Charles II of Spain

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Charles II
Rey Carlos II de España.jpg
Portrait by Juan Carreño de Miranda, 1685
Reign 17 September 1665 –
1 November 1700
Predecessor Philip IV
Successor Philip V
Regent Mariana of Austria (1665–75)
Born (1661-11-06)6 November 1661
Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
Died 1 November 1700(1700-11-01) (aged 38)
Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
Burial El Escorial
Consorts
House Habsburg
Father Philip IV of Spain
Mother Mariana of Austria
Religion Roman Catholicism
Signature Charles II's signature

Charles II of Spain (Spanish: Carlos II; 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), also known as El Hechizado or the Bewitched, was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. He is now remembered for his physical and mental disabilities, allegedly the result of inbreeding, and the war for his throne that followed his death.

He died childless in 1700 with no immediate Habsburg heir. His will named his successor as 16-year-old Philip, grandson of the reigning French king Louis XIV and Charles's half-sister Maria Theresa.[1] Disputes over Philip's inheritance led to the War of the Spanish Succession.

Early life[edit]

Margarita Theresa in Velázquez' 1656 masterpiece Las Meninas

Charles was born in Madrid to Philip IV of Spain and his second wife, Mariana of Austria. The only surviving son of his father's two marriages, he was named Prince of Asturias, a title traditionally held by the heir to the Spanish throne.

Philip and Mariana were uncle and niece, making Charles their son, first-cousin and great-nephew respectively; all eight of his great-grandparents were descendants of Joanna and Philip I of Castile.[a] The impact of this inbreeding is not fully understood; his elder sister Margaret Theresa does not appear to have suffered disabilities as he did.[2]

Charles himself was severely disabled, both physically and mentally, described as "short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35, always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live."[3] He is thought to have suffered from the endocrine disease acromegaly and a combination of rare genetic disorders often transmitted through recessive genes, including combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis.[4] In his case, the so-called Habsburg lip was so pronounced he spoke and ate with difficulty his entire life. He did not learn to talk until the age of four, walk until eight, was treated as an infant until he was ten and did not attend school.

Background; the decline of Spanish power[edit]

When Charles succeeded his father in 1665, the Spanish Empire or 'Monarchy' was an enormous global confederation in terms of territory but the ability to support it had been diminishing since the 1640s.

Almost continuous warfare drained money, energy and men; the 1578-1648 Eighty Years' War with the Dutch Republic ended in defeat, devastating Spanish finances and military reputation. The Peace of Münster finally ended the war in 1648 and recognised Dutch independence, with Spain retaining the Southern or Spanish Netherlands. This led to a series of costly wars with France for a province that no longer provided the same financial benefits; the terms of Münster gave the Dutch control of the Scheldt, seriously damaging the trade of the main South Netherlands port of Antwerp.[b]

Charles II in his twenties

Between 1600 and 1700, the Spanish economy experienced long periods of low productivity and depression.[5] The population declined by an estimated 25% in this period, a combination of emigration, disease, famine and war casualties. This had a huge economic impact, some major manufacturing areas losing almost half their workforce and with not enough men to build or man the ships on which Spanish trade depended.[6] Limited central control made it hard to collect taxes and combined with economic depression meant government finances were in perpetual crisis.[7] The Spanish Crown declared bankruptcy nine times between 1557 to 1666, including 1647, 1652, 1661 and 1666.

A third factor was weak central control; while it is common to use the term 'Spain,' it was actually two separate kingdoms under the same monarch, the Crown of Castile and Crown of Aragon.[c] The two had very different political cultures and traditions; combined with a deeply conservative political class, this made decision-making or enacting reforms extremely slow and difficult.

