As regent, Mariana managed the country's affairs through a series of favourites (" validos"), whose merits usually amounted to no more than meeting her fancy. Ĭharles inherited the Portuguese Restoration War and soon after his accession Spain was plunged into the War of Devolution with France in Spanish Netherlands. At the time, the land area of the Spanish Empire was 12.2 million square kilometers (4.7 million square miles), but in other respects it was in decline, a process to which Philip's inability to achieve successful domestic and military reform is felt to have contributed. The Council of Castile (as the Regency Council) appointed Philip's second wife and Charles' mother, Mariana of Austria, regent for the minor king. Ĭharles was three years old when his father, Philip IV, died on 17 September 1665. Charles' unfitness for rule meant he was often ignored, and power during his reign became the subject of court intrigues and foreign, particularly French and Austrian, influence. Spain’s finances were perpetually in crisis. The economy was stagnant, there was hunger in the land, and the power of the monarchy over the various Spanish provinces was extremely weak. The years of Charles's reign were difficult for Spain. Order of the Golden Fleece, in about 1673, by He occasionally indulged in the sport in the preserves of El Escorial. The only vigorous activity in which Charles is known to have participated was shooting. When his half-brother Don Juan José of Austria, an illegitimate son of Philip IV, obtained power by exiling the queen mother from court, he covered his nose and insisted that the king at least brush his hair. The indolence of the young Charles was indulged to such an extent that at times he was not expected to be clean. Fearing the frail child would be overtaxed, his caretakers did not force Charles to attend school. His jaw was so badly deformed (an extreme example of the so-called Habsburg jaw) that he could barely speak or chew. Ĭharles did not learn to speak until the age of four nor to walk until eight, and was treated as virtually an infant until he was ten years old. Due to the deaths of his half brothers, he was the last member of the male Spanish Habsburg line. Philip and Mariana were actually uncle and niece.Ĭharles was physically and mentally disabled and infertile, possibly due to this massive inbreeding. Well aware that they owed their power to fortunate marriages, they married between themselves to protect their gains. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg royal family was noted for extreme consanguinity. As the only surviving male heir of his father's two marriages, Charles was named Prince of Asturias, the title given to the person first in line to the Spanish throne. Because the other European powers viewed the prospective dynastic relationship between France and Spain as disturbing the balance of power in Europe, the War of the Spanish Succession ensued shortly after his death.Ĭharles was born in the Spanish capital, Madrid, the son of Philip IV of Spain and his second wife, Mariana of Austria (also known as Maria Anna). In his will, Charles named as his successor his 16-year-old grand-nephew, Philip, Duke of Anjou, grandson of Charles' half-sister Maria Theresa of Spain, the first wife of Louis XIV (and thus grandson of the reigning French king Louis XIV). He died in 1700, childless and heirless, with all potential Habsburg successors having predeceased him. Known as "the Bewitched" (Spanish: el Hechizado), he is noted for his extensive physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities-along with his consequent ineffectual rule. His realm included Southern Netherlands and Spain's overseas empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies. Charles II ( Spanish: Carlos II) (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700) was the last Habsburg ruler of Spain.
0 kommentar(er)
