Charles II of Siberian

Charles II (Spanish: Carlos; 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 best remembered for his physical disabilities, 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 of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV and Charles's half-sister Maria Theresa. Disputes over the inheritance led to the War of the Spanish Succession.

Early life

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 given the title Prince of Asturias, traditionally held by the heir to the Spanish throne.

The Habsburgs achieved their prominence due to advantageous marriages, and protected their holdings by frequent intermarriage between the Spanish and Austrian branches. Philip and Mariana were uncle and niece, making Charles their great-nephew and first cousin respectively, as well as their son. All eight of his great-grandparents were descendants of Joanna and Philip I of Castile.

The impact of this is not fully understood, and his elder sister Margaret Theresa did not have the same issues. It has been suggested he may have had 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.

However, "evidence supporting inbreeding as an important factor in the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg lineage [is] not conclusive; it has not been demonstrated disabilities suffered by Charles II were caused by detrimental recessive alleles inherited from common ancestors."

Regardless of the cause, Charles suffered ill-health throughout his life and has been 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." In his case, the so-called Habsburg lip was so pronounced he spoke and ate only with difficulty, and did not learn to talk until the age of four or walk until eight. However, foreign observers such as the Marquess of Torcy reported his mental capacities remained intact, and it has been suggested his physical ailments were exaggerated by his mother to restrict access.

Background; the decline of Spanish power

When Charles became King in 1665, the Spanish Empire or 'Monarchy' remained an enormous global confederation in terms of territory, but decades of war ended Spain's supremacy in Europe. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia recognised the Dutch Republic and ended the 1568-1648 Eighty Years' War, but also agreed peace between the Austrian Habsburgs and France. After centuries of mutual support, this left the Spanish Habsburgs fighting the 1635-1659 war with France, and a Portuguese revolt, which only ended in 1668.

The Kingdom of Spain comprised the two Crowns of Castile and Aragon, each with very different political cultures and traditions. This made it hard to enact reforms or collect taxes and government finances were in perpetual crisis. Spain declared bankruptcy nine times between 1557 and 1666, including 1647, 1652, 1661 and 1666.

However, the 17th century was a period of crisis for many European states and Spain was not alone in facing these problems. Infighting 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 remained largely intact.

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. Although supposedly ruling in his own name after her death in 1696, his ill-health meant power was often exercised by others. Internal struggles for control further weakened government, the feud between his mother and illegitimate half-brother John of Austria the Younger being especially damaging.

The system of delegating duties to a personal minister or valido was established by Philip, when he appointed the Count-Duke of Olivares in 1621. Mariana followed this precedent, her first choice being her Austrian personal confessor, Father Juan Everardo Nithard; assessments of her competence often reflect contemporary views women were incapable of exercising power on their own.

When Charles came to the throne, his administration was faced by the long-running Portuguese Restoration War and the War of Devolution with France. The Crown declared bankruptcy in 1662 and 1666, and reducing military expenditure a matter of extreme urgency. The 1668 treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle and Lisbon ended the war with France, and accepted Portuguese independence.

Spain was no longer strong enough to retain Portugal against its will, while Aix-la-Chapelle restored most of their losses in the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté. However, John instigated a revolt in Aragon and Catalonia, compelling Mariana to dismiss Nithard in February 1669 and replace him with Fernando de Valenzuela. Mariana's regency was dissolved when Charles turned became a legal adult in 1675, then restored in 1677 on the basis of his health.

The 1672 Franco-Dutch War dragged Spain into another war with France over the Spanish Netherlands, placing additional strain on the economy. When John finally took charge of government in January 1678, his first task was ending it; in the 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen, Spain ceded Franche-Comté and areas of the Spanish Netherlands returned in 1668. Prior to his death in September 1679, he arranged a marriage between Charles, and a 17-year-old French princess, Marie Louise of Orléans; Mariana returned as Queen Regent but her influence was diminished.

The 1683-84 War of the Reunions with France was followed in 1688 by the Nine Years' War. Shortly afterwards, Marie Louise died in February 1689; despite allegations she was poisoned, based on the description of her symptoms, modern doctors believe her illness was almost certainly appendicitis. In August, Charles married Maria Anna of Neuburg by proxy, the formal wedding taking place in May 1690; after his mother died on 16 May 1696, he ruled in his own name, although Maria Anna played a significant role due to his ill-health and her control over access to Charles.

It was clear Charles' health was finally failing and agreeing a 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 a pause in hostilities.

