Intermarriage
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Intermarriage normally refers to marriage to a person belonging to a different religion, tribe, nationality or ethnic background. See also exogamy.
Intermarriage can also refer to the practise of continuous marriage between a relatively small number of families. Many royal families would continually intermarry, amongst themeselves or with other royal families. Intermarriage, in this fashion, was often practised for political reasons (to consolidate power or to improve trade), as well as the fact that many royal families felt it was beneath them to marry anyone else who was not also royalty. This type of intermarriage led to inbreeding where certain physical and genetic characteristics become more prominent with each passing generation. A famous instance of this was the disease haemophilia, which was present in several of Europe's royal families.