“El Hechizado” In the year 1661 the Spanish king Charles II was born in the Spanish capital of Madrid into the house of Hapsburgs. He would eventually grow up to be the very last ruler and descendant of the Hapsburg House to rule Spain. His rule stretched from the southern area of the Netherlands to the Spanish overseas empire from the Americas down to the eastern Indies. This man came to be known as “El Hechizado “ (which translates to “The Bewitched”) due to his large amount of Physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities that came from being born out of a far inbred family. In the age of El Hechizado, family members’ “hooking up” with each other was known to be common practice In order to keep the royal bloodline pure. El Hechizado was known throughout history for his highly ineffective ruling due to the economic stagnation of the current Spanish empire. King Charles II was born to the father Phillip IV of Spain and his second wife, Mariana of Austria who was also known as” Maria Anna”(who were later proven to be truly an uncle and niece with also very closely related immediate families). Charles II was the only surviving heir of his father’s marriages who could inherit the throne due to him being the only son. When he was born on November 6th, 1661, he was given the title of Prince of Asturias which was the name given to the next heir of the Spanish throne. In his early life, Charles did not learn to speak until he was 4 years old due to his strong mental learning disabilities caused by the heavy inbreeding of his family, and took yet another 4 years after that for him to learn to walk. Because of these multiple disabilities which he was cursed to have, he was said to have been treated as an infant until the high age of 10 and never attended school due to the fear he would experience to much mental exertion. He was treated as such an infant throughout his young life, he was often expected not to even clean himself properly until his “illegitimate half-brother” Don Juan Jose of Austria obtained power and forced Charles to remain in a state of cleanliness. Charles II became official king at a young age of 4 years old due to him being his father’s only heir to the throne. However, because he was mentally incapable of serving as king for the Spanish empire, his mother Marie Anna was appointed by the Council of Castile to act as regent (to temporary a temporary ruler of Spain) for Charles. In 1675 Charles II reached the age of 14, he was permitted to the ability of ruling Spain without a regent. When Charles reached this age, he was asked by the other parts of Spanish government to sign a decree which would allow his mother to remain regent queen of Spain and permit her to have more power than she had recently been entitled to. Charles had at first refused to sign this decree but after assort meeting with his mother, Charles quickly agreed to sign the decree and to not ever disobey his mother’s ruling again. In 1678 a palace coup took place against the regent queen and Don Juan Jose was established as Prime Minister of the Spanish empire. After a treaty to end the Franco-Dutch war, Spain gave up a large amount of its empire and great hopes were displayed for the continuing reign of Don Juan but it was proven to be a disappointing hope due to the selfishness of
