1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:03,680 Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties ABC primetime soap opera Dynasty. The series centered 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: on the wealthy Carrington family of Denver, Colorado, a patriarch 4 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: oil tycoon, and a cast of feuding family members. Let's 5 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: just say that I feel as I do because we 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: have so much in common, such as what our blood, 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: our teens. But that dynasty, for all its drama and dysfunction, 8 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,479 Speaker 1: had nothing on the real life dynasties we're going to 9 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:45,280 Speaker 1: talk about today, like the Habsburgs, the family that ruled 10 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: much of Europe for centuries. 11 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 2: These people are so powerful, I mean power over tens 12 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 2: of millions of people and gazillions of acres of land. 13 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: This royal family, however, was a little too close. The 14 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: final Habsburg, ruler of Spain, who died in seventeen hundred, 15 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: is considered to be the most inbred royal ever. 16 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 2: His Habsburg jaw was so pronounced that his two sets 17 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 2: of teeth couldn't touch at all. He couldn't keep food 18 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:16,040 Speaker 2: in his mouth. 19 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 1: In this episode, we're going to look at the practices 20 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: of intermarriage and inbreeding among several major royal families and 21 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: how these practices built and in some cases led to 22 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: the unraveling of their respective empires. 23 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:36,160 Speaker 2: The strategy for survival and for enhancement of power becomes, 24 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 2: especially in the Habsburg case, the recipe for its undoing. 25 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: From CBS Sunday Morning and iHeart I'm Moacca and this 26 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: is mobituaries, this moment, the Habsburg jaw and the death 27 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: of a dynasty. Royal families and inbreeding are they kind 28 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 1: of like peanut butter and jelly. 29 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 2: There are two great tastes that went great together mo 30 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 2: for a really long time. 31 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: I'm talking with my friend Caroline Weber. Carries a professor 32 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: of French and comparative literature at Barnard College and a 33 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: best selling author. 34 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 2: At the moment, I'm working on a book on royalty 35 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 2: around the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 36 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,079 Speaker 2: And one of the amazing things to underscore is that 37 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,839 Speaker 2: this kind of royal intermarriage really continued for a very 38 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 2: long time. Even though it led to the end of 39 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 2: some dynasties, It's persisted among a number of especially European dynasties. 40 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,600 Speaker 2: And the most recent example, I think, in kind of 41 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 2: contemporary collective memory is the late Queen Elizabeth I and 42 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 2: Prince Philip who are cousins, Who. 43 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,119 Speaker 1: Were cousins, and how close were their cousins. 44 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,119 Speaker 2: They were third cousins, so not super close by royal standards. 45 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 2: They shared a common great great grandmother in Queen Victoria. 46 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:23,399 Speaker 1: Marriage between royal relatives has many precedents. For example, scientists 47 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: believe that the parents of boy King Tutan, common in 48 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: ancient Egypt, were brother and sister. In ancient Rome, Emperor 49 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: Claudius married his niece Agrippina the Younger. But this practice 50 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: became super charged throughout Europe from the Late Middle Ages 51 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,360 Speaker 1: around the year fifteen hundred all the way until the 52 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: outbreak of World War One in nineteen fourteen. Now, before 53 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: we get into it, let's define one word that's central 54 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 1: to this topic, consanguinity. 55 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 2: Consanguinity is a word that describes blood relatedness between people 56 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,000 Speaker 2: who marry. If you were a king and you wanted 57 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 2: your children to be recognized as a king, you would 58 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 2: want to marry somebody who was perceived also to be 59 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 2: of royal blood, and that royal blood often meant that 60 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,280 Speaker 2: they were in some way, shape or form related to you. 61 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: Wow, So consanguinity inter marriage equaled stability. 62 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, it did. It represented a few things. I mean, 63 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 2: on the one hand, consanguinity did mean concentrating family resources 64 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 2: and territories and keeping them as it were in the family. 65 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 2: So that was a big part of consanguinous marriages, this 66 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 2: idea that you weren't going to let hard won territories 67 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 2: in your kingdom potentially pass into the hands of a 68 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:50,920 Speaker 2: rival king somewhere else. But the disadvantage, politically speaking, was 69 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 2: that consanguinity meant that you missed an opportunity to form 70 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 2: an alliance with a rival king who was not already 71 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:57,960 Speaker 2: related to you. 72 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: So for a good stretch of history, the incentives to 73 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:04,600 Speaker 1: intermarry were greater than the disincentives. 74 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 2: Yes, especially because the disincentives weren't very well known. I 75 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 2: think just the idea of genetics as an actual science 76 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 2: that didn't even start to come into being really until 77 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 2: the nineteenth century. So for hundreds of years when you intermarried, 78 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 2: the big incentive was this purity of your bloodline and 79 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 2: this kind of reinforced intrafamilial connection, which became more and 80 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 2: more meaningful as your family expanded its territory more and more. 81 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 2: And this is why the Hobsburgs are such a good 82 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 2: example or bad example of inbreeding. 83 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: Who were the Hobsburgs. 84 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 2: So the Hobsburgs were a royal family who traced their 85 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 2: origins to the early Middle Ages in Central and Eastern 86 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 2: Europe what we would call today Austria and Hungary. 87 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: The Habsburgs held some of their power through their relationship 88 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 1: with what was known as the Holy Roman Empire, a 89 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: vast Christian political entity in Europe modeled on the original 90 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: Roman Empire. 91 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 2: Since Charlemagne in the ninth century, Europe had had an 92 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,039 Speaker 2: elected Holy Roman Emperor who was the defender of the 93 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 2: faith for all Catholics, but essentially the Habsburgs kept becoming 94 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:20,799 Speaker 2: Holy Roman Emperor. 95 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,840 Speaker 1: Enter Maximilian the First. He was a Habsburg and put 96 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: the family on the map quite literally with his election 97 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: as Holy Roman Emperor and by his marriage to Mary 98 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: of Burgundy. 99 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:39,320 Speaker 2: Marie of Burgundy basically through her father had inherited much 100 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 2: of Burgundy in France, but also the Netherlands and some 101 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 2: territories kind of stretching into what we would today consider 102 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 2: to be Belgium. And when she married a member of 103 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 2: the Habsburg royal family, the Austrian Habsburgs then sort of 104 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 2: took over that whole swath of land as well. 105 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: Maximilian the First and Mary of Burgundy, who were not 106 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: closely related, had one surviving son. This son would expand 107 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 1: the Habsburg's influence even further than his father did. 108 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 2: This guy's son was known as Philip the Handsome Philippe 109 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 2: Leubel we called him in French. Philippe Leubel then crucially 110 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 2: married the last offshoot of a Spanish royal family known 111 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 2: as aragon and Castile. So most Americans have heard of 112 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 2: Ferdinand and Isabella. They sponsored Christopher Columbus's trip to the 113 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 2: New World. They had a daughter known as Juana the 114 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 2: Crazy Juana la Looca, and so some of the I 115 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 2: think the lunacy that the Habsburg's later evinced was actually 116 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 2: inherited from this woman, who was born a Castilian an 117 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 2: Aragonese princess. But she married a son of this Habsburg 118 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 2: Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor called Philippe Leubel. 