How Inbred were the Habsburgs? Part 1: The Spanish Line

[Music] how inbred were the habsburgs part 1 the spanish line royals throughout history are notorious for inbreeding i utter the phrase married her cousin disturbingly frequently even queen elizabeth ii married her third cousin prince philip but the european royal family by far most notorious for inbreeding are the habsburgs the royal house of habsburg ruled spain from 1506 to 1700 and held the holy roman empire from 1452 until 1806. these two branches of the family volleyed brides back and forth like ping-pong balls cousins married cousins and uncles married nieces all in the name of keeping wealth and power in the family and keeping their blood blue they were oblivious to all the havoc this incest was playing on their genetics the tragic results were numerous family members with mental illness intellectual disability vulnerability to disease and a famously unusual countenance which became known as the habsburg jaw and those were the lucky ones the habsburgs also endured a shocking number of miscarriages stillbirths and infant deaths the inbreeding finally culminated in a king with so many illnesses he could barely walk or speak he also couldn't produce an heir and the spanish habsburg line died with him just how inbred were the habsburgs short answer very long answer well let's get into it most of us inherit 23 chromosome pairs half of each pair from each of our parents on those chromosomes are the genes which code for everything from eye color to height to intelligence if a child inherits a defective gene from one parent and a non-defective gene from another parent they are less likely to have that genetic error affect their health however if the parents are blood relatives they are more likely to carry the same genes for the same genetic defects and their children are much more likely to be harmed by those defects mating between first cousins doubles the risk of infant death and physical and intellectual disability the closer the relationship of the parents and the more generations inbreeding has occurred the more problems compound to produce unhealthy children with multiple congenital defects through most of history people had no idea of the genetic reasons why inbreeding caused so many health problems but they noticed that it was happening researchers have found that early humans as far back as 34 000 years ago held taboos against incest and developed complex mating rituals to make sure they avoided it farmers knew for millennia that crossbreeding animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits and that breeding animals too closely related could cause a host of problems but royals remained oblivious and many of these genetic defects can mean death before life has even begun the famously unhealthy members of the habsburg family were as nothing to the many many babies who were lost to miscarriage stillbirth and infant mortality four in ten infants born to the habsburgs died before their first birthday and only 5 in 10 survived to the age of 10. infant mortality was very high at the time but for comparison only about 2 in 10 children born in a spanish village at the time would die before reaching adulthood in the early 1800s charles darwin observed the dangers of inbreeding in his groundbreaking research on evolution despite knowing better he chose to marry his own first cousin in 1839 three of their ten children died young and darwin feared that his beloved offspring might have inherited weakness from inbreeding in the mid-1800s austrian abbott gregor mendel conducted experiments with cross-breeding pea plants and established many of the rules of heredity including the concept of recessive and dominant genes one has to wonder what he thought about the rampant inbreeding in his own emperor's family mendel's groundbreaking work on genetics wasn't widely known until the early 1900s two centuries too late to prevent the habsburgs from inbreeding themselves into oblivion just how inbred were the habsburgs the family dates back to 11th century switzerland they gained power and wealth until the 15th century when holy roman emperor ziggysmund died without a male heir and frederick habsburg was able to bribe and cajole the prince electors into making him emperor for the next three and a half centuries the empire would remain in the hands of the habsburgs emperor frederick iii married eleanor of portugal and his son emperor maximilian the first married mary duchess of burgundy both marriages were not incestuous and would bring some of the last fresh genetic material to the family the trouble started when maximilian's son philip the handsome married juana of castile she was the product of a marriage between second cousins ferdinand ii of aragon and isabel the first of castile the famous catholic monarchs launched the spanish inquisition christopher columbus's expedition to the new world and an appallingly inbred dynasty following the early deaths of their only son juan their eldest daughter isabelle and her infant son juana became the heir to both of her parents crowns of aragon and castile she is known to history as juana the mad historians have speculated that she suffered from a number of conditions including depression bipolar disorder psychosis and schizophrenia the inbreeding in her family history likely played a part but it also it didn't help that as a teenager her mother subjected her to torture because she dared