However, the 17th century was a period of crisis for many European nations and these problems were not confined to Spain.[8] Feuds between those who ruled in Charles' name did little to help but it is debatable how far they or he can be held responsible for long-term trends predating his reign. The Monarchy proved remarkably resilient and when Charles died was largely intact.[9]

Reign[edit]

Mariana of Austria by Diego Velázquez, c. 1656; she acted as Regent for much of Charles' reign

Charles was three years old when his father, Philip IV, died on 17 September 1665; as a legal minor, his mother Mariana was appointed Queen Regent by the Council of Castile. While Charles theoretically ruled in his own name after her death in 1696, in reality his disabilities meant power was exercised by others. This resulted in bitter internal struggles for control of government, the long feud between his mother and illegitimate half-brother John of Austria the Younger being especially damaging.

Charles' father Philip had established the system of employing personal favourites or "validos" when he appointed the Count-Duke of Olivares in 1621. Mariana simply followed this precedent, the difference being that as a woman, they were more visible. The first was her personal confessor, Juan Everardo Nithard who was appointed Grand Inquisitor in 1666 placing him on the Regency Council.[d]

John of Austria; his struggle with Mariana over control of government severely weakened Spain

On Charles' accession, his administration had to end the long-running Portuguese Restoration War and settle the War of Devolution with France. The Spanish Crown declared bankruptcy in 1662 and 1666 and reducing Spain's military commitments was a matter of extreme urgency. In 1668, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war with France and the Treaty of Lisbon accepted the restoration of the Crown of Portugal and loss of the Portuguese Empire.[10] These were simply an acceptance of reality while Aix-La-Chapelle was in many ways a diplomatic triumph, since France was forced to return most of its territorial gains. However, John exploited discontent within the ruling class to instigate a revolt in Aragon and Catalonia, compelling Mariana to dismiss Nithard in February 1669.

Nithard was replaced by Fernando de Valenzuela; when Charles turned 14 in 1675, he was legally able to rule on his own. This would have resulted in the end of the Regency while John used the opportunity to dismiss the valido. Mariana succeeded in having the Regency continued on the basis of Charles's disabilities and Valenzuela returned to court in 1677.

Marie Louise, Charles' French first Queen.

The outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War in 1672 dragged Spain into another war with France over the Spanish Netherlands, the cost of which placed almost intolerable strain on the economy. In January 1678, John finally took charge of government, expelled Mariana and exiled Valenzuela. Ironically, given his earlier opposition to the concessions made in 1668, his first act was to end the war; under the terms of the Treaties of Nijmegen, Spain ceded many of the territories in Franche-Comté and the Spanish Netherlands returned by France at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Marie-Anne de Neuborg, Charles' pro-Austrian second wife

Having spent so many years achieving power, John's administration failed to live up to expectations, one of the few achievements being to stabilise the currency. He faced an almost impossible situation and had insufficient time to have a real impact before his government ended with his death in September 1679. Mariana returned as Queen Regent but her influence was diminished by Charles' marriage in November 1679 to the 17-year-old Marie Louise of Orléans to whom he was devoted.

The 1683-84 War of the Reunions was a brief but devastating conflict with France over the Spanish Netherlands, followed in 1688 by the outbreak of the Nine Years' War. Shortly afterwards, Marie Louise died in February 1689, almost certainly from appendicitis; there were allegations she was poisoned but this was a cause attributed to many deaths due to lack of medical knowledge. In August, Charles married Maria Anna of Neuburg by proxy, the formal wedding taking place in May 1690; when the Queen Regent Mariana died on 16 May 1696, he theoretically ruled in his own name although most suspected his decisions were primarily influenced by his wife.

It was clear Charles' health was finally failing and agreeing his successor became increasingly urgent. The Nine Years' War showed France could not achieve its objectives on its own; the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick was the result of mutual exhaustion and Louis' search for allies in anticipation of a contest over the Spanish throne. The Habsburg Emperor Leopold initially refused to sign the Treaty since it left this issue unresolved; he reluctantly did so in October 1697 but all sides viewed it as simply a pause in hostilities.[11]

The Succession[edit]

Attempts at offspring[edit]

