The degeneration of the Habsburg dynasty, which was the most powerful family in the world, is one of the most famous incidents of the effects of closely related marriages among royalty in history.
Many of the historical figures that we still remember, such as Marie Antoinette or Archduke Franz Ferdinand, came from the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs ruled in different centuries in Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, Spain, Italy (Holy Roman Empire), Portugal, Transylvania and even Mexico.
The Habsburgs reached their peak of power in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it was then that the genealogy of the Habsburgs was kept in the strictest purity and they married only their close relatives.
As a result, such connections led to persistent hereditary physical and mental anomalies, and then to mass infertility, which led the Habsburgs to collapse.
It all started in the 13th century
The rise of the Habsburg dynasty began with Rudolf VI, who in 1279 became King of Germany under the name Rudolf I. The Habsburg family itself dates back to the 11th century.
Rudolph I collected vast lands for himself, and then seized Austria and in 1281 handed over power over it to his son Albrecht. Already Albrecht has a characteristic very long Habsburg nose with a hump.
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From that moment on, the Habsburgs were closely associated with the dynastic line of Austria, and later added the throne of Bohemia and Hungary to their empire.
The most important diplomatic trump cards of the Habsburgs were marriage unions. When in 1477 Maximilian I, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, married Mary, daughter of the French king Charles the Bold, the Habsburgs extended their influence over a large part of Europe.
Frederick III already had a malocclusion.
Later, Maximillian gained control of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of France, and after the death of Maria, he married Bianca, daughter of the Duke of Milan.
Maximillian continued the tradition by marrying his son Philip the Fair to Juan I, Queen of Castile, who later went mad and was nicknamed Mad.
From this marriage, mental abnormalities penetrated the Habsburg genes, which only increased with subsequent marriage, which now more and more often occurred in close relatives.
The fact is that having received incredible power and might, the Habsburgs also earned paranoia, fearing "alien blood", which, as it were, could destroy their empire.
Juana the Mad
Juana already had mental problems when she married Philip, but Phillip himself did not care, because together with Juana he received full power over Castile.
According to a research article in The Journal of Humanistic Psychiatry, Juana herself vehemently denied her own mental problems, including insanity, claiming that she only occasionally has bouts of jealousy (her husband was nicknamed "Handsome" for a reason, he was a noble womanizer). Juana once even beat a lady with scissors and cut her hair, suspecting that she was one of her husband's mistresses.
Therefore, it is not known for sure if Juana was really sick, but she herself was a child from a marriage between cousins, so her presence of a deviation is very plausible.
Philip the Handsome and Juana Mad.
Psychologists and historians believe that Juana definitely suffered from severe depression or bipolar disorder. Nevertheless, Juana bore Philip six children, the eldest of whom Charles V later became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the ruler of Castile and other Spanish lands.
Charles V.
First bells
By the early 16th century, the Habsburgs continued to add new territories to their family line. Juan's daughter Isabella married a representative of the Danish royal house, and Juana's other son Ferdinand married Anna Jagiellonka from Bohemia and the Czech Republic. Later, Ferdinand, under the name of Ferdinand I, became the next ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
But already in the middle of the century, closely related marriages became common among the Habsburgs. In 1548, Charles V's daughter, Maria of Spain, married her cousin Maximillian (son of Ferdinand and Anna). And the son of Charles V Philip II married Anna of Austria - the daughter of Mary and Maximillian, who was his niece.
Philip II - King of Spain from the Habsburg dynasty.
In 1571, Charles II, the Archduke of Austria, also married his niece Maria Anna of Bavaria, and the children of Philip II - Philip III and Charles II - Margaret of Austria, married each other and the family loops of the Hapsburgs became even narrower.
However, this was not uncommon in those centuries among royalty, so no one focused much attention, although the church did not approve of such marriages.
Charles II is Archduke of Austria.
The results are evident
The more Habsburgs entered into closely related relations, the more physical and mental defects became visible in their descendants. The children of Philip III and Margaret of Austria, in turn, married their cousins and nieces.
In 1661, perhaps the most famous and ugly Habsburg was born, whose portraits, even with the artist's share of flattery, are still dumbfounded. It was Charles II of Spain.
His parents were cousins, one of the grandmothers was also his aunt, and the other grandmother was also a great-grandmother. And all his great-grandfathers were the sons of Philip the Fair and Juana the Mad.
Poor Charles II's genetic deviations from such close inbreeding were so severe that he was infertile, and his jaw was so deformed that he could barely speak.
His teeth did not close with each other, and Charles II began to walk normally only when he became an adult, and as a child he walked with great difficulty and often fell. As a result, he became the last representative of the Habsburgs on the Spanish throne and the one with whom the fall of the dynasty began.
Physical and mental ailments
In 2009, the scientific journal PLoS One published an article on the genetic defects of the Habsburgs and how they affected their children.
“Child death was especially high among the Spanish Habsburgs, from 1527 to 1661, when Philip II and Charles II were born, 34 children were born to the Spanish line. 10% of them died before even a year, and the remaining 50% died before 10 years of age,”the article reads.
The authors of the article are confident that the non-viability of children is a direct result of the degeneration of the Habsburgs from incestuous relationships. For many years, fresh blood practically did not flow into the dynastic lines.
Starting with Juana the Mad, who only had rare seizures, the Habsburgs ended up as Charles II, who might even be called an imbecile.
In 1552, Rudolph II was born, who was the grandson of Juana the Mad and who suffered from severe depression, which greatly interfered with the political career. As a result, he ceded power to his brother and then only kept the title for himself.
Modern medicine calls the special Habsburg jaw progmatism. With this defect, the jaw not only protrudes forward, but also lacks a chin. This is most often found in the Negroid race, but because of the Habsburgs in Europe, even in the 21st century, you can often find this jaw.
It is mainly found in the distant descendants of the dynasty, but often in ordinary people, who may be the descendants of children illegitimate from the Habsburgs.