Charles II of Spain (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), best known as El Hechizado ("The Bewitched"), was the King of Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, as well as Duke of Milan, Lord of the Netherlands and Count of Burgundy. Son of Philip IV, he was the last Spanish Habsburg ruler, ending the two-century dynasty by his inability to produce an heir.
You may know him infinitely better as the poster boy of Royally Screwed Up, being essentially a poor, genetically disabled creature placed on the throne of the "empire on which the sun never set" by circumstances completely beyond his control. His historical legacy, however, is much more complicated and ambiguous than it looks at first sight, and assessments have varied through the centuries.
Charles was the inevitable culmination of the Habsburgs' Royal Inbreeding. In order to maximize Altar Diplomacy to its fullest and keep alliances within their bounds, they practiced generation upon generation of cousin and uncle/niece marriages, none of them genetically catastrophic in isolation, but cumulatively... Modern DNA research has proved that Charles's quotient of consanguinity was higher than what we would expect to find in a case of either Brother–Sister Incest or Parental Incest. Doctors are still unsure of what exactly was up with him, buthe best theories are a combination of pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis, or perhaps a severe herpetic infection after birth. Charles was short, lame, slow-minded, and extremely sickly, with an oddly-shaped head and a Habsburgian mandibular prognathism even worse than that of his ancestor Charles V, to the point he could barely chew at all. In a famous 20th-century quote, he was "always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffled Christendom by continuing to live."
However, contrary to popular belief and traditional academia, modern research has also strongly suggested that he was neither mentally or physically disabled, as he participated actively in politics in front of foreign envoys and was a prolific hunter. His infamous languor and indecisiveness have instead been attributed to growing up to become a terribly shy, insecure person due to his multiple conditions, as well as the neglect of a Deadly Decadent Court that never expected him to inherit the throne, and also the sheer weight of an empire of his shoulders — all of which combined were inarguably worse. He gained his nickname of "Bewitched" by popular superstition believing he was the target of Satanic influence, and Charles himself came to believe it as well, following in the line of so many Habsburgs who were into mysticism. When many holy relics and magical remedies of varied bizarreness failed to heal him, an astrologer convinced Charles that his misfortunes were a divine punishment for having been too young to be on his father's deathbed, so he tried to remedy this by having the corpse exhumed and begging it for its forgiveness, but evidently the rotting Philip was not in the mood.
Charles has been traditionally considered the embodiment of the decadence of Habsburg Spain, and modern readers could be hardly blamed for getting this impression — but again, today's historiography believes his historical image became as twisted as his body due to the influence of his successors. He was a transitional king in the most extreme sense, the last ruler of a dynasty that ended up being replaced by their ancestral enemies, the French Bourbons — who naturally had several good reasons to make him look as bad as possible so they could present themselves as the saviors and uplifters of the empire. This, by the way, added a ton of fuel to the Spanish Black Legend
, as the conquest of America and the empire's European military exploits were largely accomplishments of the Habsburg dynasty that the Bourbons didn't want to be remembered in a good light.
He became king at the age of three, so a regency was maintained by his mother, Mariana of Austria, who struggled against her illegitimate stepson John Joseph of Austria for control of the empire. It was a convoluted time for the Spanish monarchy, as the dubious competence of Charles's predecessors and the rise of their rivals had finally dethroned the Habsburgs as European hegemons. Their supremacy would be captured by the Louis XIV's France, whi already had a hand in Spain by being John Joseph's backer and Charles's own brother-in-law. After the fruitless attempt to limit French expansion that was the Franco-Dutch War, Charles too was married off to Louis' niece Marie Louise, a true case of Ugly Guy, Hot Wife that lit up a bit his life, although she died very young and only knocked Charles into a long depression. He had failed to produce an heir, being possibly sterile (he also suffered from premature ejaculation), and the court's efforts to ease things by administrating weird potions to the couple had only caused them both literal and figurative pain.
In any case, Charles was always conscious of his inability to become a true rival to Louis, so for most of his reign, he entrusted his kingdom to several validos or royal ministers. By this point neither trade nor war brought much success, as no less than four wars against France happened during his reign,note in addition to the end of the Portuguese Restoration War and the Forever War with Muslims in North Africa, and given the state of things in Spain, it should not be a surprise that the empire got the shorter end of the stick in all of them — a situation that would have proved taxing to even the most capable monarch. Unlike his predecessors, however, Charles actually chose good ministers, namely the shrewd Marquis of Villasierra, the Duke of Medinaceli and the Count of Oropesa, forming essentially a technocracy that succeeded at ameliorating the ruin of the empire and planting the seeds of its future recovering under Louis's descendants.note That the Bewitched and his circle managed to hold it all together and actually improve things might be one of the greatest cases of Inspirationally Disadvantaged in real life.
The influence of the rising France, although more visible during the Bourbon era, was already strong enough for Charles's administration to Follow the Leader, like re-structuring the regional disposition of the empire after the French national model and minimizing the role of indigenous languages in favor of teaching more intensely the empire's lingua franca (which put an end to Philip II's adoption of Nahuatl and other native languages as co-official languages, although in practice they remained well-established and continued until today). However, in contrast, Charles also promoted a radical royal decree granting free citizenship to all runaway Black slaves from the British and French colonies who took refuge in the Spanish viceroyalties, a quite common occurrence back then due to Spain's laws making it easy for slaves to buy their freedom and ascend socially.note The decree, which only required slaves to become Catholic and join possible war efforts, led later to the Fuerte Mosé of Florida, the first settlement of free Black men in the current territory of the United States.
Towards the end of his life, having probably learned the ropes a bit better, Charles was more personally involved in actually governing and didn't depend so much on his cabinet, but his failing health forced him to half-voluntarily become a Henpecked Husband to his new wife Maria Anna of Neuburg, a domineering lady who had been chosen for the high fertility of her family in an attempt to get an heir — again with no success. His increasingly urgent succession turned out to be a problem due to this lack of an heir, and ultimately, among a competitive field of heirs presumptive and pressure from the Francophile factions (along the lines "if you can't beat them, join them"), he sided with his half-sister Maria Theresa, Louis XIV's queen, and appointed her grandson Philip of Anjou as heir to the throne. His Austrian relatives were livid, as they had expected he would appoint their Archduke Charles to keep things in the family, but in all likelihood it was probably the best option to save the unity of the Spanish Empire and hopefully one day restore its status in Europe. It might be ironic, or perhaps just natural, that a man cursed by generations of strategic planning would go out derailing all those plans forever.
The Bewitched died of his last illness at the young age of 35, finally released from his tortuous existence. An autopsy report claims that 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." If this contains even the slightest bit of truth, it might suffice again to show the state of things.
Naturally, the House of Habsburg was not going to let the Spanish Empire go so easily, and when combined with a host of other European countries fearing the emergence of a Bourbon superstate out of Spain and France,note things ultimately spiraled into the War of the Spanish Succession. The conflict ended up placing the Bourbons in the throne of Spain in the form of Philip V, who would ironically turn out a much worse and even more embarrassing monarch than Charles ever was by virtue of being literally Driven to Madness by the job's pressure shortly after reaching the throne. The idea of Spain and France merging into a single empire would be as dead as Louis XIV by this point, although Philip's ambitious queen Elisabeth Farnese (ironically, a descendant of a family previously vassal to the Habsburgs) would participate in a last attempt to appoint Philip regent of France that backfired rather badly.
If you're looking for the other Charles II, the British one about one generation older, he is here.