One of John's last acts was to arrange Charles' marriage in 1679 to Marie Louise of Orléans, eldest daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and his first wife Henrietta of England. The marriage was strongly resisted by the prospective bride, while the French ambassador wrote to the court: 'The Catholic King is so ugly as to cause fear and he looks ill.' When Mariana returned as Regent after John's death, she did her utmost to isolate Marie Louise who was French, rather than Austrian and the choice of her bitter rival. Marie Louise claimed Charles suffered from premature ejaculation; her inability to provide an heir made her unpopular, the treatments given supposedly to increase fertility gave her severe intestinal problems and she became depressed.[12] The pressure placed on her to produce an heir is illustrated by the extreme measures undertaken; when an astrologer suggested Charles' sterility was due to his failure to say goodbye to his father, Mariana had Philip IV's body disinterred so he could do so.

Although Charles was distraught when Marie Louise died in February 1689, the urgency of his declining health meant in August he married Maria Anna of Neuburg, daughter of Philip William, Elector Palatine and sister-in-law to the Emperor Leopold. She was selected by Mariana for her family background of fertility and to strengthen the pro-Austrian faction in the Spanish court; when Mariana herself died in 1696, she assumed leadership of this element.[13] The marriage was no more successful in producing an heir; after his death, Charles' autopsy revealed he had only one atrophied testicle and he was almost certainly impotent by this stage.[14]

Succession dispute[edit]

Main article: War of the Spanish Succession
Europe in 1700, at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession

As the Crown of Spain passed according to cognatic primogeniture, it was possible for a woman, or the descendant of a woman, to inherit the crown. Charles' sisters Maria Theresa (1638-83) and Margaret Theresa (1651-1673) respectively married Louis XIV and Emperor Leopold.

In 1685, Maria Antonia, daughter and only child of Leopold and Margaret, married Max Emanuel of Bavaria. To ensure Spain remained independent of both France and Austria, the 1698 Treaty of the Hague made their son Joseph Ferdinand heir to the bulk of the Spanish Monarchy.[15] This was a compromise between an Austrian or French successor but failed when Joseph Ferdinand died of smallpox in 1699 aged six. By the time of Charles II's death, the only surviving legitimate descendants of his father Philip IV were the children of Maria Theresa and Louis XIV of France, which implied a potential union of France and Spain under the rule of Louis XIV's heir, the Grand Dauphin Louis.[e]

At the time of her marriage, Maria Antonia transferred her rights to the Spanish throne to Leopold's sons from his third marriage, her half-brothers Joseph and Charles.[16] This was a measure of dubious legality but theoretical arguments over who had the better claim by birth are largely irrelevant; neither Austria and France could allow the other to acquire an undivided Spanish Monarchy.

Philip, Duke of Anjou is recognised as Philip or Felipe V of Spain on 16 November 1700
Joseph Ferdinand, Prince of Bavaria and heir to Charles until his death in 1699.

After Joseph Ferdinand's death, the 1700 Treaty of London made Leopold's younger son Archduke Charles the new heir and divided Spanish possessions in Italy, the Netherlands and Northern Spain between France, Savoy and Austria.[17] Neither Spain nor Austria signed the Treaty; the Spanish saw no reason why their Empire should be partitioned and devised their own solution, the key principle being an undivided and independent Empire.[18] For various reasons, including the unpopularity of the Austrians with Spanish ministers, Charles' will named his heir as Louis' younger grandson Philip but on condition he renounce any claim on the French throne. Since his father the Dauphin and older brother stood between him and the French crown, the Spanish hoped this would be acceptable.[f][19]

When Charles died on 1 November 1700, the line of the Spanish Habsburgs died with him. Insisting on the Treaty of London required Louis to enforce an Austrian heir on an undivided Spanish Monarchy for a treaty neither signed and led to an outcome unacceptable to France. This was never likely to happen and his successor, as named in his will, was Philip, Duke of Anjou, a decision accepted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the other European powers.[20] Having achieved most of his aims by diplomacy, Louis then made a series of moves that led to the conflict known as the War of the Spanish Succession.[21]


Death[edit]

Spanish gold coin minted in 1700, the last year of the reign of Charles II

Toward the end of his life Charles's fragile health deteriorated; he officially retired when he had a nervous breakdown caused by the stress of Spain's economic issues and conflict over his successor.

