# Any likely historical illegitimate royals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-likely-historical-illegitimate-royals/582563 "2011-05-20T13:26:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-likely-historical-illegitimate-royals/582563/61 "2013-07-03T20:15:07Z")
> [@Minnie\_Luna](#): > > There was a case in Eleanor Herman’s books (_Sex with Kings_ and _Sex with Queens_) where one King was insane and impotent and it was believed he never consummated the marriage with his wife. Instead, he condoned her dalliances with a suitor and claimed the child that was born as his own, even though it was pretty widely accepted that it was not a child of the King. He felt as if his obligation to sleep with his wife was satisfied, as she produced an heir and he paraded the child around as if it were his. I don’t have my Kindle on me today or I would look it up. That would be [Christian VII of Denmark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_VII_of_Denmark). In fact, there was a terrific movie recently about him and his wife: [A Royal Affair](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276419/combined). (Yes, I know I am responding to an old post) ---
**Author:** ![DeptfordX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DeptfordX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeptfordX)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-likely-historical-illegitimate-royals/582563/62 "2013-07-03T22:40:43Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > And the red hair isn’t very significant, either - [red hair is recessive,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair) so it pops up from time to time in cases where neither parent had red hair. > > [Note that Harry’s uncle, Earl Spencer, has red hair](http://www.primeurjagers.nl/content/2009Charles-Spencer.jpg). That shows that Diana could equally have had the recessive gene. Red hair has long run in the Spencer line. > **[John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Spencer,_5th_Earl_Spencer)** > > John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (27 October 1835 – 13 August 1910), known as Viscount Althorp from 1845 to 1857 (and also known as the "Red Earl" because of his distinctive long red beard), was a British Liberal Party politician under, and close friend of, prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. He was twice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. > Spencer was the son of Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer, by his first wife Georgiana, daughter of William Poyntz. The prominent Whig politician John Sp... ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-likely-historical-illegitimate-royals/582563/63 "2013-07-03T23:28:50Z")
The first child of King Christian VII and Carolina Matilda of Wales, the future king Frederick VI of Denmark, is widely believed to be their biological child. Christian wasn’t impotent, but insane and usually uninterested in his wife. Caroline’s second child, Louisa, is considered to have been fathered by her lover Struensee (and comparison of portraits of Struensee and Louisa will leave little doubt). None of Isabel II of Spain’s children are believed to have been fathered by her homosexual husband. Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden may have been fathered by Count Adolf Munck. Vladimir Sviatoslavich, who christianized Russia and is revered as a saint despite being a murdering, raping warlord, ambushed and killed his brother Yaropolk and took Yaropolk’s concubine as his own. A few months later she gave birth to a son, Sviatopolk, whom Vladimir accepted as his, but she may have been pregnant by Yaropolk before Vladimir got his hands on her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-likely-historical-illegitimate-royals/582563.md?page=3)