question the catholic church when isabelle died juana inherited castile her father likely exaggerated her bouts of mental illness in order to keep his daughter and castile under his control juana was desperately in love with her husband philip while he was habitually unfaithful his philandering inflamed his wife's delicate mental condition when she caught him with a lover she stabbed the woman in the face philip died suddenly at the age of 28 and juana pregnant with their sixth child refused to let anyone take his body away she slept next to her husband's corpse every night often kissing and embracing him when she was finally persuaded to bury him she insisted on a week's long journey to granada to place him next to her mother the queen demanded that the funeral party travel only at night so that no women would see her dearly departed and be overwhelmed with desire for him she also insisted that they rest only at monasteries and never at nunneries ferdinand had his daughter locked away and after he died passing aragon onto her her son charles took control of both his mother's kingdoms and kept her locked up rarely visiting he wrote make sure that no person speaks to her majesty for no good could come of it juana's youngest daughter katrina was her only companion for 18 years but charles stole her away in order to marry her off to king joao iii of portugal lonelier than ever juana's mental and physical health deteriorated and she died alone at the age of 75. juana and philip's six offspring went on to marry into royal families in france denmark hungary and portugal bringing their unfortunate genetic inheritance with them in 1519 charles v inherited the holy roman empire from his grandfather maximilian the first thus the empire and spain were joined in a personal union in addition to suffering from epilepsy charles was noted for his pronounced chin this condition called mandibular prognathism is when the lower jaw juts out causing an extreme underbite the teeth do not align correctly often causing difficulty in eating and speaking former tonight show host jay leno also has this condition mandibular prognathism came to be known as the habsburg jaw as it appeared prominently in habsburg men for generations it is less pronounced but still noticeable in many habsburg women charles was unable to close his mouth when visiting spain a man shouted out from the crowd your majesty shut your mouth the flies in this country are insolent at 21 charles was betrothed to his first cousin princess mary of england the six-year-old daughter of his aunt catherine of aragon and of king henry viii but the engagement was called off as charles didn't want to wait a decade to start a family instead he married another first cousin isabella of portugal whose mother maria was a daughter of juana and philip the union was the wish of their shared grandparents who wanted to keep the various branches of the family close and as isabella's father king manuel the first of portugal had the only navy capable of challenging the spanish in exploration and colonization it was in charles's best interest to ally with him charles and isabella fell very much in love they had seven children though only three of them survived to adulthood charles was an intelligent and effective ruler of one of the largest empires the world has ever seen when isabella died in childbirth he became morbidly depressed he wore only black and surrounded himself with clocks and portraits of his late wife he brought his own coffin with him wherever he traveled and staged a production of his own funeral after which he rose from his coffin and went to have lunch having lost interest in ruling he abdicated shortly before his death at 58. spain went to his son philip ii but the holy roman empire went to his younger brother ferdinand the first thus the habsburg family split into two branches first let's follow the line of the spanish habsburgs king philip ii of spain inherited the throne of portugal as well through his mother he was a strong leader during spain's golden age the spanish conquered the incan empire and the philippines were colonized and named in his honor philip married four times and all of his wives were relatives his first wife maria manuela of portugal was his double first cousin and they shared all four grandparents juana and philip and manuel the first of portugal and maria of aragon maria died at 17 following the birth of their son carlos he suffered multiple health problems and was mentally unstable and violent his father was forced to imprison him and he died in confinement at the age of 23. philip's second wife was his first cousin once removed queen mary the first of england who had long ago been betrothed to his father she was desperate to conceive a child and keep the throne of england out of the hands of her protestant sister elizabeth but after two humiliating psychosomatic pregnancies she died of uterine cancer many years later philip sent the spanish armada to invade england and remove elizabeth from the throne but his ships were beaten back by the english wife number three was third cousin elizabeth of valois the couple were married for nine years and had two daughters before she too died in childbirth philip's fourth and final wife was his niece and first cousin anna of austria the couple had five children though only one survived childhood anna died of heart failure at the age of 30 after giving birth to her fifth child philip ii had