He died in Madrid five days before his 39th birthday on 1 November 1700, the 39th anniversary of the death of his elder brother Philip. The physician who performed his autopsy stated his body "did not contain a single drop of blood; his heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water."[22]

His life was memorably summarised by John Langdon-Davies as follows; We are dealing with a man who died of poison two hundred years before he was born. If birth is a beginning, of no man was it more true to say that in his beginning was his end. From the day of his birth they were waiting for his death.[23]

Legacy[edit]

Marie Louise, Charles and his mother attend the auto de fe of 30 June 1680, by Francisco Rizi

In 1680, Charles presided over the greatest auto-da-fé in the history of the Spanish Inquisition, in which 120 prisoners were forced to participate and 21 later burned at the stake. This seems to have left its mark; the last public auto-da-fé took place in 1691 and in one of his few independent acts as king, Charles set up a Council in August 1700 to investigate the Inquisition. Their report was so critical the Inquisitor General convinced Charles to have it destroyed; however, the power of the Inquisition was broken although the institution itself survived until 1834.[24]

The city of Charleroi in modern Belgium was named after him in 1666 as were the Caroline Islands by Spanish explorer Francisco Lazcano when he visited Yap in 1686.

In recent years, Charles has been the subject of studies on how inbreeding affects families but the exact impact is not fully understood. The authors of the most significant state '...evidence supporting...inbreeding as an important factor in the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg lineage are indirect and...not conclusive. It has not been demonstrated that the physical and mental disabilities suffered by Charles II were caused by the expression of detrimental recessive alleles inherited from common ancestors.[25]

Heraldry[edit]

Ancestry[edit]

