TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
The Curious Case of Charles II
Getting back on topic, if we're looking for a royal personage who was a victim of
inbreeding depression the clearest candidate is Charles II (1661-1700), the last Habsburg
king of Spain. Most history books will tell you his deficiencies were the result of excessive
inbreeding, but let's look at the evidence for ourselves.
How inbred was he?
That Charles was the product of inbreeding is undeniable. Since the days of his ancestor
Charles V (1500-1558, aka Carlos I of Spain), the Habsburgs had been in the habit of
marrying members of the family's Spanish branch to members of the Austrian branch. Oh
yeah, in their heyday the Habsburgs controlled not only the Spanish and Austrian Empires
but also the low countries (Benelux), Portugal, southern Italy (Naples and Sicily), Milan
and Burgundy.
Have a look at Charles II's family tree. His mother and father were niece and uncle.
Granted, this was sort of an accident of history given that this was Philip IV's second
marriage, and it just so happened that none of the sons of his first wife, Elisabeth of
Bourbon, lived long enough to accede to the throne.
A couple of other fun facts indicative of Charles’ pedigree collapse:
(1) Charles was descended from his great great great grandparents Juana la Loca (14791555) and Philip the Handsome (1478-1506, Felipe el Hermoso) through three of their
children.
(2) whereas someone whose ascendants (i.e. direct ancestors) were all unrelated to their
spouses would have 32 great great great grandparents, Charles only had 14.
How messed up was he?
Charles’ physical and mental deficiencies earned him the nickname "El Hechizado" (The
Hexed). First off, there was his debilitating overbite. Prominent chins ran in the Habsburg
family (check out the portraits of Charles V or of Charles’ father Philip IV), but with
Charles II the condition was so bad that he had problems chewing. It's also said that it was
difficult to understand Charles when he spoke and that he frequently drooled. To me this
seems analogous to those overly purebred Persian cats whose faces are so flat that they
have respiratory problems and their tear ducts get blocked up.
This, however, was the least of Charles’ problems. He was feeble and sickly, prone to
high fevers which kept him confined to his bed. It's also said that he suffered from
seizures, that he invariably vomited on carriage rides due to chronic motion sickness, and
that his eyes oozed liquid in open air. In addition to his physical shortcomings, Charles II
was purportedly dim-witted and he was left basically uneducated. The classic 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica claims "there was no room in his nearly imbecile mind for more
than childish superstition, insane pride of birth, and an interest in court etiquette." Due
to his weak health, he remained mostly idle while his mother, his bastard brother Don
Juan José of Austria, and his advisors made most of the decisions affecting the Empire,
with Charles’ most vigorous activity consisting of the occasional hunt.
Although he was married twice Charles II fathered no children, and it is assumed that he
was infertile if not actually impotent. His reign as king was largely disastrous and his
inability to produce an heir led to the War of Spanish Succession.
Was this inbreeding depression?
As I said above, Charles’ mandibular prognasthism sounds like a heriditary physical trait
which became exacerbated to the point of becoming a deformity due to inbreeding.
Moreover, his sickliness and sexual dysfunction appear analogous to immunity and
reproduction problems which have been documented in highly inbred lab rats. Therefore,
I think it seems very likely that Charles’ problems did indeed stem from inbreeding
depression.
Interestingly enough, Charles’ sister the Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673, who as a
little girl was the subject of Velázquez's masterpiece Las Meninas) was not affected by
the same problems as him. She was lively and beautiful although, judging by her portrait,
she looks like she had a strong chin. Margarita was married to the Emperor Leopold I (her
uncle and first cousin) who was himself pretty inbred and had an abnormal underbite
although he was otherwise fit and intelligent. They had six children (only one of whom
survived to adulthood) before Margarita died at the age of 21.