Cultural Awareness

The Spanish royal family bleeds out

The youngest of Queen Victoria’s nine children, Beatrice, was born in

1857. She was a hemophilia carrier. She married Henry of Battenberg and

transmitted the gene to three of her four children; the eldest son was unaffected.

The second son, Leopold, was a hemophiliac. He joined the King’s

Royal Rifle Corps, but because he was physically delicate and lame,

he never saw active service; he died in 1922 following a hip operation.

The third son, Maurice, also probably a hemophiliac (although this has

been disputed), joined the King’s Royal Fusiliers and died of wounds received

at the battle of Ypres. The only daughter, Victoria Eugenie (known

as Ena), who was a carrier for hemophilia, married Alphonso XIII, the

King of Spain; her condition had a significant impact on the political stability

of Spain.

The shortage of healthy heirs from the marriage of Eugenie and

Alphonso contributed to anti-British feeling in Spain since it was believed

that the British had defiled the royal blood of Spain by imposing ayourselves and you will lose to the last man.” For once, Nicholas ignored

Rasputin’s advice and mobilized the army against Austria. As a result of

the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, this action meant

that Tsar Nicholas of Russia was at war with his cousin-in-law Wilhelm II

of Germany, who in turn was at war with his cousin King George V of

Great Britain. In the first year, Russia lost 4 million men. After the Tsar

took over as Commander-in-Chief in 1916, the results were even more disastrous,

and Nicholas was seen as personally responsible. Nicholas’ position

as Commander-in-Chief took him away from St. Petersburg, and

Alexandra was left to govern in his absence. While she ruled the country,

Rasputin ruled her. He prevailed upon her to make several government

appointments, and the positions were filled by individuals who turned

out to be unfit for their duties. The turnover rate among these officials was

high, adding instability to incompetence. Both Rasputin and Alexandra

were hated by the Russian people, not least because of Alexandra’s German

origins, which led to accusations that she was a traitor. An increasingly

high mortality rate among the soldiers at the front, as well as Alexandra’s

urging