How dynastic marriages destroyed one of the most powerful families in European history

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Despite the fact that the dynastic power of the Habsburgs has its roots in the Middle Ages, it nevertheless reached its full bloom in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the Spanish and Austrian lineages of the House of Habsburg dominated Europe, the cousins married their first cousins, and the uncles married their nieces, thereby trying to maintain the purity of the bloodline. But instead of healthy offspring, the family, which became famous throughout the world for royal inbreeding, received infertility and severe mental and physical health problems.

According to historians and some events that happened during that period, it was Rudolf I who became the founder of the Habsburg empire. He not only became king of Germany in 1273, but also united the vast German lands under his rule. Gradually capturing the nearby territories, the newly-minted king managed to seize Austria, after transferring it into the possession of his son Albert, thereby linking it to his home. Next in line were Bohemia and Hungary, joining the burgeoning Habsburg empire that tirelessly continued to acquire land and power over the centuries, both through military action and diplomacy.

The Habsburg family has significantly increased its influence in Europe after one important event. We are talking about the wedding of Maximilian I, who married Mary, the heiress of the French king Charles the Bold. Maximilian himself was none other than the son of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - Frederick III. It was this marriage that laid the foundation for the reign of the Habsburgs in Europe at that time. A little later, Maximilian becomes the emperor of Rome, thanks to which the Netherlands, a piece of France and even Luxembourg are under his protectorate. After his wife Maria tragically died, he marries a girl named Bianca, who was the daughter of the Duke of Milan. It is worth noting the fact that it was the death of Mary that caused a number of troubles that caused various problems for Maximilian. He had to fight to maintain control over the Netherlands, which he acquired through his marriage to her. On top of all this, he fought to maintain control of Hungary and did so. However, by his death in 1518, he had lost his position in Switzerland. And perhaps Maximilian's greatest contribution to the Habsburg dynasty was securing the marriage of his son Philip to Juana of Castile (also known as Juana I the Mad).

Maximilian's son Philip married Juana of Castile in 1496. As the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, she brought numerous possessions and great prestige to the Habsburg dynasty. When Juana inherited Castile after her mother's death in 1504, her father became regent. By 1506, Philip was actively fighting for control. He made a treaty with Ferdinand to give Castile completely to Juana. Citing his wife's poor mental health, Philip assumed full power in Castile, thereby formally linking the Spanish and Austrian houses of the Habsburgs. Regarding Juana's mental health, according to an article in the Journal of Humanist Psychiatry, the Queen, knowing she was considered by many to be insane, wrote a letter “denying insanity, claiming that she simply had bouts of jealousy that she allegedly inherited from his mother. It remains unclear whether she suffered from psychological ailments or was a political puppet and a pawn in a second cousin marriage that may have contributed to any of her psychological distress. Historians speculate that Madwoman may have suffered from depression or bipolar disorder, but it is possible that this was exaggerated by her husband and father for their own benefit. Philip lived only a few months after he declared his wife incapable of holding the crown of Castile. After his death, Ferdinand again took power into his own hands and sent Juana to the castle of Tordesillas under total control, which adversely affected her mental health. In 1517, Juana's father dies, and her son, Charles I, who, according to historical data, will later become the owner of all of Rome, inherited not only Castile, but also vast Spanish lands.

In the early 16th century, Habsburg marriages created a dynasty that touched much of Western Europe and, as a result, explored the New World. In addition to the fact that Charles I became the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles V, his sister Isabella, having successfully married, entered the royal house of Denmark, and his brother Ferdinand (who later became the emperor of HRI) consolidated the marriage alliance with Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Taking into account the fact that the power of the Habsburgs was constantly expanding and needed to be strengthened and supported, the daughter of Charles V, Maria, married her cousin Maximilian, who was the son of Anne and Ferdinand. And his son Philip, even against his will, was forced to marry Anna of Austria - a girl born from the union of Mary and Maximilian. Note that to Philip himself, she was a distant relative, namely, a niece. Preservation of the bloodline was ideal for dynastic power, even though such marriages created ever closer family ties. However, the marriage of cousins to each other was nothing new or scandalous. In the 12th century, Eleanor (Alienora) of Aquitaine married her fourth cousin, Louis VII of France, and then married Henry II of England. Louis VII married his second cousin Constance. Henry VIII married several relatives, and Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain were second cousins.