a total of 11 children with his four wives but only two of them outlived him his son with anna philip iii inherited the throne after his death he was a far less effective ruler than his father and was described as a miserable monarch and a pallid anonymous creature whose only virtue was his total absence of vice he married his second cousin margaret of austria and they had five children who remarkably all survived to adulthood eldest son philip iv inherited the throne at 16. at the age of 10 he had been wed to 13 year old elizabeth of france this unusual union outside the habsburg family sealed an alliance with her father king henry iv despite not being close relations the couple were very unfortunate in reproduction of their ten children only two survived infancy elizabeth died at the age of 41. their only living son balthazar charles was betrothed to his first cousin mariana of austria but he died suddenly of smallpox at the age of 16. he succumbed quickly to the disease likely because of an inherited immune deficiency devastated by the loss of his son and without an heir to inherit the spanish throne the 44 year old king philip wed his son's fiancee his fourteen-year-old niece mariana of austria philip and mariana were both fairly competent as king and consort phillip had a good grasp of latin and geography and could speak french portuguese and italian though he was noted for only laughing three times mariana too succeeded in education all eight of their grandparents were descendants of juana the mad and philip the first after so many generations of inbreeding and a family tree that resembled a braided wreath this couple shared far too much dna after the birth of two daughters only one of whom survived the king was given a prophecy from an astronomer that his next child would be a living son he ate only eggs out of superstition that the prediction would come true and indeed the queen did deliver a baby boy who was baptized philip prospero in the hopes that he would thrive mariana fell ill with childbed fever but no one noticed as they were so overjoyed and relieved by the birth of an heir who would prevent war over the throne mariana recovered but her son did not prosper he was often ill owing to his defective immune system he also suffered from epilepsy his parents tied a great mini amulets and good luck charms around his tiny body philip prospero died after a seizure just shy of his fourth birthday his parents were heartbroken and baffled as to why their children had been so afflicted the king wrote to a friend i see clearly that i have angered god and that these punishments are sinned in retribution for my sins philip and mariana would suffer the death of one more son ferdinand at the age of ten months before their fifth and only surviving son charles was born king charles ii of spain is easily the most famously tragic result of inbreeding among the habsburgs there were rumors that the baby's sexual organs made it unclear if he was male or female the french ambassador requested to examine the prince but he was not permitted to see him undressed he described the unfortunate newborn the child is extremely weak he has herpes type rashes on both cheeks the head is covered in scabs and a kind of channel or drainage that oozes underneath the right ear baby charles was fitted with a bonnet to cover up these conditions by the age of three the fontanels in his skull had not yet fused and he could not stand upright this was also the age at which he inherited the throne of spain when his father died charles didn't learn to walk until the age of four until five he was fed exclusively breast milk produced by 14 wet nurses working on rotation the king suffered measles chickenpox rubella smallpox and various dental and bronchial infections throughout his childhood he baffled his physicians by continuing to live his tongue was so large and his jaws so misaligned that he did not learn to speak until the age of eight he could not chew his food so often swallowed it whole and then vomited it back up as he grew older charles was beset with epileptic seizures his many physical maladies were compounded by his lagging intellectual development tudors struggled to teach the king to read and write and he was prone to throwing tantrums throughout his life medical historians have speculated a few possible diagnoses for charles's mini maladies these include the endocrine disease acromegaly an excess of growth hormone which causes enlarged hands feet forehead jaw and nose joint pain thick skin deepening of the voice headaches and problems with vision distal renal tubular acidosis where the kidneys fail to secrete vital acids resulting in kidney failure and rickets or soft bones causing bow legs stunted growth bone pain a large forehead curved spine frequent fractures and muscle spasms hydrocephalus an accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain causing an enlarged head headaches double vision poor balance incontinence personality changes mental impairment and seizures fragile x syndrome a genetic defect on the x chromosome which affects males as they do not have a second x to compensate for the defect symptoms include intellectual disability an average iq of under 55 a long and narrow face large ears hyperactivity and seizures and kleinfelter syndrome where a male has an additional copy of the x chromosome resulting in infertility and small poorly functioning testicles charles's many illnesses