![]() In 16th-century England, King Henry VIII (who also sported an ulcerated wound on his leg, perhaps serving as inspiration for Viserys I’s back wound), would famously break away from the Catholic Church in Rome and marry six times to secure male heirs that would sustain the Tudor dynasty. The desire for a male heir could tear apart royal families. The history of the island of Westeros, which looks incredibly similar to the British Isles, mirrors much of Britain’s history too. While childbirth could prove fatal to royal women, failure to produce an heir could also see the end of a dynastic house. Seven queens and princesses of Asturias (heirs to the Spanish throne) had children between 15. House of the Dragon’s creators have been criticised for the graphic childbirth scene in episode one, yet they were correct in portraying pregnancy as dangerous for royals. The primary goal of royal marriage, in both early modern Europe and Westeros, was to bring together powerful families and produce living heirs who would carry on the dynasty. ![]() In this roundabout way the “ royal disease,” as hemophilia is known, contributed to the revolution that ended the Romanov monarchy. The holy man Rasputin, who was brought into the palace to treat the Russian Tsar, came to meddle in government affairs, leading to rising tension within the aristocracy and public distrust of the royal family. Victoria’s great-grandson, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, inherited this disease. Queen Victoria of England passed the gene that caused the recessive blood disease hemophilia to the royal families of Russia, Spain and Germany through the marriages of her children. Geneticists have argued that consanguinity, or parents being descended from the same ancestors, caused this condition. He suffered from multiple health problems before his death at 38, including an extreme case of the so-called Habsburg jaw or badly misshapen mandible that made it very difficult to speak and to chew food. Spain’s last Habsburg king, Charles II, is a poster child for royal incest. Like the fictional Targaryens, real European royals frequently married close relatives, contributing to genetic disorders in their families. And just as in House of the Dragon, these afflictions shaped real dynastic struggles. ![]() The diseases and medical afflictions that plagued the ruling houses of Westeros – pregnancy complications, madness and genetic disorders – affected the real royal families of Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. ![]() The childbirth depicted in this episode is extremely traumatic. ![]() His wife, the heavily-pregnant Queen Aemma Arryn, who has endured multiple miscarriages and infant losses in her lifetime, is worried about the health of their unborn baby. He dismisses this injury as a minor one he sustained from sitting on the famous Iron Throne forged with the swords of the vanquished. The ruling Targaryen King Viserys I suffers from a large and painful pus-filled open wound on his back. The new series’ first episode powerfully suggests that political instability and dynastic decline begin with disease and health crises. House of the Dragon chronicles the fall of the Targaryen dynasty some two centuries before life on the continent of Westeros is upended by war and a mini ice age – the events dramatised in HBO’s Game of Thrones. ![]()
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