This Is How King Charles II’s Health Issues Caused a Full Scale War in Europe | HO!!

INTRODUCTION: THE KING WHO COULDN’T CHEW, SPEAK, OR RULE—BUT COULD DESTROY A CONTINENT

In the winter of 1700, inside the darkened royal chambers of Madrid’s Alcázar Palace, the most powerful empire in the world waited for a dying man to breathe his last. He was 38 years old. He could barely swallow food. His tongue often swelled so much he couldn’t speak. His body spasmed with seizures. His legs twisted beneath him. His jaw was so severely deformed that he had never once taken a proper bite in his life.

This fragile figure—King Charles II of Spain, known throughout Europe as El Hechizado, “the Bewitched”—held in his failing body the fate of an entire continent. When he died, historians would say that Europe’s greatest powers “fell upon Spain like wolves upon a corpse.”

But the truth is darker.
They had been circling long before he died.

Charles II’s existence was more than a medical tragedy.
It was the final chapter of a dynasty doomed by its own ambition—a lineage destroyed from the inside out by 16 generations of inbreeding. And when Charles failed to produce an heir, the result was not simply a crisis.

It was a thirteen-year global war that would kill over a million people, redraw borders, topple kings, and shape Europe for centuries.

This is the story of the man whose broken body triggered the War of the Spanish Succession—
a conflict born not from strategy or ideology, but from the collapse of a single human being.

PART I — A DYNASTY BUILT ON POWER, WEALTH… AND DENIAL

For nearly two centuries, the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty ruled an empire so large that they proudly boasted:
“The sun never sets on Spain.”

From the Philippines to Peru, from Belgium to Naples, from Mexico to Milan—
the Habsburg world was vast, glittering, and terrifying.

But inside the royal family, something was rotting.

The Beast Behind the Throne: Inbreeding

Believing that royal blood must remain “pure,” the Habsburgs married each other with a frequency that shocked even their contemporaries:

Uncles married nieces

First cousins married first cousins

In some cases, families proposed brothers marrying sisters

Multiple kings married their own blood relatives across generations

Their genetic code became a trap.
A slow-moving avalanche that no one wanted to acknowledge.

By the 1600s, the warning signs were unmistakable:

Half of all royal children died before age 10

Most Habsburg heirs were sickly, deformed, or mentally impaired

The infamous Habsburg jaw grew more exaggerated each generation

Royal painters softened the deformities, but even they could only hide so much

Geneticists today estimate that the Spanish Habsburgs reached one of the highest levels of inbreeding ever recorded in royal populations.

The dynasty believed they were protecting their lineage.
In truth, they were destroying it.

PART II — THE BIRTH OF A TRAGIC KING

Madrid, November 6, 1661

Queen Mariana of Austria screamed through a long, brutal labor. Court officials waited breathlessly. This child would inherit one of the largest empires in human history.

But when the infant emerged, the room fell silent.

He was small, fragile, with a head far too large for his body.
Strange rashes covered his skin.
A wound beneath his right ear leaked fluid.

The French ambassador wrote:

“The child appears weak, deformed, and covered in ailments. He may not be male.”

Rumors spread instantly.
Spain needed a strong king.
What it received was a baby who struggled to live.

Charles should not have survived childhood.
But in one of the most tragic twists of fate, he did.

His survival would cost Europe dearly.

THE EARLY YEARS: A CHILD WHO COULD NOT CHEW, WALK, OR SPEAK

His mother and father were uncle and niece—the product of a dynasty at war with nature.

His symptoms were immediate:

• He needed 14 wet nurses just to survive infancy
• He could not eat solid food until age 5
• He did not speak until age 4
• He could not walk until age 8
• His skull bones failed to fuse correctly
• His tongue was so large he could barely articulate words

British envoy Alexander Stanhope observed:

“He swallows everything whole. His lower jaw stands out so far his teeth do not meet.”

He lurched when he walked.
He drooled constantly.
His skin was pale and bloated.
He experienced seizures and hallucinations.

Priests suspected demonic possession.
Doctors tried arsenic, leeches, potions, prayers.

Nothing worked.

Because the real disease lived in every cell of his body.

PART III — THE KING WHO COULD NOT RULE

When Charles was four, his father died.
Spain now had a king who could not chew, speak properly, or walk unaided.

His mother nominally ruled as regent.
But the court became a battlefield.

Factions fought. Ministers schemed. Priests manipulated.

Charles was a pawn—
a physically adult man with the mind of a boy, thrust into the center of a collapsing empire.

One ambassador wrote:

“The king possesses no judgment of his own. He follows the will of whoever spoke to him last.”

**Spain Needed a Leader.

It Got a Specter.**

And Europe noticed.

PART IV — A BODY FAILING AS AN EMPIRE COLLAPSED

Spain in the 1600s was a ghost of its former glory.

The Military Was Crumbling

France smashed Spain in war after war.
Territories were slipping away like sand.

The Economy Was Dying

Even gold from the Americas could not save the empire from:

hyperinflation

famine

disease

crushing debt

The Government Was Paralyzed

Court infighting replaced governance.
Royal decrees went ignored.
Spain was a drifting ship with a blind captain.

And hovering over everything was the question:

Who will rule when Charles dies?

Everyone understood the truth:

He would never produce an heir.

PART V — THE MARRIAGES THAT EXPOSED A DYNASTY’S DOOM

Marriage #1: Marie Louise of Orléans

Beautiful.
Educated.
French.

She arrived hopeful—
and was soon drowning in despair.

Charles was affectionate but physically incapable of intimacy.
The Spanish court was oppressive and suffocating.

After ten childless years, Marie Louise died at 26.
Officially, “intestinal complications.”
Unofficially—
whispers of suicide or poison filled the palace corridors.