119 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: To recap Philip the Handsome, the only surviving son of 120 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: the Habsburg Emperor, marries Juana the Crazy, the heir to 121 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: the Spanish throne. This meant their descent and so would 122 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: inherit both the Habsburg and Spanish territories, and Guana la 123 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: Loca would be an amazing telenovellah I Love Betty leafea 124 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: which became Ugly Betty in the United States. It was 125 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,120 Speaker 1: originally a Colombian telenovela. And yeah, and one on La 126 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: Loca would be amazing. It's just a great title already. 127 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 2: And she, by most accounts, really was insane. 128 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,920 Speaker 1: But Juana and Philip's son had some sense. He ruled 129 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: as Charles the First of Spain and Charles the Fifth 130 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: of the Holy Roman Empire. 131 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 2: When Charles came of age, he made the very smart 132 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 2: decision that he wasn't going to try to be in 133 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 2: control of both Austria, Central Europe, Northern Europe and also Spain. 134 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:48,320 Speaker 2: So he essentially split the Habsburgs into two branches, and 135 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:53,400 Speaker 2: he founded the dynasty of Spanish Habsburgs as separate from 136 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 2: his Austrian Habsburg cousins. 137 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,679 Speaker 1: The likeness of Charles quint as he's known has been 138 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:02,640 Speaker 1: to pay did by a number of painters. They all 139 00:09:02,679 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: show him with a distinctive mandible. 140 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 2: So he did have what became known as the as 141 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:15,719 Speaker 2: the Habsburg jaw, this very protuberant lower jaw, that kind 142 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:18,560 Speaker 2: of jutted out. If you see there's a famous painting 143 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:21,000 Speaker 2: of him by Titian where you can kind of see 144 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 2: he's got very sickly looking skin. He suffered from gout. 145 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,319 Speaker 2: He may have suffered from epilepsy, which became a kind 146 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 2: of a hereditary habsburg condition. But the main thing is 147 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,559 Speaker 2: the jaw, and the jaw kind of was often associated 148 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 2: with something that modern scientists call maxillary deficiency, where the 149 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:38,760 Speaker 2: upper jaw kind of was sunken in. And the Titian 150 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 2: portrait of Charles Quint really shows a head that almost 151 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 2: looks like a cashew. It's kind of collapsed in the center, 152 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 2: with a bulbous forehead up top, and then this really 153 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 2: outwardly jutting jaw and underbite at the bottom. 154 00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: An Italian writer named Antonio de Biats, who met Charles Quint, 155 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: wrote in fifteen seventeen that he had a long, avarice 156 00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: face and a lopsided mouth which drops open when he 157 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: is not on his guard. So this King Charles wasn't 158 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,719 Speaker 1: exactly Prince Charming, but his decision to divide the dynasty 159 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: between Spain and Austria would guarantee that his descendants would 160 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: be even less portrait Jenic. 161 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 2: His parents were not that closely interrelated. Charles quint was 162 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:29,200 Speaker 2: not really the product of significant inbreeding, but because it 163 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:32,319 Speaker 2: was his decision essentially to try to split the Habsburg 164 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 2: family into two branches of a royal family that together 165 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 2: ruled so much of Europe. His son became the Spanish 166 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 2: Habsburg King, who was really just in charge of Spain 167 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,079 Speaker 2: and the Holy Roman Empire, and his younger brother, Charles 168 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:51,200 Speaker 2: Quint's younger brother, Ferdinand I, became the head of the 169 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,200 Speaker 2: Austrian branch of the family and ruling over Austria and 170 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 2: its associated territories. He really instituted, I think the policy 171 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,040 Speaker 2: of significant innermarriage tween and among so what you then 172 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:07,040 Speaker 2: have after Charles Quint is generations of Spanish Habsburg's marrying 173 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,440 Speaker 2: Austrian habsburg to keep it, keep it all together. 174 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: Keep it all together. Yeah, by splitting the empire, he 175 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 1: actually encouraged incentivized intermarriage. 176 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 2: That's right, and that's why I think you find so 177 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 2: much more intermarriage in the Habsburg family than in other 178 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 2: European royal families. 179 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:26,440 Speaker 1: So much so that a Latin motto was coined in 180 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:28,160 Speaker 1: connection with the Habsburgs. 181 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 2: There's no evidence that they invented it themselves, but it 182 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,960 Speaker 2: became one that was cited every time you saw news 183 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,719 Speaker 2: of yet another Habsburg marriage. It would say, let other 184 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 2: nations wage war, You happy Austria conquer through marriage. Jamie 185 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 2: and I are more than brother and sister. 186 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:47,839 Speaker 1: We shed a wound, came into this world together, we 187 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: belonged together. Contrary to what the Game of Thrones extended 188 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:56,440 Speaker 1: universe might have you believe, Incest wasn't a personal preference 189 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 1: as much as it was a political strategy. 190 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:01,760 Speaker 2: Because he really was trying to manage an empire that 191 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 2: was so vast. People forget that actually Mexico was part 192 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 2: of Charles Quint's empire. I mean, he claimed Mexico in 193 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 2: that obviously dubious and problematic colonialius way. He claimed the Philippines, 194 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 2: and so his empire really covered so much of the 195 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 2: globe that it didn't make sense for all of that 196 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:22,640 Speaker 2: to be concentrated into one branch of one family. And 197 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 2: so by creating this kind of separate but equal branch 198 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,680 Speaker 2: of the Austrian Habsburgs, he had a kind of a 199 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 2: constant pool of intermarriage where none of these territories would 200 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:32,199 Speaker 2: go outside of the family. 201 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:35,200 Speaker 1: Wow, they had so much power, and they were trying 202 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:36,320 Speaker 1: to maintain that power. 203 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:36,719 Speaker 2: That's right. 204 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:41,079 Speaker 1: Is there any family today that's the equivalent God the Kardashians. 205 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: I was going to say, are they as powerful as 206 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:43,559 Speaker 1: the Kardashians. 207 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:47,520 Speaker 2: I think it's hard to tell, because, yeah, their brand 208 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 2: wasn't as beloved apparently as the Kardashians. But yeah, in 209 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,520 Speaker 2: terms of ubiquity and everywhere you look, there they are. 210 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,360 Speaker 2: There is a kind of a Kardashian effect that you see, 211 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,000 Speaker 2: we haven't yet lived long enough and the Kardashians haven't 212 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,040 Speaker 2: lived long enough for us to see what happens with 213 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:04,400 Speaker 2: the children of Kim and Chloe and Courtney. 214 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:04,839 Speaker 1: Well they do. 215 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:06,959 Speaker 2: They have their own TV shows, those kids. 216 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: They will by the time this airs, and they have 217 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:11,640 Speaker 1: delightful charles. They look great. 218 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 2: Oh right, yeah, well I do feel like that. Yeah, 219 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 2: the Kardashians have done a much better job of kind 220 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 2: of diversification in. 221 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: Marriage, and that's why the Kardashian dynasty will last even 222 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:23,480 Speaker 1: centuries longer than the Hopspurs. 223 00:13:23,559 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, I want you guys to be able to 224 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 2: do this. Tell you're my age and one of your 225 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 2: kids takes over, that's a whole that's the Joy. 226 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: Charles quint had a son who became Philip the Second 227 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,720 Speaker 1: of Spain, who had a son called Philip the Third, 228 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: who had a son called Philip the. 229 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:50,240 Speaker 2: Fourth, and they all interestingly and importantly married Austrian either 230 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:52,720 Speaker 2: nieces or cousins. 