19. His Father Was His Mother’s Brother
Elite families have long been known to engage in intermarriage among relatives in order to keep the bloodline pure and keep power within the family. As such, the line tends to become increasingly sick and incompetent to rule, as a result of inbreeding. The children often suffer from deformities and intellectual disabilities. Consider the royals of Europe in the centuries before World War I. Many families, particularly the Hapsburgs, were notorious for inbreeding that led to incompetent rulers that had to have regents rule in their place. The phenomenon has occurred in various areas throughout many historical eras.
Such was the case with King Tutankhamun. In the effort to keep the royal bloodline pure (and possibly for other unknown reasons, as well), pharaohs often married family members. Cleopatra probably had parents who were related and, as a result, she was far less beautiful than people might imagine. At Italy’s Institute for Mummies and Icemen, researchers performed tests on King Tut’s mitochondrial DNA to determine if he, too, had been the product of an incestuous relationship. The tests revealed that his mother was his father’s sister, meaning that his aunt was also his mother and his father was also his uncle.