1000 years of royalty: nice map of Europe's nastiest families

[beschizza]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/07/1000-years-of-royalty-nice-ma.html

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[chgoliz]

I found it interesting that Henry VIII, who famously had 6 wives, had a genetic reach exceeding his daughter Elizabeth I, of course, but not by as much as you’d think considering the fact she didn’t have children. That shows how much everyone is interrelated in that group, that having NO descendants doesn’t actually impact the larger picture very much.

[Boundegar]

I see they didn’t include any Arab royalty. Welcome to Trump’s America!

[RandomInternetPerson]

[daneel]

I always liked this guy’s family tree:

[Gyrofrog]

Hey, my family tree does that! Only it’s 6 or 8 generations back, not 1.5.

Had to look him up, but that’s the guy I was thinking of and (not to make light of it) this family tree explains what happened to him.

[AnonyMouse]

So he’s basically not much better off than a product of brother/sister incest, right? All but three marriages there appear to be cousin marriages.No idea how much genetic diversity is introduced by the 3 incomers, since they may also be more or less distantly related.

[the_borderer]

@AnonyMouse

So he’s basically not much better off than a product of brother/sister incest, right?

There’s a source from the wikipedia article that claims that he is worse off.

The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty

[TheGreatParis]

Let’s not forget that democracy has its shortcomings too.

[Brainspore]

@TheGreatParis

Let’s not forget that democracy has its shortcomings too.

And short fingers.

[the_borderer]

What is better, President Donald Trump for the next 8 years, or King Donald Trump for the rest of his life, followed by his children and grandchildren?

[TheGreatParis]

“They voted me out of office after two years.”

[paxsimius]

Remember, European royalty (or most any royalty, for that matter) are direct descendants of brutal warlords who managed to beat the shit out of their neighboring brutal warlords more successfully whilst demanding food and money from the local peasants in exchange for “protection”.

The aristocracy came from the brutal warlords who got the shit beat out of them and had to settle for second place.

[bibliophile20]

Which really goes to show that nurture is more powerful than nature, when you consider the hot-house flowers that populated a good chunk of those ranks over the last few centuries.

[chgoliz]

His father was his mother’s uncle? Yeah, that’s not going to cause any genetic problems. Especially considering how many times that particular arrangement happened in previous generations as well.