231 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: And as the consanguinity picks up in pace, so do 232 00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:57,720 Speaker 1: its consequences. 233 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:00,440 Speaker 2: Because the hobsburg is what you really see is just 234 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,280 Speaker 2: generation after generation, the problems that we now either know 235 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:10,600 Speaker 2: or suspect were genetically transmitted just get more and more pronounced. 236 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: Philip the Fourth and his niece slash wife had one 237 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,559 Speaker 1: surviving son, who would be known as Charles the Second 238 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:23,160 Speaker 1: or Charles the Bewitched due to his many infirmities. 239 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:27,680 Speaker 2: Well, Charles the Second is important because he really represents 240 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 2: the worst of what can happen with these successive consanguineous 241 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:35,720 Speaker 2: marriages from one generation to the next. His habsburg jaw 242 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 2: was so pronounced that his two sets of teeth couldn't 243 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 2: touch at all, he couldn't keep food in his mouth. 244 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,520 Speaker 2: He never really mentally developed beyond the age of about 245 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 2: ten years old. 246 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: Charles was unable to speak until the age of four, 247 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: and he couldn't walk until the age of eight. He 248 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: looked elderly when he was only thirty years old, suffering 249 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: from edemas on his feet, legs, abdomen, and face in 250 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:08,600 Speaker 1: his teeth not meeting his inability to chew. And this 251 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: is centuries before protein shakes. Like, there's right, I mean 252 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: the thunder straw has been invented probably at that point. 253 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, how did he eat not well? And it wasn't pretty. 254 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 2: This is one of the fun things about studying royalty 255 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 2: is if you're in a Storian like me and you're 256 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:27,880 Speaker 2: trying to read contemporary accounts, nobody wants ever to say 257 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:31,120 Speaker 2: anything bad about the king, so you get a lot 258 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 2: of euphemisms like his majesty did not eat well tonight, 259 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:37,480 Speaker 2: and you think, okay, does that mean that he could 260 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:39,520 Speaker 2: barely get the food in or was it just a 261 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 2: disgusting spectacle? And these euphemisms you can never say definitively 262 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 2: what they mean, but you suspect that they hide a 263 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 2: thousand embarrassments. 264 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 1: Genetic analysis has determined that in the average Spanish Habsburg, 265 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: about ten percent of maternal and paternal genes were identical, 266 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,560 Speaker 1: which means they were more closely inbread than the child 267 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: of two first cousins. By the time Charles the Bewitched 268 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: was born, the problem was even worse. 269 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 2: One of the takeaways from one of these scientific reports 270 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 2: was that even though Charles the Second's parents were quote 271 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 2: primarily or only uncle and niece, they were so closely 272 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 2: related already by the previous generations of inbreeding that they 273 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,040 Speaker 2: were as closely related as brother and sister. So Charles 274 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:31,520 Speaker 2: the Second really was the product of so much inbreeding 275 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 2: that essentially it was like his parents were siblings. 276 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. They tried to marry him off. 277 00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:40,840 Speaker 2: They tried to marry Charles the Second off, and it 278 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:44,920 Speaker 2: did not go well because generally, one of the functions 279 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 2: of slightly idealized royal portraiture was that you could send 280 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 2: the equivalent of a photo to a foreign court and 281 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 2: say this is who you'll be marrying. And there are 282 00:16:54,960 --> 00:17:00,000 Speaker 2: countless stories throughout European history, at least, of massive dissipate 283 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 2: ointments and temper tantrums when the person actually shows up. 284 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:05,840 Speaker 1: Some things never changed, some things never changed. 285 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:07,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, now, I mean, I guess it's like what does 286 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 2: your Tinder photo look like? And how much have you 287 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:11,920 Speaker 2: tinkered with it? But in the case of Charles the 288 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 2: second whatever miniature portrait of him was sent to the 289 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,680 Speaker 2: court of France where he got his first bride, did 290 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,920 Speaker 2: not reveal the full effect. So his first wife, Marie 291 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 2: Luise of. 292 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: Orleans, she swiped right. 293 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 2: She swiped right, or her parents swiped right for her. 294 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,439 Speaker 2: When she got to Madrid and saw who her husband was, 295 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 2: apparently she had a nervous breakdown. Of course it had 296 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 2: to be restrained, and like dragged up to the altar screaming, and. 297 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 1: Did anyone say to her, honey, but his personality haha? 298 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:43,600 Speaker 2: Well, sadly, because he couldn't really talk, we don't know 299 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,320 Speaker 2: what his personality was. He didn't even have that going for. 300 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 2: He couldn't even cultivate the personality ride. He couldn't make 301 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 2: himself understood. 302 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:55,240 Speaker 1: I'm suddenly reminded of Paul Rubens's bravura performance in the 303 00:17:55,280 --> 00:18:01,720 Speaker 1: sitcom Thirty Rock as the genetically compromised European Prince Gerhart Habsburg. 304 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 3: Thank you, all, dear friends, fuck on it to my 305 00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:07,640 Speaker 3: bad day. 306 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Yeah, would 307 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: he like to dance? Sadly, because my body does not 308 00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:22,000 Speaker 1: produce joint fluid, I cannot but I would enjoy watching 309 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:27,200 Speaker 1: you dance moonbi Um, that depiction may not have been 310 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,639 Speaker 1: so far off from reality. During the last years of 311 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,800 Speaker 1: his life, Charles could barely stand up and suffered from 312 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 1: hallucinations and convulsive episodes. Charles the Bewitched died in seventeen 313 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: hundred at the age of thirty eight. According to his autopsy, 314 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,679 Speaker 1: his corpse did not contain a single drop of blood. 315 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: His heart was the size of a peppercorn, his lungs corroded, 316 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,440 Speaker 1: his intestines rotten and gangrenous, He had a single testicle 317 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: black as coal, and his head was water. 318 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,200 Speaker 2: So he really became a poster child for what can 319 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 2: go wrong with interbreeding, and the line died with him 320 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,879 Speaker 2: because he couldn't conceive a child by either one of 321 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 2: his wives. 322 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: And that has real repercussions. Yes, yeah, I. 323 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 2: Mean it basically threw the Spanish monarchy into a succession crisis, 324 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,560 Speaker 2: and yeah, and a war, the War of that's known 325 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 2: as the War of Spanish Succession. There were claimants from 326 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 2: the Austrian side who said, well, we're Hafsburgs too, and 327 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:33,119 Speaker 2: then you had the French who had a claim on 328 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 2: the throne of Spain. 329 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,360 Speaker 1: The war of Spanish succession began in seventeen oh one 330 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,920 Speaker 1: and went on for more than a decade, claiming more 331 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: than four hundred thousand lives in combat. 332 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,880 Speaker 2: It was almost a generation of young people just grew 333 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 2: up with this war where it was unclear where the 334 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 2: throne was going to land, and so in terms of 335 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:58,240 Speaker 2: drawbacks to consanguineous marriage and the genetic effects of that, 336 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,119 Speaker 2: this is another one. Right, the dynasty, which has drawn 337 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,400 Speaker 2: its legitimacy from a bloodline, dies out. 338 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:08,920 Speaker 1: But while the Spanish Habsburg line died out with Charles 339 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: the Bewitched in seventeen hundred, the Austrian branch of the 340 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: Habsburgs kept going. After a short break. We'll meet one 341 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:24,160 Speaker 1: Austrian Habsburg who could make this unsightly jaw look chic. 342 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 2: Marie Antoinette was a Habsburg. Can we go to Marintoinette? 