but there was a lot of close breeding in the royals in times past. That's not good for man or beast.)

Answer 2

I'm having trouble recalling who the best examples of that were, I'll look them up. The short answer is that they would still be royals and possibly kings. When a king wasn't bright enough to rule the country himself, usually an advisor who the king trusted would really run things and say the king did it--other times someone would kill the king and let someone else take over.



It's hard to find examples, because 'autism' wasn't a word when kings ruled, and calling the king 'simple minded' or something similar could cause you to lose your head.



Some claim Christian VII of Denmark, Henry VI of England, and Charles VI of France had some sort of mental deficiencies.

Answer 3

I studied some Genetics for University, and in the last centuries marriage between cousins were quite common in royal families, and they make common the so called recessive transmission disease (so you need both parents ill or asymptomic carrier).

The most famous of this case is queen Victoria and her family.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emofilia.png



For autism...well, an answer is difficoult because autism includes a large spectrum of disease and not all of them are so serious to make communication impossible (somebody include in autism-related diseases also Asperger syndrome, that's not so serious because an Asperger can work, study and have a quite normal life).

Anyway I think that royal families know that autism is increasing even if the casue of this disease is still unknow (epidemiological studies showed that the hypothesis of vaccinations that cause autism is false), so they should support the scientific research about it.

In my country, Italy, there isn't the monarchy from 1946 (I think that you know something about our history...).

Answer 4

Queen Juliana;s third child was born blind, she wasnt in line for the throne, but nobody thought anything about it, except were rather sad for the child. Today she changed her name to Christina and I believe she is married and lives in New York.