The increasingly close ties of dynastic marriages in the Habsburg family became problematic from a genetic point of view in the 16th century, although no one at the time could have known this. Interestingly, the Catholic Church had prohibitions on consanguinity (of the same bloodline) in marriage, but the Pope could and often turned a blind eye to consanguineous marriages for royal families. Therefore, the uncle could marry his niece at any time, however, Philip II of Spain was no exception, he linked his life with Anna of Austria, and Charles II was married to Maria-Anna of Bavaria. Roughly a similar story happened with the children who appeared as a result of this union: Philip III was forced to marry Margaret of Austria.

Naturally, the more marriages this dynasty entered into among themselves, the less pure their blood became. For example, Philip III and Margaret of Austria could boast of two children, who also extended the family incest. And the very same couple of Margarita and Philip was born after two absolutely identical unions - the connection of the uncles with their nieces. So, the daughter of Philip, Maria-Anna of Spain, at one time became the wife of the Roman emperor Ferdinand III. Also, the son of a couple of Margaret and Philip, Philip IV, was married to his cousin and niece, Marianne of Austria. The most famous incest in this family was associated with such a figure as Charles II of Spain. He was born in 1661, about the same time as his cousin. His grandmother was his aunt, and the other from the side of the second parent was his great-grandmother. The generation of great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers came from the same couple, Philip I and Juana. By the birth of Charles II, the Habsburg lines of Spain and Austria were so intertwined that they became a genetic disaster. Charles II was infertile, and also suffered from problems of the musculoskeletal system in the early stages, in addition, he had a defect in his jaw and a very long tongue that prevented him from speaking normally. It is also worth mentioning that it was Charles II who was the last ruler of Habsburg Spain, he marked the end of the Habsburg dynastic rule, while the Austrian line continued.

The Austrian line of this dynasty completely controlled the Roman emperor from about the 15th to the 19th century. And even after 1556, when Charles V decided to resign, the Spanish-Austrian bridge between the Habsburg families was preserved. The fact that this family dynasty so often held the title of Roman Emperor testifies to the incredible reach this family has achieved through intermarriage and procreation. To give some idea of the spread of Habsburg power, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI held titles ranging from king to duke and count, all obtained over centuries of consanguineous marriage and reproduction.

In 2009, PLOS One magazine published on its pages a very intriguing material related to genetic research. He narrated that the Spanish line of this family boasted an incredible mortality rate among children. According to the magazine, in the period 1527-1661, when Philip II and Charles II were born, in total, the Spanish line of this dynasty consisted of 34 children. Ten died before the age of one year, 17 - before the age of ten. The authors of the article write that the high rate of infant and child mortality in the Habsburg family was the result of mixed marriages and inbreeding. The inbreeding ratio, as they call it, has grown over time. After all, very little fresh blood entered the family line, which made serious health problems inevitable.

On top of that, they also looked at fertility and found that "eight families had 51 pregnancies: five miscarriages and stillbirths, six neonatal deaths, fourteen deaths between one month and ten years of age, and twenty-six survivors at age 10." Charles II was the pinnacle of the Habsburg inbreeding and this influenced the continuity of the family line. His parents, Philip IV and Marianne of Austria, had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood. By the time Charles was born in 1661, he was the only child to survive. Charles II was married twice, but in neither case could he give birth to a child.

As time went on, Habsburg marriage lines created more and more medical problems. Suggestions about Juana Mad and her mental state were related to the fact that her parents were cousins and sisters. As a result, throughout history there have been many different assumptions that some rulers, for example, Rudolph II, suffered from mental disorders. He was a relative (namely, a grandson) of Juana the Mad. It is alleged that Rudolph often fell into depression, which negatively affected his political career. Of course, at some point he could not keep power in his hands, and therefore handed it over to his brother, retaining only the title.

The Habsburgs became known for their distinctive physical characteristics associated with pronounced defects such as: a misaligned jaw, a large tongue, an unrealistically protruding chin and lips, an irregular head shape, a deformed nose and drooping eyelids. Interestingly, according to genetic research, the Habsburgs are one of the few families in history that exhibit Mendelian inheritance for these facial features. Even with modern knowledge, geneticists are not 100% sure how it happened.

Prognathism, the modern medical definition of the famous Habsburg jaw, has been present in the art and minting of coins depicting the Habsburgs for centuries. But if you delve into some of the records, then a similar defect was observed in some Europeans in the 21st century. A study published in 1988 found that three generations of a family in Spain show the same facial deformities, evenly in every generation, as the Habsburgs. The study noted that family members "bear a striking resemblance to members of the Habsburg family and to the jaw of the Habsburgs." However, the family showed no signs of the mental problems that plagued the late Habsburgs, and could not be noticeably traced back to the Habsburg line.

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