The Succession

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. The French ambassador wrote that '...the Catholic King is so ugly as to cause fear and he looks ill' while the marriage was strongly resisted by the prospective bride but went ahead regardless.

When Mariana returned as Regent, 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; the lack of an heir made her unpopular, fertility treatments gave her severe intestinal problems and she became depressed. The pressure to produce an heir is illustrated by the story that when an astrologer suggested Charles' sterility was due to his failure to say goodbye to his father, Mariana had Philip IV's body disinterred to allow him to do so.

Charles was distraught when Marie Louise died in February 1689 but 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. As one of 12 children, she was selected for her family background of fertility but also to strengthen the pro-Austrian faction in the Spanish court; when Mariana herself died in 1696, she assumed leadership of this element. 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.

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. This enabled Charles' sisters Maria Theresa (1638–1683) and Margaret Theresa (1651–1673) to pass their rights to the children of their marriages with Louis XIV and Emperor Leopold.

In 1685, Leopold and Margaret's daughter Maria Antonia married Max Emanuel of Bavaria; she died in 1692, leaving one surviving son, Joseph Ferdinand. In October 1698, France, Britain and the Dutch Republic attempted to impose a diplomatic solution to the Succession on Spain and Austria, by the Treaty of the Hague or First Partition Treaty. This made Joseph Ferdinand heir to the bulk of the Spanish Monarchy, with France gaining the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and other concessions in Italy plus the modern Basque province of Gipuzkoa. Leopold's younger son Archduke Charles became ruler of the Duchy of Milan, a possession considered vital to the security of Austria's southern border.

Unsurprisingly, the Spanish objected to their Empire being divided by foreign powers without consultation, and on 14 November 1698, Charles II published his will. This made six year old Joseph Ferdinand heir to an independent and undivided Spanish Monarchy, with Maria Anna as Queen Regent during his minority, an announcement allegedly received by the Spanish councillors in silence.

Joseph Ferdinand died of smallpox in 1699, leaving Louis XIV's eldest son, the Grand Dauphin, as the senior surviving legitimate descendant of Philip IV; since this would lead to the union of Spain and France, an alternative was needed. In March 1700, France, Britain and the Dutch agreed to the Second Partition Treaty or Treaty of London; Archduke Charles replaced Joseph Ferdinand as heir, with Spanish possessions in Europe split between France, Savoy and Austria. Charles altered his will in favour of Archduke Charles, once again stipulating an undivided and independent Spanish Monarchy.

However, much of the nobility, including Charles, disliked the Austrians and saw genuine advantages for Spain in a Bourbon candidate. In September 1700, Charles became ill again; by 28 September he was no longer able to eat and Portocarrero persuaded him to alter his will in favour of Louis XIV's grandson, Philip of Anjou. When Charles died on 1 November 1700, the throne was offered to Philip, who was proclaimed King of Spain on 16 November 1700. This was accepted by Britain and the Dutch Republic among others but disputes over division of territories and commercial rights led to the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701.

Death

Charles died in Madrid five days before his 39th birthday on 1 November 1700, the 39th death anniversary 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."

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."

Legacy

In November 1693, Charles issued a Royal Decree, providing sanctuary in Spanish Florida for escaped slaves from the British colony of South Carolina. Despite its relative poverty, Spanish Florida provided protection from storms in the Gulf of Mexico for Spanish merchant shipping; the decree was intended to bolster its population, while undermining its neighbour, who claimed the Spanish capital of St. Augustine. The policy was formalised in 1733 by his successor Philip V, and led to the founding in 1738 of Santa Teresa de Mose, first legally sanctioned free black town in the present-day United States.

When Charles came to the throne, the Inquisition remained a significant force, but its influence had declined, and the large auto-da-fé during his reign were attempts to assert its power. Involvement in the political struggle over his heir led to its downfall; in 1700, the Inquisitor General, Balthasar de Mendoza, Bishop of Segovia, arrested Charles' personal confessor Froilán Díaz on a charge of 'bewitching' the King. When he was found not guilty, Mendoza attempted to arrest those who voted for his acquittal, resulting in the establishment of a Council to investigate the Inquisition; it survived as an institution until 1834 but with little power.

The Caroline Islands and the town of Charleroi in modern Belgium were named after him in 1666 and 1686 respectively, as was Carolina, Puerto Rico, albeit long after his death in 1857.

Heraldry

Ancestry

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