Charles II, the Bewitched

Carlos II was laultima, the most degenerate, and the most patent victim of the inbreeding of the Austrias.These words, by the British historian John Lynch, may seem excessive and somewhat loaded in the adjectives.But if we take a look at the history doctor who for thirty-five years was King Carlos II of Spain maybe we change our mind.

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Carlos II, the Bewitched

Carlos II was a soul quite unfortunate .Born at the end of a long line of inbreeding, he suffered health problems throughout his life, although short.Badly disfigured, he was considered unable to govern and, during his lifetime, most of the power was in the hands of his mother, Mariana of Austria.He was the last of the Spanish rulers of the Habsburgs and with his time on the throne, Spain fell into decline as an empire.Some of the wild rumors about his health were true, others pure sensation.However, his tragic life was also full of intrigue, and his death plunged much of Europe into a major war.

Charles II was the last son of King Philip IV who He was the son of Carlos I and grandson of one of the daughters of the Catholic Monarchs, Juana la Loca.To rejoice the monarch , the only man was legitimate. It seems that Felipe himself had confessed that this son was a product The latter copulates that he managed to maintain with his second wife Mariana of Austria , which gave rise to a certain mockery at the time Court, daring one of the monarch's doctors to tell him that " his majesty I leave only the slips for the queen ".

The health of Carlos II

Be that as it may, Carlos II suffered throughout his life frequent colds, intestinal disorders, prognathism (characteristic trait of the Austrias ), motor retardation, hydrocephalus, rickets, oligophrenia, measles, chicken pox, rubella, smallpox, chronic swelling of the extremities, epilepsy, sterility and more than certain impotence.

Until 4 years of age he got to his feet and could only walk at 6 years old.He did not make his language intelligible until 10 years old and only a year later he started reading and writing, activities that, it seems, were never his I did not even like to dominate.When I was 25 years old, the papal nuncio told in one of his reports to the Holy See that the king could not be entitled unless he leaned on a wall, on a table or in another person./p>

To all the aforementioned it is possible to add the most notable facial deformity of Carlos II that was in an extremely pronounced bite, which since then has been called Habsburg lip due to its prominence in the Habsburg dynasty of the European monarchs.He was so severe that Carlos II had difficulty learning to speak for a long time.All his life he remained quite silent and ate little because the deformed jaw caused him so many problems.

The nickname of the "Bewitched"

His contemporaries ended up blaming all these evils on a certain spell that had fallen on the monarch, putting the names and surnames of those guilty of such enchantment.We, who recognize the charm literary that the nickname of the Bewitched gives Carlos's sad life, we believe rather than any virus or bacteria that visited the Court found refuge in its flimsy nature.

Marriage with Maria Luisa de Orleans

Carlos II married Maria Luisa of Orleans , in 1679 when the king was 18 years old, although in every way his marriage is not He was exactly full of love.Although Carlos was certainly in love with Maria Luisa, the feelings were not necessarily reciprocal.The marriage was mainly political, destined to strengthen ties between France and Spain. Apparently, the French ambassador who was sent to organize the marriage told Marie Louise: « The Catholic King is so ugly that he causes fear and looks sick "As expected, I wasn't exactly excited about the prospect, but their marriage went on and Maria Luisa de Orleans was queen consort between 1679 and 1689.

Marriage with Mariana de Neoburgo

After the death of his first wife in 1689, Carlos II married Mariana de Neoburgo in that same year.The king's Council of State was desperate to continue the Hispanic dynasty.The marriage with Maria Luisa de Orleans did not give children, so she desperately sought a second wife and the chosen one was Mariana de Neoburg, who was actually her second cousin (both were children of carnal cousins), but with whom she had no children either.

The reign and succession of Charles II

The Austrian obsession with family marriages and a poorly understood principle of legitimacy in the succession to the Crown by They made it possible for this man, whose only known hobby was to frequent the palace patisserie, to reign.His reign, in whose government the monarch had no participation, was neither better nor worse than that of his immediate predecessors and his greatest feat it was to stamp the signature on the will that would open the doors of Spain to the Bourbons and the War of Succession .

The reign Carlos began with a 10-year regency under the Queen Mother , during which the government was concerned with fighting the ambitions of French King Louis XIV in the Netherlands and with court intrigues involving the Queen, his Jesuit confessor Juan Everardo Nithard, his later favorite, Fernando de Valenzuela, and the king's natural half brother, Juan Jose de Austria (1629-1679).There were two phases in the King's government, the first, related with the resistance to French imperialism of Louis XIV, you I finish with the peace of Rijswijk in 1697; the second, the last three years of the reign, was dominated by the problem of succession , because by then it was clear that Charles II would have no children.