Both Philip II of Spain and Charles II, Archduke of Austria, the patrilineal great-grandfathers of Charles II of Spain's father and mother respectively, were grandsons of Joanna and Philip I of Castile and married their own nieces. Philip II's son and successor, Philip III of Spain, married Archduke Charles II's daughter Margaret. They were the parents of Charles II of Spain's father and maternal grandmother. Margaret's brother Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and his wife and first cousin, Maria Anna of Bavaria, were the parents of the Spanish king's maternal grandfather.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The offspring of an uncle-niece marriage would normally have an inbreeding coefficient of 0.125, but Charles' was 0.254, slightly more inbred than the child of two siblings (0.25).
  2. ^ This was kept in place until 1863, although by then it no longer mattered.
  3. ^ The Crown of Aragon was divided into the Kingdoms of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Majorca, Naples, Sicily, Malta and Sardinia.
  4. ^ Modern assessments of Mariana tend to reflect contemporary views that a woman without a husband was almost unnatural and 'favourite' often gets interpreted as lover. John did no better when he finally achieved power in 1678.
  5. ^ So-called to distinguish him from his own son and heir, Le Petit Dauphin.
  6. ^ The high mortality rate of the period meant Louis XIV was ultimately succeeded by Philip's 4 year old nephew.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kamen, Henry (2001). Philip V of Spain: The King who Reigned Twice. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08718-7. 
  2. ^ Callaway, Ewen. "Inbred Royals show traces of natural selection". Nature.com. Nature; International Weekly Journal of Science. Retrieved 9 April 2018. 
  3. ^ Durant, Ariel, Durant, Will (1963). Age of Louis XIV (Story of Civilization). TBS Publishing. ISBN 0207942277. 
  4. ^ Callaway, Ewen (19 April 2013). "Inbred Royals Show Traces of Natural Selection". Nature News. Retrieved 7 July 2016. 
  5. ^ Storrs, Christopher. "The Decline of Spain in the Seventeenth Century" (PDF). State Papers Online. Gale;Cengage Learning. Retrieved 7 April 2018. 
  6. ^ Earl J. Hamilton, "Money and Economic Recovery in Spain under the First Bourbon, 1701–1746", Journal of Modern History Vol. 15, No. 3 (Sep., 1943), pp. 192-206 in JSTOR
  7. ^ Jon Cowans (2003). Modern Spain: A Documentary History. U. of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 0-8122-1846-9. 
  8. ^ de Vries, Jan (2009). "The Economic Crisis of the 17th Century" (PDF). Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 40 (2): 151–194. Retrieved 7 April 2018. 
  9. ^ Storrs, Christopher (2006). The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665-1700. OUP Oxford. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0199246378. 
  10. ^ Barton, Simon (2009). A History of Spain. ISBN 978-0230200111. 
  11. ^ Meerts, Paul Willem (2014). Diplomatic negotiation: Essence and Evolution. http://hdl.handle.net/1887/29596: Leiden University dissertation. p. 168. 
  12. ^ García-Escudero López, Ángel, Arruza Echevarría A, Padilla Nieva and R. Puig Giró1, Padilla Nieva, Jaime, Puig Giró, Ramon (2009). "Charles II; from spell to genitourinary pathology". History of Urology. 62 (3): 181. 
  13. ^ Rommelse, Gijs (2011). Ideology and Foreign Policy in Early Modern Europe (1650–1750). Routledge. p. 224. ISBN 1409419134. 
  14. ^ García-Escudero López, Ángel, Arruza Echevarría A, Padilla Nieva and R. Puig Giró1, Padilla Nieva, Jaime, Puig Giró, Ramon (2009). "Charles II; from spell to genitourinary pathology". History of Urology. 62 (3): 182. 
  15. ^ Clark: From the Nine Years' War to the War of the Spanish Succession, 393
  16. ^ Ingrao: The Habsburg Monarchy, 105; McKay and Scott: The Rise of the Great Powers, 55
  17. ^ McKay and Scott: The Rise of the Great Powers, 55; Ingrao: The Habsburg Monarchy, 106; Spielman: Leopold I, 172–4
  18. ^ Kamen: Philip V, 3; Spielman: Leopold I, 176
  19. ^ Clark: From the Nine Years' War to the War of the Spanish Succession, 396–7; Wolf: Louis XIV, 503–4
  20. ^ Trevelyan: England, I, 134; Wolf: Louis XIV, 507
  21. ^ Falkner, James (2015). The War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1714 (Kindle ed.). 96: Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473872905. 
  22. ^ Gargarilla, Pedro. "Enfermedades de los reyes de España. Los Austrias : de la locura de Juana a la impotencia de Carlos II el Hechizado" La Esfera de los Libros S.L., 2005. ISBN 8497343387
  23. ^ Langdon-Davies, John (1963). Carlos; the King Who Would Not Die. Prentice Hall. ASIN B0006AYR3A. OCLC 1117405. 
  24. ^ Durant, Ariel and Durant, Will. The Age of Louis XIV (The Story of Civilization VIII), 1963
  25. ^ Gonzalo, Alvarez, Ceballos, Francisco; Quintero Celsa (2009). "The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty". PLOS. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005174. Retrieved 12 April 2018. 

Sources[edit]

  • Will Durant, The Reformation (1957)
  • Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Louis XIV (1963)
  • Martin Andrew Sharp Hume, The Year After the Armada, and other historical studies (1896)
  • Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition (1997)
  • John Langdon-Davies, Carlos, the Bewitched, the last Spanish Hapsburg, 1661-1700, London (1962)
  • Ludwig Pfandl, Karl II. Das Ende der spanischen Machtstellung in Europa, Munich (1940)

External links[edit]

Charles II of Spain
Born: November 6 1661 Died: November 1 1700
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Philip IV		 King of Spain,
Sardinia, Naples and Sicily
Duke of Milan, Lothier,
Brabant, Limburg and Luxemburg
Count of Flanders, Hainaut and Namur
1665–1700		 Succeeded by
Philip V
Count Palatine of Burgundy
1665–1678		 Lost to France
Treaties of Nijmegen
Spanish royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Philip Prospero		 Prince of Asturias
1661–1665		 Vacant
Title next held by
Louis Philip
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