343 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 3: Notte? When I went to the Queen the pot take 344 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,719 Speaker 3: no bread for you know what? We fred let them 345 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:43,240 Speaker 3: eat cake. 346 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:48,520 Speaker 1: That's such nonsense. I would never say that. Marie Antoinette, 347 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,440 Speaker 1: portrayed here by Kirsten Dunst in Sophia Coppola's twenty oh 348 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: six film, is probably the most famous Habsburg in history, 349 00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 1: a product of the Austrian branch of the family. In 350 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, she was married off to the air to 351 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:08,320 Speaker 1: the French throne, the future King Louis the sixteenth. 352 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 2: And he had significant Habsburg blood himself, because both Louis 353 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,679 Speaker 2: the fourteenth and Louis the thirteenth had been married to 354 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 2: Habsburg first cousins of theirs. 355 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,520 Speaker 1: I'm back with author and professor Caroline Webber. 356 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,320 Speaker 2: So both she and her husband had this Habsburg blood line. 357 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:25,879 Speaker 2: But she was the one who really visibly had something 358 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:29,640 Speaker 2: of a Habsburg underbite, a kind of protuberant lower jaw 359 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,280 Speaker 2: that I think people who didn't like her took to 360 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,520 Speaker 2: be some kind of equivalent of resting bitch face. You 361 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 2: know that she always had this kind of haughty set 362 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,120 Speaker 2: to her face because she also had a pendulous lower lip, 363 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,960 Speaker 2: which was associated with the Habsburg jaw. 364 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:45,400 Speaker 1: It was the pendulous lower lip. 365 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 2: The pendulous lower lip was basically just a lip that 366 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 2: would kind of hang low over the protuberant chin, and 367 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:57,120 Speaker 2: she had something of that according to contemporary reports. By 368 00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:00,719 Speaker 2: most accounts, Marie Antoinette's version of these trees was not 369 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 2: crazily exacerbated. Her mother an Austrian princess and empress had 370 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 2: married a little bit outside of the bloodline into the 371 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,280 Speaker 2: ducal House of Lorraine, and so Marie Antoinette got a 372 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,919 Speaker 2: little bit of variety in the bloodline there. When she 373 00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:19,680 Speaker 2: came to France as an almost fifteen year old girl 374 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:22,200 Speaker 2: in seventeen seventy, it had been a long time since 375 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:27,399 Speaker 2: the French people had seen kind of a fresh faced, young, pretty, 376 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 2: fun loving teenage girl who was heir to the whole 377 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,120 Speaker 2: thing by dint of being married to the future king. 378 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 2: And she became one of the first fashion celebrities in 379 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,680 Speaker 2: eighteenth century Europe, realiant in the history of all of Europe, 380 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,720 Speaker 2: and she was the first European royal whose likeness was 381 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 2: reproduced in kind of a primitive early version of fashion magazines, 382 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,160 Speaker 2: which were these fashion illustrations. Those were generally quite idealizing 383 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 2: when they depicted her face. It didn't have a super 384 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 2: pronounced Hapsburg jaw. You'd maybe see a little hint of it, 385 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,480 Speaker 2: and people who admired her and thought she was elegant 386 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,640 Speaker 2: and liked the kind of crazy new way she liked 387 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 2: to dress wanted to look like her, So you might 388 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 2: see people kind of doing a poudy lip to try 389 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 2: to vaguely affect. Yeah, but they didn't have plastic surgery 390 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,920 Speaker 2: back then, so there was no surgical method for making 391 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 2: your lower lip puff out a little bit. There is 392 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 2: a really funny story, for instance, of Marie Antoinette loved 393 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,159 Speaker 2: experimental hairstyles, and we all know the kind of the 394 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,199 Speaker 2: fashion plates and the portraits of her with like the 395 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,480 Speaker 2: three foot high beehive headdress sometimes that had like a 396 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,160 Speaker 2: fully rigged sailing ship ensconced in the in the coils 397 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:37,640 Speaker 2: of her hair. 398 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:38,640 Speaker 1: Yeah. 399 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:43,919 Speaker 2: Yeah, I wrote a book about this year's ago, but 400 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 2: I mentioned it just to say anybody who wants to 401 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,359 Speaker 2: see the pictures I did reproduce as many as I 402 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:50,399 Speaker 2: could in Queen of Fashion. But one thing that that 403 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 2: I thought was so funny and really captures this kind 404 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 2: of contemporary aspirational celebrity culture that could have some relationship 405 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,120 Speaker 2: to like the card today where the King and Queen 406 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 2: are the ones who everybody knows about, who have all 407 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:06,880 Speaker 2: the money, who have all the power, who are everywhere 408 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,840 Speaker 2: all the time, and this invitation frenzy Marie Antoinette with 409 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 2: these crazy hairstyles apparently spawned tens of thousands of copycats, 410 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:18,879 Speaker 2: both in the upper classes where they could really afford 411 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 2: to have somebody spend six hours on their hair teasing 412 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,320 Speaker 2: it into a cathedral shape, or little working girls in 413 00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:26,119 Speaker 2: Paris who would just try to do what they could with, 414 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,560 Speaker 2: like teasing in a comb. But one woman famously at court, 415 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,280 Speaker 2: some kind of rich woman saw Marie Antoinette in a 416 00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,639 Speaker 2: headdress that, instead of having flowers and pearls and ribbons, 417 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 2: like the sort of standard way would have been at 418 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 2: Bearsies at that time, Marie Antoinette had a cabbage and 419 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:43,320 Speaker 2: some carrots and like maybe a cucumber some other vegetables 420 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:45,679 Speaker 2: in it, and was called her pouf a lajardigne, a 421 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 2: gardener's poof. And this woman said, never again, where will 422 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 2: I wear anything but vegetables in my hair? It looked 423 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,200 Speaker 2: so beautiful, your majesty, And this idea was people were 424 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 2: desperate to look like the queen. So I think even 425 00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,399 Speaker 2: if she had a bit of a Habsburg jaw and 426 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,320 Speaker 2: a bit of a Habsburg pendulous lip, she did become 427 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:04,600 Speaker 2: this kind of fashion icon who people wanted to resemble. 428 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: And what do you think she saw when she looked 429 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 1: in the mirror. 430 00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:09,760 Speaker 2: That's a great question, and you know Versailles was not 431 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 2: lacking in mirrors. Well, you know, the royal family had 432 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 2: to walk through that huge hall of mirrors every day 433 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 2: on their way to lunch. So she I don't know. 434 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,680 Speaker 2: I mean, she did complain that she felt like most 435 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 2: portraits painted of her didn't capture her her essence, But 436 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 2: I don't know if that's because the paintings were too 437 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 2: idealized or not idealized enough. You know, we really don't know. 438 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,080 Speaker 2: And because she was such a controversial figure, you know, 439 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 2: France and Austria hadn't been allies for a really long 440 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,800 Speaker 2: time in European history, and so when she came and 441 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:41,200 Speaker 2: married the future Louis the sixteenth, there were a number 442 00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 2: of people at court who were just opposed to her 443 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 2: presence there because she represented an alliance with Austria. So 444 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 2: they would be the ones who would maybe go a 445 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 2: little bit farther in talking about how ugly she was 446 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 2: with this habsburg jaw, and the people who were partisans 447 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 2: of her and the alliance she represented would talk about 448 00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:59,080 Speaker 2: how beautiful she was with all that in her hair, 449 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,480 Speaker 2: with all that rough dinner hair. Kept her young. I mean, 450 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 2: she died at thirty seven. But who's to say how 451 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,440 Speaker 2: long she would have survived otherwise? 