certainly came down to the generations of inbreeding in his family and the compounded recessive genes he inherited researchers at the university of santiago de compostela confirmed this they calculated what is called the inbreeding coefficient for 16 generations of habsburgs the inbreeding coefficient indicates the likelihood that an individual will receive two identical genes at a given position on the chromosome because of the relatedness of their parents the researchers found inbreeding coefficients increased considerably down the generations of habsburgs philip the first back in 1506 had a coefficient of 0.025 higher than the average person on the street but not by much 155 years and six generations later the coefficient increased ten times to 0.254 for charles ii that is almost as high as for the offspring of a mating between a parent and child or brother and sister but charles's courtiers and his terrified mother were oblivious to this they believed that the king who became known as el equezado or the hext had been bewitched or possessed by demons charles was subjected to a number of potions procedures and even exorcisms priests and clerics came from far and wide to pray over the afflicted monarch one such cleric claimed to have spoken to a goblin who lurked within the palace walls the boggart bragged that he had forced the king to drink the brain of a dead man dissolved in a chocolate bowl holy relics the bones belonging to saint isador and saint iago were brought to the king's bedside in the hopes that proximity to the divine might cure him even the bones of his own dead father were removed from his crypt and placed in the king's bedroom but alas none of these treatments were able to grant the king relief or vitality whatever his mental and physical condition charles was still the king by divine right and the spanish habsburg monarchy's only hope for the future at 18 he was wed to the beautiful marie louise duorlion he fell desperately in love with her while she could barely stand to look at him she confided to a friend as to what went on in the bedroom with her infirmed husband that she was really not a virgin any longer but that as far as she could figure things she believed she would never have a child charles was most likely impotent but all the pressure of reproduction was placed squarely on the woman when marie louise failed to produce an heir the court doctors put her on a regime of fertility potions the queen drowned her sorrows in sweets so much so that the palace kitchens used up 32 pounds of sugar per day for her fancies her overindulgence combined with the fertility potions caused marie louise to die of appendicitis at 26. the need for an heir was getting desperate so another royal bride was called for this time it was maria anna of nuremberg one of 12 children of a family renowned for their fertility the new queen was under enormous pressure to bear a child she claimed to be pregnant on a number of occasions and when it became clear that she was not she pressured her husband to undergo even more exorcisms arguing that she could only bear him a child when his demons had been expelled king charles ii many genetic illnesses finally caught up with him and he died in 1700 at the age of 38. the doctor who performed his autopsy wrote that 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 charles was the last of the male line of the spanish habsburgs his throne should have gone to the heir of his eldest sister maria theresa who had married king louis xiv of france and died in 1683 not wishing to allow spain to fall out of the hands of the habsburgs charles had written a will handing his throne to his austrian cousin charles but france was unhappy with this arrangement and they and the austrian habsburgs went to war the war of spanish succession lasted for 13 years and cost the lives of over a million people in the end france won and maria theresa's 16 year old grandson became king philip v establishing the bourbon dynasties rule over spain the bourbons remain on the throne today inbreeding the very thing the habsburgs had done to try and hold on to power was ultimately what lost them the spanish throne in the next episode we'll rewind and take a look at the other tangled branch in the family tree the austrian habsburgs their desperation for male heirs led to some strange and dangerous fertility treatments and while charles ii may be the most famous in bred habsburg he certainly wasn't the only seriously ill and incompetent ruler placed on the throne by genetic accident don't want to wait to see the next episode patrons get exclusive early access to almost all of my multi-part series on patreon early if you would like to become a patron and help me make more fascinating history videos check out the link in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 785,909

Keywords: history, royal family, royalty, european royalty, womens history, Royal history, Lindsay Holiday, Lindsay Holliday, History tea time, History tea time with Lindsay Holiday, inbreeding, inbred royals, genetics, marie antoinette, hemophilia, habsburg jaw, king Charles II, Joanna the mad, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, how inbred were the Habsburgs, hapsburgs, habsburgs inbreeding, hapsburgs inbreeding, European history, hapsburg jaw, spanish history, spanish monarchy, documentary

Id: Ke1F-IRMeWA

Length: 28min 3sec (1683 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 12 2022