Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the midget of the Queen Henrietta Marie

Excerpt

Henrietta Marie of France (1609–1669), Queen consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I, was portraited, for the first time by the great Flemish baroque artist Antoon van Dyk (Antwerp, 1599–London, 1641), when she aged 24 years (Fig. 1). The Queen is depicted together with her favorite court dwarf, 14 years old and tall less than 35.4 in. (circa 90 cm.), Jeffrey Hudson (1619–circa 1682). At the age of 30, Hudson reached his final height of 42 or 45 in. (106–114 cm). The phenotypical features of this boy (very severe growth retardation with normal body proportions, doll-like face, pre-pubertal aspect) give evidence to a possible diagnosis of congenital hypopituitarism, probably due to a genetic defect [1].

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