Was King George's madness a consequence of a type of Porphyria?

Was King George's madness a consequence of a type of Porphyria?

The theory that King George III suffered from a certain type of porphyria has been widely published and defended in medical journals, books and movies...

Had King James VI of Scotland not published a book on witchcraft we would not have known where to start on George III's ancestry. He became the kingpin of the medical study. Through him the ‘possibility’ that porphyria came to the House of Hanover from the Stuarts was established...

The first Scientific papers on 'The Royal malady' was published on January 8, 1966, in the British Medical Journal; by *Dr. Ida Macalpine and her son, Dr. Richard Hunter.

Shortly thereafter they published the book 'George III and the Mad Business'

*they

claimed that George III's attacks of insanity were caused by acute intermittent porphyria and in 1968 with a 2nd paper published in the British Medical Journal

*they

With the help of a famous expert in porphyrin chemistry, Professor C. Rimington,
claimed that George III had a different disease, Variegate Porphyria.

They also claimed that a variety of disorders of health suffered by many other members of the Royal Families of Europe, going back to Mary Queen of Scots and James I, were caused by attacks of acute Variegate Porphyria.
The royal line was indeed very unlucky…

If Variegate Porphyria has been occurring in members of the Royal Family back to the time of Mary Queen of Scots there should have been many hundreds of descendants alive today because members of the Royal Family had very large families legitimate and otherwise...

On average only 50% of the children will inherit the porphyria gene from an affected parent.

This book 'George III and the Mad Business' is a fine illustration of how a story, if repeated enough, comes to believed by millions in the world, even when it is not founded on good scientific evidence…

These claims were refuted from world experts in Porphyria research.

There are enough living descendants of the Royal Families of Europe today, to produce conclusive evidence that a number of living descendants have the well documented symptoms and biochemical findings of the porphyria disorder...

It is likely to prove to be a medical myth…


In 1998 a discussion "Try to identify the disease that caused the death of Alexander the Great" suggestions of Acute Intermittent Porphyria were made...

However, Alexander's death will remain mysterious, shrouded in legend and myth.


In 2003 another book was published - ”The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty" by Frederick Holmes.

Notions such as that James II's nosebleeds might have cost him the throne or that George III and his ancestors suffered from porphyria, in his view, need revision…

Variegate Porphyria is the type of Porphyria that has been inherited by approximately 10 000 white South Africans alive today from one ancestor who married in the Cape in 1688.


It was thoroughly investigated and proved between 1948 and 1969, by Dr. Geoffrey Dean, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Sir Geoffrey Dean)