The reign of Charles II of Spain,…
September 1665 CE
The reign of Charles II of Spain, the only surviving son of his Habsburg predecessor, King Philip IV and his second Queen (and niece), Mariana of Austria, another Habsburg, begins on September 17, 1665.
Born in the capital of the vast Spanish empire, Madrid, and as the only surviving male heir of his father's two marriages (the only brother of Charles to survive infancy was Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, who died at the age of 16 in 1646), he had been named the Principe de Asturias as his heir.
Charles is four; his mother was made his Regent .
Outbreeding in Charles II's lineage had ceased around 1500.
From then on, all his ancestors were in one way or another descendants of Joanna the Mad and Philip I of Castile, and among these just the royal houses of Spain, Austria, and Bavaria.
Charles II, whose genome is more homozygous than in an average brother-sister offspring, was born physically and mentally disabled, and disfigured.
Possibly through affliction with mandibular prognathism, he is unable to chew.
His tongue is so large that his speech, a skill acquired only recently, can barely be understood, and he frequently drools.
He may also suffer from the endocrine disease acromegaly.
He will not learn to walk for another four years Consequently, Charles II is known in Spanish history as El Hechizado ("The Hexed") from the popular belief – to which Charles himself will later subscribe – that his physical and mental disabilities had been caused by "sorcery."
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