Cast From The Past: How cancer remains a royal constant in Britain

The headlines have screamed and the talking-heads have spoken. From the corridors of British royalty, the announcement came on Feb 5, 2024 that King Charles III, the present-day wearer of 'The Crown', has cancer.

But Charles III is not the first in the long line of the family, which currently sits over an estimated wealth of $28 billion, to be diagnosed with such a malady.

Generations of inter-marriage have contributed to the emergence of hereditary diseases in the family.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

George IV married his first cousin Caroline of Brunswick on 8th April 1795 | Commons

Furthermore, if the contents of a book are to be believed, the history of King Charles' ancestors dining over human flesh too may have contributed to the emergence of certain acute infections, but that's up for debate.

"Over in continental Europe, where the axe fell routinely on the necks of criminals, blood was the medicine of choice for many epileptics," wrote Richard Sugg in his book Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians.

The book talks about a series of encounters due to which medieval Europeans believed that consuming embalmed bodies, such as the mummified bodies in Europe, could cure them of disease.

According to the book, the royals too routinely consumed human body products in an effort to stave off anything from headaches to epilepsy and from nosebleeds to gout.

Sugg claimed in the book that the namesake ancestors of present-day King Charles, Charles II made his own 'corpse medicine' while Charles I himself was made into corpse medicine.

But thankfully, the times have changed. King Charles III is living in 2024. Unlike his ancestors, he doesn't have to sermonise a colonial officer to unearth a mummy from Egypt to remit his cancer. Medical Science is well-equipped to do that job.

An Egyptian mummy-seller in 1875 | Wikimedia Commons

The history of colonialism aside, let's take a Cast From The Past of British royal family's history with cancer.

Elizabeth II to Sarah Fergusson: Cancer a royal constant

King Charles III ascended to the British throne after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II last year.

According to her death certificate, she died of the 'old age'. But as per a new biography authored by a friend of her late husband Prince Philip, she battled 'a particularly terrible kind of cancer' during her final years of life. She had bone marrow cancer, it was claimed.

Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

Her father, King George VI, who reportedly was a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer.

Queen Elizabeth II (then the Princess) with her father King George VI | AFP

Another royal member, King Edward VIII (The Duke of Windsor) succumbed to throat cancer in 1972.

Edward VIII, the paternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth II,was the King after his father George V's death in 1936. He died in his home in Paris in 1972. "He died peacefully," a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said at the time.

Queen Elizabeth or The Queen Mother was also diagnosed with breast cancer. In 1984, a lump was removed from her breast. Her cancer diagnosis was never made public during her lifetime. She suffered from colon cancer in her 60s and breast cancer in her 80s.

,

Sarah Ferguson | Reuters

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has been diagnosed with skin cancer just months after she battled breast cancer, her spokesperson confirmed on January 22, 2024.

Ferguson, widely known as Fergie, announced she had beaten breast cancer in a New Year's Eve post to social media.

The new malignant melanoma diagnosis was detected when a dermatologist was removing and analysing several moles while Ferguson was undergoing reconstructive surgery following her mastectomy, her spokesperson added.