452 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,520 Speaker 1: Right head of Lettuce And then there's something there. Okay, no, 453 00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:12,280 Speaker 1: but you know, boy, that confidence she shows up in France. 454 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,640 Speaker 1: She's Austrian and she's like, this is how I'm gonna dress, 455 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: wear my hair. 456 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that she actually sort of not only presumed 457 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,399 Speaker 2: to dictate fashion to the French, but she kind of 458 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 2: pioneered the concept of the French being the ones who 459 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,399 Speaker 2: were the people to beat when it came to fashion. 460 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: Is that where we get it from here? Yeah? 461 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,120 Speaker 2: I mean from her and from her and her husband's 462 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 2: shared ancestor, Louis the fourteenth, He really kind of invented 463 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 2: peacocking and power dressing for men, you know, the high heels, 464 00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,119 Speaker 2: the red souls, the kind of early Christian lubautint, the 465 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 2: big wigs and the big hair and the ribbons and 466 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 2: the lace. And Louis the fourteenth became a walking billboard 467 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,159 Speaker 2: for the French luxury industries, and he understood that France, 468 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,919 Speaker 2: in order to kind of fill its coffers, needed to 469 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,560 Speaker 2: have these these luxury exports that it could do better 470 00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,880 Speaker 2: than anyone else, like lace, like silk. But he really 471 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,360 Speaker 2: kind of took the fashion plate concept to an extreme 472 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,800 Speaker 2: in terms of how kings could power dress and show 473 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 2: you just how much money they had. But he wasn't 474 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,320 Speaker 2: interested in trends per se. Marie Antoinette when she came 475 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,199 Speaker 2: to France in seventeen seventy, Paris was just starting to 476 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 2: become a place where what we now know is fast 477 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 2: fashion was coming into being, where there was a whole 478 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 2: sub industry of women who weren't allowed by guild law 479 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,120 Speaker 2: to make dresses or make hats, but they could make 480 00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:26,920 Speaker 2: the trimmings that you put on dresses and the trimmings 481 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 2: you put on hats, and those became the trends that 482 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 2: you could wear and kind of change every day to 483 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 2: change your look all the time. And Marie Antoinette really 484 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,440 Speaker 2: became the royal god parent of that phenomenon and spawned 485 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,639 Speaker 2: the French fashion industry as we still know it today. 486 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 1: The queen eventually fell out of fashion with her French subjects. 487 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 1: Here she is portrayed in nineteen thirty eight by film 488 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:53,320 Speaker 1: actress Norma Shearer. 489 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:58,800 Speaker 3: People threw stones at the carriage. They threw stones and 490 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:07,200 Speaker 3: shall have ill sums. I'm trembling still. Those pale faces 491 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,680 Speaker 3: full of hatreds shouting what's being shouted all over front 492 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,399 Speaker 3: for an Austrian leech. 493 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,880 Speaker 1: I suppose you can only speculate, But do you think 494 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,960 Speaker 1: that when she looked in the mirror that the hair, 495 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 1: the clothes, everything around it was I don't know. I 496 00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: don't want to say a way of compensating for the 497 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,720 Speaker 1: jah on the lip, but a way of like anyone 498 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: would like I would if I looked and I saw 499 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: I don't like that about me. Yeah, I'll do this 500 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,600 Speaker 1: to balance it out, to draw attention. 501 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,200 Speaker 2: Indeed, if you wear a three foot high headdress on 502 00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 2: your head, you are going to kind of direct the 503 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 2: eye away from your pendulous lower lip and you're extruding 504 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 2: habsbrug jaw. And it would explain why she gravitated toward 505 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 2: that trend. Of all possible trends, I mean, there are 506 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 2: all kinds of crazy things that she could do in 507 00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 2: the name of fashion, but to choose specifically as your 508 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:07,880 Speaker 2: signature hairstyle, this gigantic, bulbous, three foot high construction, you 509 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,960 Speaker 2: do think that that must have really softened the chin. 510 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,880 Speaker 1: In the end, of course, Marie Antoinette took it on 511 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 1: the chin and much more when she and her husband 512 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: were beheaded On the other side of the break. Did 513 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,960 Speaker 1: centuries of royal inbreeding lead to World War One? The 514 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:30,600 Speaker 1: downfall of more defective and despotic dynasties coming up next? 515 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,880 Speaker 1: Europeans throughout these centuries, did they not imagine another way 516 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 1: of doing things other than dynastic rule? 517 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 2: I mean, I think so much of the symbolic strength 518 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 2: of monarchy in Europe from the Middle Ages too, maybe 519 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:55,600 Speaker 2: even to today, but certainly from the Middle Ages until 520 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 2: World War One rested on this mythology that the older 521 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,120 Speaker 2: and the purer your bloodline, the better. 522 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 1: But as early as the nineteenth century, questions were being 523 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: raised about the wisdom of royal relatives marrying each other. 524 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:16,240 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy, Charles Darwin wrote that consanguineous marriages lead 525 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: to deafness, and dumbness and blindness. Darwin, for what it's worth, 526 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:25,240 Speaker 1: married and had ten children with his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood. 527 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,080 Speaker 1: In the US, concerns over so called cousin marriage were 528 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:34,200 Speaker 1: growing rapidly. At the ninth Annual meeting of the American 529 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 1: Association for the Advancement of Science in eighteen fifty five, 530 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 1: a Boston clergyman named Charles Brooks delivered a fiery lecture 531 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:49,800 Speaker 1: warning against the health consequences of consanguineous reproduction, and by 532 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,440 Speaker 1: the end of the nineteenth century, more than a dozen 533 00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: states had passed laws banning such marriages. 534 00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,200 Speaker 2: And nowadays people are envisioning another way the crown, so 535 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 2: that the heir to the throne of England now is 536 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 2: married to a woman with no obvious or known royal blood. 537 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,600 Speaker 2: So royals today, I think, do understand that there are 538 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 2: some advantages beyond just getting to marry a person you love, 539 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 2: to marrying outside of the gene pool. 540 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,880 Speaker 1: The tradition of European royals marrying each other also meant 541 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: that a disorder carried by one royal line was likely 542 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: to be carried over to other royal lines, since all 543 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:30,480 Speaker 1: these lines were tangled up. Take the blood clotting disorder hemophilia, 544 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: which is often described as the royal disease. 545 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:39,320 Speaker 2: Because it was something that was genetically transmitted, and it's 546 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,040 Speaker 2: something that really came to flourish in and among European 547 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 2: royal houses throughout late nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe. 548 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 2: Because Queen Victoria was a carrier of the gene and 549 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,560 Speaker 2: so she had one son who was a hemophiliac, and 550 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,840 Speaker 2: then she had several grandchildren who were carriers of the disease. 551 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,960 Speaker 2: And because she had cast her net wide over Europe, 552 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:06,320 Speaker 2: you really see heemophilia taking off in these generations of 553 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 2: matches that were made between and among the children and 554 00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,000 Speaker 2: grandchildren of Queen Victoria. 