Royal families throughout history have done some pretty scandalous things to keep the bloodline pure, especially inbreeding. Here are the three most notorious cases of inbreeding among the royals.
Once a dynasty took power in a country, they were often unwilling to share it. Instead of finding love or arranged marriage with another upper class family, they married within their own family, which inadvertently opened them up to deadly genetic defects.
Here are just three of the most notorious examples.
Tutankhamun (1342–1325 BC)

Despite being one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs, Tutankhamun — commonly referred to as King Tut — was actually practically insignificant. He became famous simply because no one ever dared to rob his tomb, as the curse and legend surrounding his afterlife scared most people away.
The truth behind the curse was much less terrifying: Tutankhamun’s parents were brother and sister.
Because of this inbreeding, he suffered from serious bodily deformities that prevented him from doing even the simplest pharaoh-associated things, like riding in a chariot. Actually, he could barely walk. Due to necrosis — dead tissue — in his left foot, he walked with a cane.
When his tomb was opened, archaeologists discovered over one hundred walking canes hidden inside.
Using molecular genetics and computed tomography (CT) scanning to examine his mummy, they were able to determine that he had weak bones and a frail immune system.
Despite having all of the power, he had hardly any time to enjoy it, dying of natural causes at just 18 years old.
The Habsburgs
Between the years of 1516 to 1700, nine out of eleven marriages in the Spanish branch of the Habsburg royal family were incestuous.
The consequences of the repeated inbreeding were so severe that Charles II of Spain (1661-1700) could barely speak, had difficulty eating, and was infertile.

Charles II was reportedly so hideous that his own wife was afraid of him, and his subjects nicknamed him “El Hechizado” — meaning the ‘the bewitched.’
Unfortunately for the Spanish Habsburgs, he was their last male heir. While he controlled vast territories, he could not control his own body because of the choices made by his ancestors. When he died, the Spanish Habsburg dynasty died with him.
The Habsburg’s were well-known for what is called the ‘Habsburg jaw,’ a medical condition where the lower jaw protrudes forward so far that it is significantly larger than the upper jaw, making it very difficult to close the mouth.
Alexei Romanov (1904–1918)
While this royal did not die from his deformities, he likely would have if not for the intervention of the Bolsheviks.
In 1918, the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. Among the deceased was the last male heir of the Russian empire: Tsarevich Alexei Romanov.

Alexei suffered from a genetic condition known as hemophilia, which occurs when a defective X chromosome prevents blood from clotting. Individuals who suffer from hemophilia can literally bleed to death from even the smallest injury, such as a cut or a nose bleed.
Without anything in his body to start the clotting process, the wound would just continue to bleed until he bled out.
In the case of hemophilia, women are carriers, yet men are the ones who suffer from the genetic condition. Alexei inherited the defect from his mother, Aleksandra Feodorovna, who inherited it from her grandmother, the British Queen Victoria.
Hemophilia was referred to by doctors as the ‘royal disease’ because, by inbreeding, European royals increased their odds of inheriting these genetic disorders.
While Alexei died in a firestorm of bullets alongside the rest of his family, his hemophilia meant that he likely would have died in the very near future from something as simple as a paper cut or biting his tongue while eating.