In ancient Europe, blood and origin represented everything, and even if the sovereignty of the country changed, it would never shake the status of those European nobles. The Habsburgs maintained their dominance in Europe for nearly six hundred years, ruling over a number of powerful European empires, including the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire. And the European family's choice to maintain long-term rule was to marry close relatives.
Such internal marriages did strengthen the unity of the family and consolidate the development and position of the family throughout Europe. But at the same time, they also need to endure genetic defects caused by the marriage of close relatives, such as the lips of the earth wrapped in the sky, and the traditional "net red awl face" of the family. Let's walk into the story of this family and see how serious the consequences of marriage between close relatives are.
1. Historical origins
The Habsburgs first originated in Alsace in the sixth century AD, when it was the smallest administrative district in France, and its ancestors were not very rich even as dukes. It was only later that the lands of Alsace expanded to the canton of Allgäu in northern Switzerland that they built their own castle and named it Habsburg. They were therefore known to the outside world as the Habsburgs.
As the territory expanded, the Habsburgs became more and more powerful, even surpassing the influence of the original royal family on the country. In 1273, Rudolf I of the Habsburg family was elected King of Germany, and although he was not crowned, he and his family had effective control of the entire empire.
Not only that, but he also seized the Duchy of Austria and Stilich, occupied by the Bohemian king, and divided the two territories among his two sons. Even if the dynasty changes and the succession changes, it will only happen within the Habsburg family, and outsiders have no chance to intervene.
Political marriage
Of course, the external development of the ancestral inheritance alone is relatively slow, after all, there are many other nobles with deep roots in the outside world. In order to speed up the Habsburgs' rule in Europe, people within the family began to frequently engage in political marriages with the outside world.
Maximilian married the only daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and acquired his territory from the south of France to the Netherlands. Maximilian's son married the Spanish Crown Prince and seized the right to rule Spain. Maximilian's grandson then married a bohemian princess, laying the groundwork for the subsequent annexation of bohemia.
In the days that followed, each generation of Habsburg power intermarried with the outside royal family in order to seize land and raise the position of power. By the time Charles V came to power, the Habsburgs had spread throughout Europe and had become the true hegemons of Europe.
At this time, the Habsburgs had occupied almost all the countries and lands in Europe, but greed and desire could not be satisfied, and they continued to expand. Before the 18th century, the Habsburgs were the absolute kings of Europe, and no royal family ruled more widely and more influentially than them, and their wings spread across the countries of Europe, and their status could not be shaken.
Curiously, however, after the 18th century, the Habsburgs began to weaken visibly and eventually perished. Why did they suddenly fall so quickly? The root cause is incest within the family and marriage to close relatives.
3. Marriage of close relatives
Modern scientific society pays attention to eugenics and good breeding, and it is strictly forbidden to violate the correct breeding standards such as marriage between close relatives. Because the genes are too similar, it is likely to lead to abnormalities in the human body, resulting in malformations and congenital diseases in children. But in the 16th century, medical and technological inferiority, people did not have the concept of close relatives marrying badly, the Habsburgs are a typical example.
After years of development, the Habsburgs had reached their peak of power in Europe, and they no longer needed to improve their status through political marriage. As the crown grew stronger, they began to suffer from gain and loss, fearing that the blood of outsiders would take away the century-old foundation of the Habsburg family.
In order to avoid the tragedy of outsiders seizing power, they decided to intermarry within the family, firmly holding all the power within the family and not giving outsiders the opportunity to get involved. Niece married uncle, cousins united, became the most popular "marriage combination" of habsburgs at that time.
In the first two hundred years, there was no problem with internal intermarriage, and the birth of children was mostly normal, and deformities were only a rare case. This is because after years of political marriage, the Blood Genes of the Habsburgs have been diluted, and it is difficult to erupt in a short period of time.
However, with the development of time, the bloodline gradually merged and unified, because the defect of the combination of close relatives became more and more obvious. The children of their close relatives who are married will be born with more or less physical defects. The most obvious feature is a terrible "net red awl face", whether male or female, this is the face shape.
But these people did not care at all, but regarded this defect as a characteristic unique to the Habsburgs. On the streets of Europe at that time, as long as she had this face shape, she was eighty percent of the Habsburgs, which was a "unique honor" for them.
But this face shape is only the most superficial symptom, and as family intermarriage intensifies, the deformity of the child born becomes more severe. One of the most representative is the direct heir of the family, Carlos II.
Carlos II grew up weak, speaking at the age of four, walking at the age of eight, and even though he ate the taste of the mountains and the sea every day, he was still malnourished, thin and short. Others are still in their prime when they are 30 years old, but when they reach the age of 30, they are already an old dragon clock, their whole body is puffy, and it is extremely difficult to walk.
Not only that, Carlos II also had major congenital diseases such as mandibular protrusion deformity, excessive head deformity, intestinal position reversal disorder, and often intermittent convulsions of the body. These diseases tormented him throughout his life and intermittently affected his reproductive functioning, and even though he married two wives, he failed to leave a single offspring. After his death, the habsburg family's immediate lineage was severed.
With the demise of the direct line of the Habsburg family, the family gradually came to an end, and all classes of the family were also cut off because of the marriage of close relatives. Eventually, the vast empire that had ruled Europe for six hundred years disappeared.
4. Summary
The demise of the Habsburgs was a tragedy caused by the typical marriage of close relatives. In fact, in Europe, the phenomenon of marriage between close relatives often occurs, and it is not a new thing for nieces to marry uncles during the Roman Empire. But a large and persistent family like the Habsburgs is too rare.
But as long as they can know how to be flexible and let some clans marry freely, at least they can leave a little blood for the family, and they will not end up completely extinct. Such a huge family has ruined its own ambition and ignorance in this way, which is really regrettable.