Name: 皇家近親繁殖錯了!(Was It Ever Right?)//查理二世[CC]。 (Royal Inbreeding Gone Wrong! (Was It Ever Right?) // Charles II [CC])
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T10:17:29.000Z
Duration: 10 min 37 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

I make amusing and educational videos about disability, sexuality, vintage fashion and

If you think you’d enjoy spending time with a girl from another century

learning about interesting things that have happened in the past then click subscribe!

I love making profiles on famous disabled figures from history and today

we’re going to be talking about King Charles II of Spain and how the dynasty that dominated

Charles was nicknamed ‘El Hechizado’-

(voiceover provided by my dear Spanish friend Clara)

because people at the time believed that his physical and mental disabilities were the

A new study into the genetics of his immediate ancestors has found that he was so inbred

that he actually suffered from at least two inherited disorders.

But that’s not how the Hapsburgs started out…

- I apologise in advance for the fact I say ‘Hapsburg’ rather than ‘Habsburg’,

it’s just the way I’ve always been taught history and it’s stuck in my head.

The English like to anglicise words in their schoolrooms because-

The Hapsburg dynasty was one of the most important and influential royal families in Europe.

It was founded in 11th century Austria and produced Kings and Emperors of the Kingdom

of Bohemia, Croatia, Illyria, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands and the

German empire… as well as several Dutch and Italian principalities.

And if that sounds like ‘most of Europe’ to you…

Don’t worry about France being missing, they married Frenchmen too.

From the 16th century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between

Although they ruled distinct territories, they nevertheless maintained unfortunately

close relations and frequently intermaried.

The family motto makes this clear: “Let others wage wars, but you, happy Austria,

The Hapsburgs believed passionately in dynastic marriage.

That’s the practice by which members of ruling dynasties marry into other reigning

Monarchs were often pursuing national or international aggrandisement, hoping that bonds of kinship

would restrain aggression and promote political unity.

It also enhanced territorial acquisition, and the inheritance pot.

Now, dynastic marriages may seem like a great idea…

Growing your wealth and power seems like a great thing

but unfortunately the Hapsburgs were just too darn good at it.

As I said, they were soon ruling most of Europe and…

that really only left each other to marry!

In 1700 there was a sudden demise of the royal Spanish branch of the family and scientists

now believe they have a definitive explanation as to why.

The very last Spanish Hapsburg king, Charles II, had a family tree that was…

His paternal grandparents were also his maternal great grandparents.

And all of his great grandparents were descended from the same two people.

That’s… that was never going to be a good idea.

Scientists have found that with no let up on the amount of intermarriage, the degree

of genetic inbreeding gradually built up.

The founder of the Spanish dynasty, Philip I, is calculated to have an inbreeding coefficient

of 0.025, which meant that just 2.5 per cent of his genes were likely to be identical by

But 200 years and seven generations later, the coefficient had leapt ten-fold to 0.25

in the genome of Charles II, meaning up to one in four of his genes might have been identical.

That’s the same as the risks to the offspring of a brother and sister or a parent and child.

The medical dangers here are obvious: defective, recessive genes can come together in one person

Charles’s father, Philip IV, didn’t have it great either.

He was only 10 years old when his parents arranged his first marriage to the daughter

- see, I told you they married French people!

Out of their eight children, only two were boys and both died.

One of them, Maria Theresa, you may recognise from the TV show Versailles

as she married Louis XIV of France and (spoiler) actually managed to have children.

At the age of 41 and now a widower, Philip remarried…

lover of massive dresses, probably not a lover of where her life was going.

Only two of their five children survived to adulthood, Margarita Teresa and Charles.

Although no one really believed Charles would make it out of childhood.

Contemporary writings called the baby “big headed” and “weak”.

He was described as “short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35, always

on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live.”

By this point this ‘Hapsburg lip’ or ‘Hapsburg jaw’ was well known.

It’s an inherited mandibular prognathism, which means the lower jaw grows faster than

the upper, resulting in an extended chin.

It was a family trait but due to Charles being the most Hapsburg Hapsburg to ever Hapsburg

His lips were unable to meet and his tongue was too large which meant he had difficulty

- try it right now: keep your mouth open and your tongue flat then try to swallow.

You have to form a seal with either your lips or tongue.

Charles spoke and ate only with extreme difficulty and was not able to form words until the age