King Charles II of Spain - Original Document 1665

King Charles II of Spain - Original Document 1665 Charles II - King of Spain, Naples and Sicily - ORIGINAL document from 1665 starting with the Name of the king with several signatures of important people at the court see scann for more details - (the pictures of the King are for illustration only) About the King: Charles II of Spain (Carlos Segundo) (November 6, 1661, Madrid, Spain - November 1, 1700, Madrid, Spain) was King of Spain, Naples, Sicily, nearly all of Italy (except Piedmont, the Papal States and Venice), and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from Mexico to the Philippines. Charles was the only surviving son of his Habsburg predecessor, King Philip IV of Spain and his second Queen (and niece), Mariana of Austria, another Habsburg. His birth was greeted with joy by the Spaniards, who feared the disputed succession which could have ensued if Philip IV had left no male heir. Charles II is known in Spanish history as El Hechizado ("The Bewitched") from the popular belief âe" to which Charles himself subscribed âe" that his physical and mental disabilities were caused by "sorcery" rather than the much more likely cause: centuries of inbreeding within the Habsburg dynasty (in which first cousin and uncle/niece matches were commonly used to preserve a prosperous family's hold on its multifarious territories). Charles' own immediate pedigree was exceptionally populated with nieces giving birth to children of their uncles: Charles' mother was niece of Charles' father, being daughter of Maria Ana of Spain (1606-46) and Emperor Ferdinand III. Thus, Empress Maria Anna was simultaneously his aunt and grandmother. Still, the king was exorcised, and the exorcists of the kingdom were called upon to put straight questions to the devils they cast out. His great-great-great grandmother, Joanna I, (Joanna the Mad), mother of the Spanish King Charles I who was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V âe" became completely insane early in life; the fear of a taint of insanity ran through the Habsburgs. Charles descended from Joanna a total of 14 times âe" twice as a great-great-great grandson, and 12 times further. Charles II was the last of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, physically disabled, mentally retarded and disfigured (possibly through affliction with mandibular prognathism). His tongue was so large that his speech could barely be understood, and he frequently drooled. He may also have suffered from the bone disease acromegaly. He was treated as virtually an infant in arms until he was ten years old. Fearing the frail child would be overtaxed, he was left entirely uneducated, and his indolence was indulged to such an extent that he was not even expected to be clean. When his half-brother John of Austria the Younger, a natural son of Philip IV, obtained power by exiling the queen mother from court, he insisted that at least the king's hair should be combed. The only vigorous activity shown by Charles was shooting, which he occasionally indulged in the preserves of the Escorial. read more