555 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: In the case of the royal houses which were beseicked 556 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,160 Speaker 1: by it in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 557 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: hemophilia wasn't just a family matter. It threatened to upend 558 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:23,680 Speaker 1: the world order. 559 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,280 Speaker 2: The best example I can think of is Nicholas the Second, 560 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,600 Speaker 2: the last Czar of Russia, the Romanov, the Romanov who 561 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,280 Speaker 2: his wife, the Czarina, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. 562 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,120 Speaker 2: Her brother had been hemophiliac and had died young. He 563 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:42,840 Speaker 2: fell out a window and basically died of internal bleeding. 564 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,960 Speaker 2: I mean, basically, you can't be a hemophiliac and a 565 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,400 Speaker 2: child and have any of the normal bumps and scrapes 566 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,240 Speaker 2: that a typical child would have growing up. And so 567 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 2: her and Nicholas's son, Alexei, who was the Tsarevich, the 568 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 2: heir to the throne, was born a haemophiliac. But essentially 569 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 2: they spent the entirety of his life until the whole 570 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:08,360 Speaker 2: family was murdered by the Bolsheviks, hiding him from the 571 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 2: public and hiding the fact that he was a hemophiliac. 572 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: The family drama inside the last Russian monarchy was dramatized 573 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 1: on screen in the nineteen seventy one film Nicholas and Alexandra. 574 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 4: There is no doubt of it, no doubt of any kind. 575 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,520 Speaker 4: It is unquestionably hemophilia. I see, the female is the carrier. 576 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:32,719 Speaker 4: The mother gives it to the son. Your mother got 577 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,240 Speaker 4: it from her mother, Queen Victoria, and passed it on 578 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:35,520 Speaker 4: to you. 579 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:36,680 Speaker 3: I see. 580 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,200 Speaker 2: A big part of why Zar Nicholas the second was 581 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,400 Speaker 2: so disliked by the Russian public is because they never 582 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,920 Speaker 2: saw him. He was invisible to the people of Russia. 583 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 2: And it was largely because he and his wife were 584 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,959 Speaker 2: just consumed by dread that after years and years of 585 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,760 Speaker 2: not having a son and only having daughters, and they 586 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:58,680 Speaker 2: finally had this boy, and then they realized that he 587 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 2: can die at any moment from the slightest thing. So 588 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:08,680 Speaker 2: they were constantly in seclusion with their child. Resputant was 589 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:10,759 Speaker 2: brought in which is you know, kind of resputant is 590 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,880 Speaker 2: always invoked as the kind of proof of how crazy 591 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 2: and out of touch these Tsars were, And they wanted 592 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:20,399 Speaker 2: this Charlatan faith healer, mad priest, sex maniac to come 593 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 2: into the heart of their family and run things as 594 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,759 Speaker 2: he did. But he was perceived by them as the 595 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,359 Speaker 2: only thing that was standing between their son and death 596 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:31,280 Speaker 2: from the complications of hemophilia. 597 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 4: I knew you were going to send for me. I 598 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:35,200 Speaker 4: knew the child was sick. 599 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:37,399 Speaker 3: I know what's the matter with him? 600 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,320 Speaker 4: You can't I see blood when I shut my eyes. 601 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: The blood he may have seen was that of the 602 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:49,920 Speaker 1: whole family executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in nineteen eighteen. 603 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:52,839 Speaker 2: So by the time they died, with still a very 604 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,840 Speaker 2: young Tsarevich and the rest of their children, their daughters, 605 00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:58,279 Speaker 2: nobody in Russia knew that the boy was a hemophiliac. 606 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness, But the tsar and Tsarevich's in soelarty 607 00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:07,400 Speaker 1: and then the entrance of resputen. Both of these things 608 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 1: which are to their detriment, are connected to their son's hemophilia. 609 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,839 Speaker 2: I intimately connected my only close royal friend, His great 610 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,880 Speaker 2: great great grandparents were the aunt and uncle of Zar 611 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,279 Speaker 2: Nicholas the second, and his name is Dimitri of Yugoslavia, 612 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 2: and he's the best storyteller around. And one of the 613 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:28,480 Speaker 2: stories that he tells about Rasputin is that one day 614 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,560 Speaker 2: the Tsarevich was playing inside in one of the big 615 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 2: Russian palaces and he was sitting in one of these 616 00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:36,880 Speaker 2: kind of massive, ornately decorated rooms where there were gigantic 617 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,439 Speaker 2: chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and Rasputin came running into 618 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,120 Speaker 2: the room and pushed this little boy kind of out 619 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 2: of the way, and a gigantic chandelier came crashing down. 620 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,399 Speaker 2: And the thought was that Rasputin really does have these 621 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,799 Speaker 2: visionary qualities because he saw that this boy was about 622 00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,040 Speaker 2: to be crushed by a chandelier. 623 00:35:56,239 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: Wow. While Resputen's name has gone down in history as 624 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:05,840 Speaker 1: a byword for someone who wields deceitful influence, perhaps it 625 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:10,200 Speaker 1: should be more celebrated. The euro disco group BONEYM seemed 626 00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:10,839 Speaker 1: to think so. 627 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 2: The same. 628 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: Okay, so you are writing a book now on another dynasty. 629 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 2: I'm writing a book on a number of interrelated dynasties, 630 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,640 Speaker 2: but the center of gravity is a Bavarian dynasty called 631 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 2: the Vittelsbach And who are they? They are an old 632 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:41,320 Speaker 2: Bavarian family, so south of Germany, Catholic dynasty. They were 633 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,799 Speaker 2: already in the nineteenth century one of the oldest royal 634 00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:46,360 Speaker 2: families in Europe. They could trace their ancestry back to 635 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:50,840 Speaker 2: the eleventh century. They had actually intermarried with both Spanish 636 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:56,799 Speaker 2: and Austrian Habsburgs throughout history, sporadically periodically, because they were 637 00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,279 Speaker 2: Catholic royals and Catholic royals tended to like to with 638 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 2: each other, and the same for the Protestants. And they 639 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,120 Speaker 2: really came to the fore as one of the more 640 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,280 Speaker 2: colorful royal families in the second half of the nineteenth century. 641 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:14,520 Speaker 1: And there are some particularly colorful members of this family. 642 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 2: Yes, I want to call my book Glass Piano Girl 643 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,279 Speaker 2: and Other Stories of Royal Dysfunction. I'm not sure that's 644 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,239 Speaker 2: what it will be allowed to be. But the Vittelsbach 645 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,320 Speaker 2: princess who won my heart was the daughter of a 646 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:30,239 Speaker 2: Vittelsbach Bavarian king Ludwig the first. Her name was Alexandra 647 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:34,920 Speaker 2: of Bavaria, and she, when she was around eighteen, became 648 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,080 Speaker 2: thoroughly convinced that she had swallowed two foreign objects that 649 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,719 Speaker 2: were threatening to destroy her from within. The largest and 650 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,880 Speaker 2: most problematic of these objects was a glass grand piano 651 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 2: that she thought was lodged in her stomach. And she 652 00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,200 Speaker 2: also believed that there was a miniature sofa that was 653 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,120 Speaker 2: wedged in her skull, like somewhere in her brain, and 654 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 2: she would have these fits of I think what psychoanalyst 655 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,440 Speaker 2: would call hysterical blindness, where the doctors couldn't find anything 656 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,640 Speaker 2: wrong with her optic nerves. There was no as far 657 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:12,040 Speaker 2: as we know, prominent genetic Vittelsbach hereditary condition that led 658 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:15,239 Speaker 2: to these moments of blindness, and the Vittelsbach themselves had 659 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:19,319 Speaker 2: intermarried for generations like so many royal families. But she 660 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,839 Speaker 2: believed that this little miniature sofa was pressing on her 661 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:24,280 Speaker 2: eyes and making her blind. 