British Royal Family Secrets That You Probably Didn't Know

Royal families are public figures and expected to be open books. Their lives are often well-documented in history books and tabloids.

However, even though their lives are often the focal point of gossip mongers there are some things that seem to slip through the cracks. Here are some secrets you might not know about the royal family.

Travel With Personal Blood Bags

While most of us are worried about which shoes to pack when going on a trip, the royal family approach packing very differently. Not only does a Royal Navy doctor always accompanies Queen Elizabeth on royal tours they also take packages of her own blood in case a transfusion is needed.

The doctor also has to pack life-saving equipment like a mobile defibrillator and emergency medicine. Being next-in-line Prince Charles also travels with his own blood supply.

Dracula's Descendants

Britain's Prince Charles claims he is related to Vlad the Impaler. The heir to the British throne reportedly said that they are linked via his great-grandmother, Mary of Teck, who was grandmother to Britain's current ruler, Queen Elizabeth II.

She was also the queen during the reign of King George V. A Wurttemberg princess, Mary descended from two of Vlad's sons.

Illegitimate Bloodline

In 2012, the skeleton of Richard III was discovered in a car park in Leicester. However, archaeologists did not expect that the discovery of the skeleton would lead to the uncovering of unknown British aristocracy secrets.

To prove that the bones were Richard III's, scientists took a DNA sample to match it to his descendants. However, while the genetic testing proved that it was the king's body from his mothers side, it also revealed that there was a discrepancy in the male line that could affect the lineage of current royals.

While linking to the unnamed descendants of Henry Somerset, the 5th Duke of Beaufort, they discovered something odd. The DNA did not match Richard's indicating that an adulterous affair at some point in history broke the paternal chain. This has implications for our current Royal family who share a direct bloodline to the Tudors.

Victoria & Albert Were First Cousins

Queen Victoria first met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, at the tender age of 16. But the secret isn't that she proposed their marriage.

Instead, a little known fact about them is that he was her first cousin. He was the son of her mother’s brother, Leopold, who was the reason they met as he hoped they would marry.

Princess Diana Self-Harmed

Princess Diana openly spoke about her mental health issues including her depression during her marriage to Prince Charles. However, fans may not know that she recorded her thoughts on a tape that she gave to journalist Andrew Morton.

In the tapes, she revealed how she once became so desperate that she threw herself down a set of stairs. At the time she was four months pregnant with Prince William. It was not the first time she self-harmed either. She also cut herself with a penknife once.

“I did inflict upon myself. I didn’t like myself, I was ashamed because I couldn’t cope with the pressures. Well, I just hurt my arms and my legs; and I work in environments now where I see women doing similar things and I’m able to understand completely where they’re coming from,”

she once said in an interview with Martin Bashir for Panorama.