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Charles, Prince of Asturias
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Several of the Carlist pretenders to the Spanish throne were also known as Don Carlos.
Don Carlos (July 8, 1545 – July 24, 1568), Prince of Asturias was the son of King Philip II of Spain by his first wife Maria Manuela of Portugal, daughter of John III of Portugal.
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He was born at Valladolid, and his mother died a few days after his birth. The young Infante Carlos was delicate and deformed. He grew up proud, willful, and indolent, and soon began to show signs of mental instability as a young adult. It is believed that many of his physical and psychological afflictions stemmed from the extreme inbreeding common to the House of Habsburg and the royal houses of Portugal and Spain. Carlos had only four great-grandparents instead of the maximum of eight, and only six great-great-grandparents, instead of the maximum 16, his maternal grandmother and his paternal grandfather were brother and sister, his maternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother were as well brother and sister, and two of his great-grandmothers were sisters. His namesake, King Carlos II of Spain, was also highly inbred and consequently of seriously compromised health.
In 1559, Prince Carlos was betrothed to Elizabeth of Valois, a daughter of King Henry II of France, but a few months later she was wed instead to his father for political reasons. Other brides were then suggested for the prince: Mary Queen of Scots, Marguerite de Valois, another daughter of Henry II of France, and Anna of Austria, a daughter of Emperor Maximilian II, who was to later become Philip II's fourth wife.
Although Carlos's mental derangement became more and more acute as he grew older, he was nonetheless recognized in 1560 as the heir to the Castilian throne, and three years later as heir to the crown of Aragon as well.
In 1562, he met with an unspecified accident which was followed by a serious illness. After his recovery, he is said to have become exceedingly wild and unpredictable in his behavior, engaging in violent outbursts and excessive drinking both in public and in private. He took a marked dislike to the Duke of Alba, possibly because he wished to proceed to the Netherlands instead of the duke. He also exhibited a morbid antipathy towards his father, whose murder he supposedly contemplated at one time. Carlos arranged at length in January 1568 to flee from Spain, but was placed in solitary confinement by Philip's orders before he could depart, and died in isolation that same year. It was long rumored that he was poisoned, but there is little evidence to support this claim and it is much more likely that the frail Carlos died of more natural causes.
The idea of king Philip confining and murdering his own son later played a minor role in establishing the anti-Spanish Black Legend.
The historical conflict between Carlos and his father formed the basis for the 1787 drama by Friedrich Schiller, which in turn inspired the opera Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi.
- La vida es sueño, a Spanish play by Calderón de la Barca about a king jailing his own son.
- The Man in the Iron Mask, a legendary prisoner for life of the French government (and alleged heir to the French throne) during the time of Louis XIV.
- Abstracted from Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 and several other sources.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Don Carlos of Spain, the Crown Prince who liked to beat up girls - The Mad Monarchs Series.
| Spanish Habsburgs Born: July 8, 1545 Died: July 24, 1568 |
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| Preceded by Prince Philip his father who had ascended the throne |
Prince of Asturias 1556-1568 |
Vacant Title next held by Infante Fernando |