Medically Ill Royals Who Could Be Capable Nowadays

Kellan Sullivan

This is something I was thinking of earlier, and I'm not really sure where it should go, so if the Mods can help in that regard, I'd be grateful.

In their day, some royals suffered from things that would be reasonably easy to cure/control nowadays - Rudolf of Austria's depression or Queen Victoria's grandson, Alfred of Edinburgh's suicidal tendencies (write him a prescription or send him to a shrink, whichever). Juana la Loca's probable schizophrenia would either result in her being put on a bunch of meds, or (like OTL) locked in a padded cell?. Hell, imagine Kaiser Wilhelm II not undergoing the electro-shock therapy (or whatever it was for his Erb's palsy - IDK if there's a cure or a controlling substance these days, since I'm not a doctor or even a med student).

Either way, they might have to be coked up to their eyeballs with a prescription list as long as what Lebron James is tall, but in some cases I think they could be functional.

And yes, we are including cases of infertility where it could be fixed (Queen Anne needing aspirin, or several queens whose husbands gave them a case of syphilis (like Rudolf's wife).) Not like something that can give Margaret Beaufort the ability to fall pregnant (since her being pregnant in the first place was probably what ruined it).

NOTE: this doesn't involve time-travelling the royals to the present for treatment, or any TARDIS timey-whimey stuff, we're just spitballing about could some royals have done better had they had modern day treatment. I know, it seems kinda pointless in that case, but I thought I'd see where/if the discussion goes.
 
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Teriyaki

Teriyaki

I think most royals could have done much better with modern medical treatment. My favorite example is Jane Seymour, Henry the VIII's third wife. There were a couple of problems when she gave birth to Edward the VI, but the major thing was hygiene. From what I understand, there are various theories as to what exactly happened, but keep in mind the doctors and physicians of the day did not cleanse their hands before examination. So if a bunch of old men with dirty hands are poking around in Jane Seymour's private region, then of course she is going to get an infection. With modern sanitation and many more advances in modern medicine, chances are Jane would have survived and not died.
 
Koprulu Mustafa Pasha

Koprulu Mustafa Pasha

Gone Fishin'
Murad IV: harsh but a great leader. Died at the age of 27. In his real rule of 10 years he managed to break the rebelious Janissary will. With a longer rule he could have an heir and secured the state enough for the future generation not experiencing the same.

William of Orange was shot, don't know if that counts but he could have been treated well in these times. Was a good leader during the rebellion. Could have been more.

Henry IV of France. Was stabbed. Like I said, only if wounding counts.
 
Valena

Valena

My favourite examples from Russian history: Feodor III (back trauma + something with scurvy-like symptoms); Peter II (smallpox); hell, even Peter I kidney problems can be mitigated with treatment.
From earlier than the Romanovs: maybe Tsarevich Dmitry epilepsy (provided he has one in the first place and it wasn't just crypto-coverup for assassination).
 
Lenwe

Lenwe

Or imagine the Hasburg dinasty with a modern, ir not si modern, knowdelage pm rececive Illness born from too close and constante cousin/uncld marriage
 

Jan Olbracht

Hedwig d'Anjou Queen of Poland, died after childbirth because of physical defect-her pelvis was too narrow.

Also-what about monarchs, who did not left descendants due to impotence? Many of them could be treated properly today (not like in medieval times, when for example 13th century Duke of Cracow, Leszek the Black, suffering from impotence, was ordered by his doctor to eat frogs and snakes. Obviously this curration failed ;) ).
 

Kellan Sullivan

Okay, I'm talking about illnesses (which may not have necessarily caused their deaths (Wilhelm's Erb's palsy; Rudolf's chronic depression; Juana or Erik XIV's probable schizophrenia etc), not that they got shot or had been in labour today, they'd have survived - pregnancy complications and bullets can still be deadly today.
 

Emperor Constantine

What about Christian VII of Denmark? I'm not sure if historians have figured out just what was wrong with him but his symptoms read like a form of schizophrenia. Considering Christian needed an official regent for the majority of his 42 year reign, he would definitely benefit from modern medicine.
 

sloreck

Wilhelm's Erb's Palsy could have been treated with surgery as an infant of one sort or another. Depending on the actual anatomic pathology, various types of nerve repairs/transfers could have been done to improve his arm function. Truly normal was not going to happen, but with luck a significant improvement was quite possible. Tsarevitch Aexei's case of hemophilia could be treated with appropriate medications/transfusions. Two rather obvious examples...
 

Tyler96

Haemophilia can sorta be managed these days, yeah? That could help out the Russian and Spanish royal families, among others. Not having Rasputin running about the palace and influencing policy could have helped the Romanovs a bit (though I'm not whether it would have made enough of a difference).

What about Baldwin IV's leprosy?

Modern cancer treatments could surely make an impact- there's oodles of royals who either died of cancer (Wilhelm II's father Frederick III) or are speculated to have died from cancer (Mary I and her mother Catherine of Aragon, Richard III's wife Anne Neville). Though that's more making them live longer, they were already functional.

Don Carlos getting better treatment after his fall? Apparently he had eating disorders during his imprisonment too.

Something to help Prince John's (brother of George VI) severe epilepsy?
 

sloreck

For some time leprosy, now preferably called Hansen's Disease, has been treatable with appropriate antibiotics. The amount of damage done depends upon how soon the treatment is given, but now with appropriate treatment deformities etc can be prevented, and actually leprosy/Hansen's Disease is one of the least communicable diseases around, not easy to transmit at all. Certainly Baldwin IV would have had a relatively normal life, and the butterflies from this are huge - would a Crusader Kingdom led by Baldwin be more intelligent in dealing with Saladin and Jerusalem NOT fall. With Alexei's hemophilia controlled medically, Rasputin's influence is markedly diminished or even butterflied away. The Tsarina is still on the bonkers side, and Nicholas II is incompetent at best so merely getting Rasputin out of the way may not be enough to bend the path of Imperial Russia enough.

There are lots of medical conditions such as hypertension/heart disease, diabetes (both type I&II), epilepsy, gout, and more that can be ameliorated with mid 20th century medicine, let alone 2018 medicine. Even dietary and activity changes will help for many of these, as well as basic sanitation and hygiene both for disease prevention and wound treatment - Richard the Lionheart died of infection following his wound, not the wound itself. Along the same lines, even basic measures will improve infant mortality and maternal mortality which will very rapidly spawn huge butterflies as potential heirs that died very young will live, royal wives that died will live meaning they will have more children and/or the subsequent wives and their children will not happen.
 
Valena

Valena

Something that I remembered as well. Antibiotic treatment against pneumonia/pleurisy to prevent Prince Rupert's death in 1682. If he lives past 1685, the War of Palatine Succession is delayed/altered. With modern medicine he can easily live to the age his sister(s) did, and die sometime in late 1690ies.
He's not a reigning monarch, but was first in line of succession to the throne of Palatinate in 1680-1682.
 

desmirelle

I don't like butterfly conventions. Too many of them here, spread all over time, and the world is now unrecognizable. But I can look on the bright side: because of these butterflies Hitler's mother didn't die from the cancer and he never went into politics until the late 1940s (1948 to be exact, one year after her death) and in Austria, not Germany. Great speaker, but never quite had a plan for making the country better. :openedeyewink:
 
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