662 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,120 Speaker 1: And can I ask was the sofa in the same 663 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,399 Speaker 1: room as the piano? Was it like a drawing room 664 00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: or a situation. 665 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 2: Or I don't know how she It's funny because she 666 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,200 Speaker 2: became a writer in later life, but she never really 667 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,880 Speaker 2: wrote about the floor plan, the floor plan of her 668 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 2: body as a set of different chambers. But I mean, 669 00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:44,719 Speaker 2: definitely they were distinct scale differences. The piano was a 670 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,120 Speaker 2: properly sized grand piano, whereas this little sofa was tiny 671 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,680 Speaker 2: enough to somehow fit in her skulp. But her doctors 672 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 2: finally tricked her out of believing that she had this 673 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,799 Speaker 2: tiny sofa in her head because they induced vomiting one day, 674 00:38:57,320 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 2: and then in the bucket that they held out to 675 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:03,600 Speaker 2: collect her sick they fished out the surreptitiously slipped in 676 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,640 Speaker 2: piece of dollhouse furniture. They took a little, tiny dollhouse 677 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 2: sofa and said, do you see, your highness, Thanks to 678 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,919 Speaker 2: the emetic that we've prescribed, you've been purged of it now. 679 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:15,879 Speaker 2: But because she was convinced that the piano in her 680 00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,759 Speaker 2: abdomen was full sized, they could never come up with 681 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:22,200 Speaker 2: a similar trick, so she really off and on suffered 682 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,040 Speaker 2: from incredible periods of almost paralyzing terror, where she was 683 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,480 Speaker 2: afraid that if she moved even the least bit the 684 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,280 Speaker 2: wrong way, or if she jostled up against a person 685 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:33,319 Speaker 2: or a wall, or a door or the arm of 686 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:35,560 Speaker 2: a chair, that the whole thing would shatter and shred 687 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:40,920 Speaker 2: her inside. Royal photography was starting to come into vogue 688 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,200 Speaker 2: in this period, and we do have at least two 689 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:46,799 Speaker 2: photographs of her. But the photographs we had of her 690 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,640 Speaker 2: are of just a woman who looks haunted and hunted 691 00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:53,800 Speaker 2: and kind of you know, just like a hollow face, 692 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:56,080 Speaker 2: because she was afraid to eat too. I mean, eating 693 00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,440 Speaker 2: became a challenge. Everything was a challenge. She saw potential 694 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:03,480 Speaker 2: day everywhere and lived a fairly long life by those standards. 695 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,120 Speaker 2: I think she died when she was around sixty. And 696 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,480 Speaker 2: this is Princess Alexandra of Bavaria. Then Ludwig the castle Builder, 697 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 2: Ludwig the castle Builder, So Ludwig the Second was Alexandra's nephew. 698 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,520 Speaker 2: Ludwig the Second was the most flamboyantly eccentric of all 699 00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:25,640 Speaker 2: the Vittel's Box and probably of all royals in the 700 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:30,440 Speaker 2: nineteenth century. He had this kind of also delusional quality 701 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,399 Speaker 2: to his mental makeup, where, for instance, he believed that 702 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:36,640 Speaker 2: he was in constant communion with the ghosts of the 703 00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:39,879 Speaker 2: royals that he most admired, who weren't even necessarily close 704 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,960 Speaker 2: relations of his or related at all. In particular, he 705 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:47,920 Speaker 2: would have these kind of spiritual conversations with Marie Antoinette 706 00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:50,800 Speaker 2: and Louis the fourteenth, and he so firmly believed that 707 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,040 Speaker 2: they were around him and talking to him and advising 708 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:56,480 Speaker 2: him that he would have these elaborate dinner parties served 709 00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:59,319 Speaker 2: where it was just himself and the bust of Louis 710 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:01,719 Speaker 2: the fourteen, the bust of Marie Antoinette, and he would 711 00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:04,160 Speaker 2: have dish after dish brought in by valets and liveried 712 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,200 Speaker 2: valets standing in attendance, and they would clear away the 713 00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:10,840 Speaker 2: plates of like mounds of pheasant, mounds of suites. He 714 00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:14,560 Speaker 2: loved sweets that Obviously, these bust statues were not consuming. 715 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,440 Speaker 1: But the favorite extravagance of the Ludwig the castle Builder 716 00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:21,560 Speaker 1: was building castles. 717 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:25,240 Speaker 2: And he built castles all over Bavaria. One of his castles, 718 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 2: Neus s Fonstein, was the one that became the basis 719 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,560 Speaker 2: for the Disney World Castle. So when we think of 720 00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,479 Speaker 2: a cartoon version of a castle with crazy turrets, and 721 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:35,960 Speaker 2: it almost looks like it's something out of a fairy tale, 722 00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:40,440 Speaker 2: this was born of the feverish imagination of Ludwig the Second. 723 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,840 Speaker 1: Ludwig believed he ruled by divine right, which meant no 724 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:48,719 Speaker 1: checks or balances from his royal cabinet, which meant he 725 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:53,480 Speaker 1: ignored all warnings about the disaster his frienzied spending was 726 00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:54,960 Speaker 1: leading towards. 727 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,400 Speaker 2: He bankrupted Bavaria single handedly by building these castles, and 728 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,840 Speaker 2: was actually caught by his men ministers writing letters to 729 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 2: various bankers around Europe offering to sell them Bavaria so 730 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:07,720 Speaker 2: that they would advance him the money to keep building 731 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:11,600 Speaker 2: his castles. So he was really quite a maniac. But 732 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,200 Speaker 2: the palaces that he built that were so hard on 733 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,919 Speaker 2: the Bavarian treasury, in fact, are now huge tourist draws 734 00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:19,960 Speaker 2: in bavarias if people go to Bavaria, they want to 735 00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:21,440 Speaker 2: see those castles. 736 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,000 Speaker 1: Crazy rich Bavarians. 737 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,360 Speaker 2: Crazy rich Bavarians. He didn't know how to spend it 738 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 2: fast enough. 739 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,520 Speaker 1: How confident are you that this behavior was at least 740 00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:33,640 Speaker 1: in part due to intermarriage. 741 00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:36,839 Speaker 2: The vittels Box intermarried a lot, not as much as 742 00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:39,040 Speaker 2: the Habsburg's, but it was really a proud tradition and 743 00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:43,239 Speaker 2: it dated back many many generations, and anecdotally, by the 744 00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:46,759 Speaker 2: nineteenth century there was a kind of what we would 745 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,560 Speaker 2: call a meme about something called the Vittelsbach madness. Then 746 00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:54,680 Speaker 2: the perception really was that Ludwig had inherited this madness 747 00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:58,040 Speaker 2: from the Vittelsbach side of the family, and so it 748 00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,120 Speaker 2: was seen as this kind of possibly hereditary taint. 749 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:04,440 Speaker 1: Then Ludwig's younger brother. 750 00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:09,200 Speaker 2: Oh Auto Ludwig Ludwig was overthrown by his cabinet in 751 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,080 Speaker 2: eighteen eighty six, who were afraid that he was going 752 00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,319 Speaker 2: to sell the Kingdom of Bavaria. They couldn't get him 753 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,279 Speaker 2: to stop spending on the castles, and they overthrew him, 754 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 2: knowing that his younger brother was even crazier than he was, 755 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,759 Speaker 2: but thinking that at least the younger brother Otto, who 756 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,600 Speaker 2: was handed the throne as Otto the first, would be 757 00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:30,960 Speaker 2: pliable in their hands. Because Otto basically went through protracted 758 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:33,279 Speaker 2: periods where he believed that he was a dog, and 759 00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,359 Speaker 2: so Otto never really even tried to rain. Otto never 760 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,680 Speaker 2: had the power of the purse. Otto was really run 761 00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,800 Speaker 2: by his one of his dog walkers. 762 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,879 Speaker 1: Yeah, and his belief that he was a dog. How 763 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:46,760 Speaker 1: did this manifest? 764 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:51,360 Speaker 2: I belief that he was a dog manifested itself in lunging, snarling, biting. 