# Is Prince Harry not of Royal Blood? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749 "2007-07-14T13:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/21 "2007-07-14T20:21:52Z")
I just wanted to say that, apparently, Prince Harry’s fellow soldiers are calling him “Ginger Bullet Magnet.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/22 "2007-07-14T20:24:21Z")
I think he’s spit and image of his father. I think William looks just like his mother. However, I can’t imagine anyone pursuing his lineage if he was headed for the throne. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/23 "2007-07-14T20:50:33Z")
He’s the half-blood prince. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/24 "2007-07-14T21:20:49Z")
He looks just like his father, HRH Prince Charles. Got the nose and the ruddy colouring. FWIW, Charles Spencer (Diana’s brother) has red hair. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/25 "2007-07-14T21:25:48Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] [Hewitt, Harry and Charles](http://www.throneout.com/images/79.jpg). You decide. In these paricular photos, the resemblance between Harry and Hewitt is (as the caption says) striking but maybe I’m just seeing things. [/QUOTE] It’s just the red hair and the similar poses. Harry has Charles’ nose, not Hewitt’s, and IMHO his eyebrows look more like Charles’ too. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/26 "2007-07-14T21:35:03Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] …But DNA or otherwise, I think Charles would have to repudiate him before Harry would be ruled illegitimate. [/QUOTE] Even if he isn’t Charles’s biological son he’d still be his heir as far was property is concerned. The throne is another story. The [Act of Settlement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Settlement_1701) governs succession to the British throne. Under the Act, the senior descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover is automatically sovereign, whether they wish to be or not. If Harry is not the senior heir-general of her body then he simply cannot lawfully be King\*. Stuff like this is why it’s treason for a royal wives to commit adultery. Unless of couse Parliament passes an act saying he is. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/27 "2007-07-14T22:55:58Z")
I think he just got more than a half share of Spencer traits, personally. Look at Earl Spencer (Diana’s brother): [![](http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/images/_36710_earl_spencer.jpg) ](http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/images/_36710_earl_spencer.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/28 "2007-07-15T00:26:43Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] Has anyone else heard the theory that Victoria wasn’t legitimate? That she was fathered by someone carrying the hemophiliac gene? [/QUOTE] Hemophilia affected some of the other major European royal houses, such as Spain and Prussia. They were all related. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/29 "2007-07-15T00:39:21Z")
Looking at the pics in that three-way comparison, it seems like Harry has Charles’s cheekbones, so I guess I’m leaning towards thinking that he really is Chaz’s son. But I guess there’s only one way to settle this: Somebody call Maury Povich! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/30 "2007-07-15T00:40:29Z")
BTW, hemophilia is linked to the X-chromosome: for a female to inherit the disease, she must receive two deficient X-chromosomes, one from her mother and the other from her father, who must therefore be a hemophiliac himself. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/31 "2007-07-15T00:49:54Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Hemophilia affected some of the other major European royal houses, such as Spain and Prussia. They were all related. [/QUOTE] That’s because Victoria’s descendants married into those royal houses as shown in the pedigree on [this](http://www.sciencecases.org/hemo/hemo.asp) site. > [@](#): > > Hemophilia has played an important role in Europe’s history, for it suddenly cropped up in the children of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria. It became known as the “Royal disease” because it spread to the royal families of Europe through Victoria’s descendants. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/32 "2007-07-15T00:57:40Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] BTW, hemophilia is linked to the X-chromosome: for a female to inherit the disease, she must receive two deficient X-chromosomes, one from her mother and the other from her father, who must therefore be a hemophiliac himself. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t the Duke of Kent in his 50s when Victoria was born? I read somewhere that there’s a theory that some of his sperm devoloped mutations and that’s how Victoria became a carrier. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/33 "2007-07-15T01:22:18Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] The question won’t arise unless William dies childless. Then… well, once upon a time, civil war could have hinged on the question. [/QUOTE] Ooohhh, civil war! I think the public might go for that. There hasn’t been a proper civil war in the British Isles for ages (that bit of nonsense with Ulster doesn’t really count beyond a skirmish) and they could definitely do with weeding out some of the weak blood. Perhaps we can bring back the Huguenots as well to get things moving a bit on the Continent. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/34 "2007-07-15T13:02:07Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Hemophilia affected some of the other major European royal houses, such as Spain and Prussia. They were all related. [/QUOTE] Robert Massie, in his book Nicholas and Alexandra, said that the hemophilia trait started with Victoria, in those families. Genes do mutate you know. He quoted Victoria as saying “Our family seems to be persecuted by this awful disease, the worst I know.” And yes, those other houses were all related, but if you look at the genealogical charts, the members suffering from hemophilia were all descendants of Victoria. The Tsarevitch Alexis was her great-grandson. One of Victoria’s own son’s was affected, and died in his early thirties I think. Oops, on review I see I’m a little late with the genealogy aspect. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749/35 "2007-07-15T14:31:20Z")
Yes, that was the thesis of the idea I saw; the idea was that the specific mutation for hemophilia is awfully rare, and that it seemed more likely that Victoria’s father was a carrier of the gene in the first place. Therefore he must have been someone other than the Duke of Kent. But as I said, that might be a total crackpot theory–I have no idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prince-harry-not-of-royal-blood/411749.md?page=1)