How Inbred were the Habsburgs? Part 2: The Austrian Line

Royals throughout history are notorious for inbreeding. But the European royal family by far infamously incestuous were the Habsburgs (Hapsburgs). The royal house ruled Spain from 1506 to 1700 and held the Holy Roman Empire from 1452 until 1806. These two branches of the family vollied brides back and forth like ping pong balls. Cousins married cousins and uncles married nieces. All in the name of keeping wealth and power in the family and keeping their blood blue. They were oblivious to the havoc all this intermarrying was playing on their genetics. The tragic results were numerous family members with mental illness, intellectual disability, vulnerability to diseases, and a famously unusual continence which came to be known as the Hapsburg Jaw. Just how inbred where the Habsburgs? Short answer, very. Long answer, well, lets get into it!

Frederick III, the Peaceful
Maximilian I
Charles V
Ferdinand I
Maximilian II
Rudolph II
Matthias
Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II
Leopold I
Joseph I
Charles VI
Maria Theresa & Francis I
Joseph II
Leopold II
Francis II
Ferdinand I
Franz Joseph I
Charles I
Karl von Habsburg

I make mini documentaries about women's history and royal history:
Sources:

[desertrose]

"She was not a close relative, but he was inbred enough for both of them." 😆 Also, I want dumplings too.

[dyld]

The 3 Habsburg kids:

1. Eleonore, a model and jewelry designer
2. Ferdinand, a racecar driver
3. Gloria

[AzuraBelle]

My jaw dropped when a married couple shared the same 4 grandparents. That’s baffling

[fvnaticbychoice]

to me the Austrian line was WAY more aesthetically pleasing than the Spanish line. the few outsider genes came in clutch lol

[TheLeastOfficialOfBros]

Doctor: so what kinds of ailments run in your family?
The Hapsburgs: yes

[noneyabusiness]

How the hell did someone who was the result of generations of inbreeding and double first cousins live into his 80s? That’s nothing short of a miracle

[lafilleindigo]

"He was inbred enough for the both of them"
"...When he tried he had 5 seizures. Not a great wedding night."
"When told of the revolts...the emperor responded 'But are they allowed to do that?'"
HOLY SHIT I love this channel

[backgroundtitan]

“She was not a close relative”
Me: “So there’s hope”
“Died without having children”
Me: “Well that wasn’t very cash money of her”

[LadyCoyKoi]

"she was not a close relative but he was inbred enough for both of them"
😶Roasted on epic historical proportion. He felt that one in his grave.

[SeGG]

Mind-boggling to learn that there are living Habsburgs today. I hope they're all happy and healthy.

[ellaeadig]

I felt sorry for the guy's 15 year old niece until you said she blamed Jewish people for her problems and had them thrown out of the city.

[Kerriangel]

Drinking game: For every cousin marriage, drink until Charles II appears almost human

[emilybarclay]

Aunts marrying nephews almost never happened because generally aunts are older than their nephews and royals almost exclusively married women younger than them for reproduction reasons. Also, an aunt is likely to be the sister of a king and not the daughter and sisters aren’t as valuable as daughters so an aunt is really only a last ditch resort. Add onto that that royal women married very early, and an older aunt is going to have been single for a reason, and that an older uncle marrying a younger niece maintains the generational power structure whereas an older aunt becoming subservient to a younger nephew breaks the very important tradition of older generations having all the power

[poprock]

Wow painting their veins to look visibly bluer and thinking incest would keep their blood "blue" instead of severely deformed is the funniest thing I've heard today lol

[smolbluegoblin]

Fun fact: Isabella of Parme was deeply in love with her sister in law (her husband's sister) Maria Christina. Despite living in the same place, the two women exchanged letters daily. Isabella also knew that she was going to die young, after the death of her mother when she was a teen left her traumatized. She was a brilliant woman who sadly succumbed to the high rate of death in childbirth
(her letters to her sister in law were preserved and published, although I could only find them in French, which was the language of the royals back then. It's put together very neatly along a biography of her called "Je meurs d'amour pour toi" (trad: I'm dying of my love for you) that I recommend to everyone who can read French!)

[amandalim]

"She was healthier than her brother, but that was a very low bar"
xD I'm fucking dead with all the roasting
also it's so irritating when they bring in "new blood" and have 10+ kids that survive, just to marry their first cousins/nieces/uncles all over again >.<

[darthplagueis]

Being one of the modern Habsburgs must be so bloody weird... Like, imagine growing up knowing that your ancestors specifically ruled over large portions of europe whilst also being so absurdly incestuous that it borders on a miracle that anyone in the bloodline remained fertile enough to let the family persist into the current day...

[ninanano]

"He insisted that his new bride call him 'uncle'" 🤮🤮🤮🤮

[seth]

It's crazy to me that they're connected to SO many historical events. The 30 years war, the French revolution, world war 1, etc. They're just some family out of a castle in Switzerland. History is crazy

[contortionyx]

You'd think they'd start noticing a pattern that whenever the Habsburgs had children with someone outside the family, those children had a higher likelyhood of surviving to adulthood but no *plays Sweet Home Alabama*