Her death shattered Charles.

Marriage #2: Maria Anna of Neuburg

Strong-willed.
Political.
Determined.

She arrived with hopes of producing an heir.
But she quickly realized what the physicians already feared:

Charles was infertile. Completely. Irreversibly.

His autopsy would later reveal:

one atrophied testicle (“black as coal”)

severe endocrine disorders

renal disease

malformations throughout his organs

This was not a man who could have children.
This was a dynasty already dead—
walking only because his heart hadn’t stopped yet.

PART VI — THE DYNASTIC TIME BOMB

With no heir, the question of succession became the greatest political crisis in Europe.

Two powerful families had claims:

1. The French Bourbons (Louis XIV’s line)

Through Charles’s sister Maria Theresa.

2. The Austrian Habsburgs

Through his sister Margaret Theresa.

Both claims were legitimate.
Both families believed they deserved Spain.

**The problem?

Spain had the world’s richest empire.**

Whoever inherited Spain would instantly become the most powerful monarch in Europe.

England and the Dutch Republic were horrified.

A union of France + Spain?
Unthinkable.

A union of Austria + Spain?
Equally dangerous.

Europe held its breath.

Charles grew weaker.

And the vultures circled.

PART VII — THE KING’S FINAL BREATH AND THE SPARK THAT IGNITED WAR

November 1, 1700

Charles II lay dying.
His body had become a ruin.

When doctors opened him after death, they reported:

a heart “no bigger than a peppercorn”

lungs “corroded”

intestines “rotted and gangrenous”

three massive kidney stones

a skull “filled with water”

not a drop of healthy blood left

Whether exaggerated or not, his body was a battlefield.

But his final act was what truly shook the world.

He named Philip of Anjou—Louis XIV’s grandson—as his heir.

Spain, whole and united, would go to France.

Europe exploded.

PART VIII — LOUIS XIV’S ARROGANCE TURNS A CRISIS INTO WAR

Louis XIV could have prevented war.

Instead, he poured fuel on the fire:

1. He declared Philip still eligible for the French throne.

This implied France and Spain might unite under one king.

2. He seized the Spanish Netherlands.

Throwing out Dutch troops and threatening Northern Europe.

3. He cut English and Dutch merchants out of Spanish trade.
4. He recognized the exiled Catholic James III as England’s rightful king.

An insult so severe it made war unavoidable.

England, Austria, and the Dutch Republic formed:

The Grand Alliance (1701)

Their goal:

Stop France from becoming unstoppable.

War began within months.

**PART IX — THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION:

WHEN ONE MAN’S BODY SET EUROPE ON FIRE**

For the next 13 years, Europe bled.

It was one of the deadliest wars of the 18th century:

fought in Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium

fought on the seas

fought in colonies across North America and the Caribbean

fought by armies of unprecedented size

Legendary Figures Emerged:

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
Perhaps Britain’s greatest general

Prince Eugene of Savoy
The terror of French armies

Marshal Villars
France’s last line of defense

Blenheim (1704):

A crushing Allied victory that saved Austria.

Ramillies (1706):

A devastating defeat for France.

Visitor (1708):

One of France’s darkest military days.

Malplaquet (1709):

A “victory” so bloody it horrified Europe—
over 30,000 casualties in a single day.

Civilian Deaths

The winter of 1709 killed hundreds of thousands of French civilians.
Spain was ravaged by famine and sieges.

This was not strategy.

This was the death throes of a continent, triggered by one man’s infertility.

PART X — THE PEACE THAT REDEFINED EUROPE

Finally, exhausted and bankrupt, the great powers agreed to negotiate.

The Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714)

ended the war.

The results reshaped the world:

• Philip V remained King of Spain

But renounced any claim to the French throne.

• Spain lost its European empire

Austria took:

Naples

Milan

Sardinia

The Spanish Netherlands (Belgium)

• Britain emerged as the biggest winner

Gaining:

Gibraltar

Minorca

The Asiento slave-trade monopoly (a dark but lucrative prize)

• France survived—barely

Its finances ruined, its people starving.

• The Dutch Republic began a long decline
• Europe’s power balance shifted permanently

Charles II—
the man who could barely walk, speak, or chew—
had changed the course of history more than any healthy king ever could.

PART XI — THE TRAGIC SYMBOLISM OF A DYING DYNASTY

Looking back, one fact becomes clear:

**Charles II was not the cause of Europe’s war.

He was the symptom.**

The real cause was the arrogance of a dynasty that defied nature for two centuries.

His body was not cursed.
His mind was not bewitched.

He was the physical manifestation of:

royal pride

political greed

scientific ignorance

a belief that power could protect a family from nature’s laws

It couldn’t.

And the cost was catastrophic.

Charles didn’t choose his genetics.
He didn’t choose to be king.
He didn’t choose to be the fuse of a continental war.

He was a victim—
of his lineage,
of his court,
of the expectations placed upon a man who could barely be a man at all.

And when he died,
Europe finally paid the price that the Habsburgs had been borrowing for centuries.

CONCLUSION: THE MAN WHO NEVER STOOD TALL—BUT CAST THE LONGEST SHADOW

In the end, Charles II of Spain remains one of history’s most haunting figures.

A boy who could not walk until eight.
A king who could not speak clearly.
A husband who could not produce an heir.
A man who spent his life fighting a body that betrayed him.

Yet his death did what his life never could:

It changed the world.

The War of the Spanish Succession was not simply a political conflict.

It was the violent exhalation of a dying dynasty.
The final proof that empires built on blood purity inevitably collapse under the weight of their own obsession.

A million people would die.
Borders would shift.
Nations would rise and fall.

Because one man—
broken, suffering, powerless—
carried the genetic consequences of two centuries of royal defiance.

And when he died,
Europe burned.