Carlos II was the last Spanish monarch from the House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe. The Habsburgs ruled Spain from 1516, presiding over a period of significant expansion.
In common with many noble families throughout history, the Habsburgs desired to consolidate their power, which led to a great deal of intermarriage – especially in the Spanish and Austrian branches of the family. Carlos II’s great-grandfather had married his own niece, and Carlos’ father, Felipe IV, did the same with his niece, Mariana of Austria. Carlos was their only son to survive to adulthood.
Weak beginnings
Born in 1661, Carlos was a sickly child, surviving measles, smallpox, chickenpox, rubella and various bronchial and dental infections. He developed epilepsy and rickets, and could not walk unaided until he was, it is thought, eight years old.
He also had a lifelong struggle with diarrhoea, in part owing to the difficulties in chewing caused by his inheriting a severe instance of the jutting Habsburg jaw, coupled with his reputed “gluttony”. Later in life, he was so frail he could rise from his bed for only a couple of hours a day.
The general inquisitor was asked to ‘disenchant’ the king. He worked with a priest experienced in possessed nuns, and they made contact with the devil
Carlos appeared to have had other developmental difficulties. His speech was delayed and, although educated, he reportedly could not read or write.
When of age, he was said to be uninvolved in governing and easily manipulated by his advisers. However, some have suggested that it was shyness that had made him reticent, and he actually took a fairly active role in government affairs.
Whatever the truth, Carlos II’s afflictions would remain a source of fascination for centuries to come, with academics retrospectively diagnosing Carlos with a variety of conditions associated with learning disability, such as aspartylglucosaminuria, Klinefelter syndrome and fragile X syndrome.
During his lifetime, however, the only symptom that mattered politically was his inability to secure the Habsburg legacy by producing an heir.
This was often blamed upon his long-suffering first wife, Marie-Louise, who withstood a series of horrendous interventions to try to help her conceive. She died at 26, possibly from all she had endured in this thankless and dangerous quest.
Another theory was that Carlos was the victim of malevolent spells, earning him the epithet “hechizado” – “bewitched”.
As a result, the general inquisitor was asked to “disenchant” the king.
He worked with a priest experienced in possessed nuns, and they made contact with the devil and discovered that in 1675 Satan had cast a spell in the king’s favourite drink: a cup of chocolate.
This cursed beverage had apparently contained specific bodily organs from the corpses of criminals, chosen to target the king’s reason, health and fertility.
A variety of cures was prescribed, including drinking half a litre of oil, which must have exacerbated his digestive issues.
Carlos died without issue in 1700 at the age of 38.
Because of Carlos’ presumed bewitchment, an autopsy was ordered. The findings seemed to confirm that sinister forces were indeed at work, as his lungs appeared “corroded”, his head full of water, his heart “the size of a peppercorn”, his intestines rotten and his single testicle “black as coal” (ie atrophied). Regardless of the cause, it is unsurprising that no heir was produced.
Whatever his difficulties, Carlos II remained king of Spain for 35 years. His raft of conditions, born of close intermarriage within the Habsburg family, meant he had no heir.
This left Spain with a power vacuum which ushered in the bloody War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and led to a major shift in the balance of power in Europe.
Further reading
García-Escudero López A, Arruza Echevarría A, Padilla Nieva J, Puig Giró R. Carlos II: del hechizo a su patología génito-urinaria [Charles II: From spell to genitourinary pathology]. Archivos Españoles de Urología. 2009; 62(3): 179-185
Martin A, Heard R, Fung VSC. Carlos II of Spain, ‘The Bewitched’: cursed by aspartylglucosaminuria? BMJ Neurology Open. 2021; 33:e000072