765 00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:54,000 Speaker 2: He actually he was kept for most of his adult 766 00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:56,879 Speaker 2: life and most of his reign in one particular kind 767 00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:58,440 Speaker 2: of out of the way palace that not too many 768 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,640 Speaker 2: people would risk a visiting. Sometimes his relatives felt bad 769 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:03,080 Speaker 2: and went to visit him, and they were the ones 770 00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:06,240 Speaker 2: who would report that he was like leashed to a wall. 771 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,520 Speaker 2: And when they would come into the room, you know, 772 00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:10,720 Speaker 2: and you'd be presented, because he was still the kings. 773 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,280 Speaker 2: He'd be presented with all this pomp and like liveried servants, 774 00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:15,160 Speaker 2: and you'd do your deep curtsies if you were a woman, 775 00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,080 Speaker 2: or your deep ritual bows if you were a man, 776 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:21,240 Speaker 2: but you'd see this snarling person on all fours, tethered 777 00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:23,680 Speaker 2: to the wall and like snapping at you and apparently 778 00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:26,400 Speaker 2: foaming at the mouth. There are reports also that he 779 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:28,560 Speaker 2: would only eat out of like a dog bowl or 780 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:29,480 Speaker 2: a bowl on the ground. 781 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,760 Speaker 1: Now, Carrie points out that as a young man, Auto 782 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:35,720 Speaker 1: had been forced to fight in the Franco Prussian War, 783 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,840 Speaker 1: where he witnessed atrocities and suffered post traumatic stress disorder. 784 00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:43,120 Speaker 2: But the dog delusions had already kind of started with 785 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:44,960 Speaker 2: Auto when he was a teenager, before he went off 786 00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:46,759 Speaker 2: to war, And I think more just sent him over 787 00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:47,120 Speaker 2: the edge, and. 788 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 1: Just exacerbated and sent him over the edge. Can we 789 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:54,400 Speaker 1: draw a line between there and the outbreak of World 790 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:54,919 Speaker 1: War One? 791 00:44:55,719 --> 00:44:58,560 Speaker 2: I think in many ways we can, because By the 792 00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:02,680 Speaker 2: time World War One broke out in nineteen fourteen, Europe 793 00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:07,920 Speaker 2: was still almost entirely ruled by people from old royal 794 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:13,160 Speaker 2: families who had varying degrees of inbreeding and varying disadvantages 795 00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 2: that attached to that. And so the kingdom of Bavaria, 796 00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:19,520 Speaker 2: for instance, I mean, I think it's incredible fragility is 797 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,320 Speaker 2: highlighted by the fact that these two kings, Ludwig the 798 00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:24,480 Speaker 2: second and Auto the First, were kings, and yet they 799 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:28,640 Speaker 2: couldn't govern, They were incapable of governing, and Bavaria is 800 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:30,839 Speaker 2: one of the kingdoms that collapsed with World War One. 801 00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:34,560 Speaker 2: The Romanovs were, you know, autocrat of all. The Russia's 802 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:37,120 Speaker 2: was actually the Bizar's title. And the idea was you 803 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,000 Speaker 2: ruled by autocracy because you were chosen by God and 804 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:41,919 Speaker 2: the people are not supposed to have a voice at all. 805 00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,800 Speaker 2: And when people started wanting to have a voice, Nicholas 806 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:48,319 Speaker 2: the second didn't listen to them, partly through his retrograde 807 00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:51,920 Speaker 2: convictions in the superiority of royal birth and his divine mandate, 808 00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:54,560 Speaker 2: but partly again also because he was so distracted by 809 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:56,040 Speaker 2: his son's chemophilia. 810 00:45:56,520 --> 00:45:59,840 Speaker 1: And we can't forget about those Austrian Habsburgs. 811 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:04,719 Speaker 2: The Emperor of the Austro Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph, was 812 00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:08,520 Speaker 2: himself the product of Habsburg and a Vittelsbach marriage. His 813 00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:13,440 Speaker 2: wife was twice over of Vittelsbach. Her parents were Vittelsbach cousins. 814 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:18,279 Speaker 1: Their only son, Rudolph, died by suicide after killing his 815 00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:21,759 Speaker 1: seventeen year old mistress in a hunting lodge in what 816 00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,520 Speaker 1: became known as the Mayrling Incident. It would have a 817 00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:30,279 Speaker 1: profound effect on European geopolitics, since Rudolph was seen by 818 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,960 Speaker 1: royals as the great progressive hope. 819 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,399 Speaker 2: He was the one who had really had these kind 820 00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:39,600 Speaker 2: of ambitions to liberalize and modernize the Austro Hungarian Empire 821 00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:42,719 Speaker 2: and give the people more of a voice, adopt some 822 00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:47,160 Speaker 2: of the kind of more modern liberal notions of constitutional 823 00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 2: rule and checks and balances. But his mother was terrified 824 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,759 Speaker 2: that by dint of being doubly a Vittelsbach on her 825 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,200 Speaker 2: mother's on her father's side, that she had transmitted this 826 00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:57,600 Speaker 2: Vittelsbach madness to. 827 00:46:57,600 --> 00:46:58,680 Speaker 1: Him, and she felt guilty. 828 00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:01,720 Speaker 2: She felt guilty, and she might not have been wrong. 829 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,520 Speaker 1: After the prince's death, the line of succession eventually passed 830 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:11,480 Speaker 1: to Rudolph's cousin, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose name you may 831 00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:16,040 Speaker 1: remember from high school European history. His assassination led to 832 00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,160 Speaker 1: the outbreak of World War One. 833 00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:22,359 Speaker 2: To draw the line between World War One and in 834 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,040 Speaker 2: reading it would sound maybe specious or flip, but I 835 00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:29,120 Speaker 2: think that the reason why these questions about royal intermarriage 836 00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,840 Speaker 2: and what their actual effects were on the human beings 837 00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,160 Speaker 2: who were produced by those systems is that those were 838 00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:37,440 Speaker 2: the same human beings who governed most of the world 839 00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:38,920 Speaker 2: through nineteen eighteen. 840 00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:45,840 Speaker 1: Bear in mind, in just the Austro Hungarian Empire you 841 00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:50,719 Speaker 1: had one forgive the expression crazy ass family deciding the 842 00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:54,279 Speaker 1: fate of more than fifty million people, and. 843 00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:56,759 Speaker 2: The fact that World War One seesed the collapse of 844 00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:01,000 Speaker 2: the Russian Empire, the Prussian Empire, and the Austro Hungarian Empire. 845 00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,680 Speaker 2: It's another death of dynasties in effect, and all of 846 00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:09,000 Speaker 2: those families had really been mined by problems that seem 847 00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:11,320 Speaker 2: to correlate with in rereading, even though there were plenty 848 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,520 Speaker 2: of other geopolitical factors and domestically political factors. 849 00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:20,720 Speaker 1: Honestly, folks, this is all a reminder that democracy really 850 00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:30,800 Speaker 1: remains the best game in town. I hope you enjoyed 851 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,640 Speaker 1: this Mobituary. May I ask you to please rate and 852 00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:37,800 Speaker 1: review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook 853 00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:40,520 Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can follow me on the social 854 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:45,120 Speaker 1: media platform formerly known as Twitter at morocca. Hear all 855 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:50,000 Speaker 1: new episodes of Mobituaries every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, 856 00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,880 Speaker 1: and check out Mobituaries Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New 857 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:58,520 Speaker 1: York Times best selling book, available in paperback and audiobook. 858 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:03,239 Speaker 1: This episode of Obituaries was produced by Aaron Schrank. Our 859 00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:08,640 Speaker 1: team of producers also includes Hazelbrien and me Moroka, with 860 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:12,440 Speaker 1: engineering by Josh Han. Our theme music is written by 861 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:17,800 Speaker 1: Daniel Hart. Our archival producer is Jamie Benson. Mobituary's production 862 00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:23,360 Speaker 1: company is Neon Hummmedia. Indispensable support from Alan pang, Any 863 00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:27,960 Speaker 1: Cronenberg and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to 864 00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:33,040 Speaker 1: Steve Razis, Rand Morrison and Alberto Robina. Executive producers for 865 00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:38,560 Speaker 1: Mobituaries include Megan Marcus, Jonathan Hirsch, and Moroka. The series 866 00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:40,680 Speaker 1: is created by Yours Truly