HABSBUG DINASTY

BY RICARDO MARTÍNEZ, XAVI SEMPERE AND LAIA GAVILÁN.

EXTINCTION OF THE SPANISH
HABSBURGS
The Habsburgs sought to consolidate their power by the
frequent use of consanguineous marriages. This resulted
in a cumulatively deleterious effect on their gene
pool. Marriages between first cousins, or between uncle
and niece, were commonplace in the family. A study of
3,000 family members over 16 generations by
the University of Santiago de Compostela suggests that
inbreeding directly led to their extinction. The gene pool
eventually became so small that the last of the Spanish
line Charles II, who was severely disabled from birth,
perhaps by genetic disorders, possessed
a genome comparable to that of a child born to a brother
and sister, as did his father, probably because of
"remote inbreeding”.
EXTINCITION OF THE AUSTRIAN
HABSBURGS
The Austrian branch became extinct in the male line in 1740 with the death of Charles VI and in the
female line in 1780 with the death of his daughter Maria Theresa; it was succeeded by the Vaudemont
branch of the House of Lorraine in the person of her son Joseph II. The new successor house styled itself
formally as House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: Habsburg-Lothringen), although it was often referred
to as simply the House of Habsburg. The heiress of the last Austrian Habsburgs Maria Theresa had
married Francis Stephan, Duke of Lorraine (both of them were great-grandchildren of Habsburg
Emperor Ferdinand III, but from different empresses). Their descendants carried on the Habsburg
tradition from Vienna under the dynastic name Habsburg-Lorraine, although technically a new ruling
house came into existence in the Austrian territories, the House of Lorraine (see Dukes of Lorraine family
tree). It is thought that extensive intra-family marriages within both lines contributed to their extinctions
 FAMILY

Tree

Tree
 IMPACT ON SPAIN
• Ferdinand died on January 23rd 1516 and the crowns of the Spanish Kingdoms
devolved to his grandson, Charles I (1516-1556), the ruler of the Netherlands and
heir to the Habsburg dominios in Austria and southern Germany. This new union
had not been planned in Spain, and at first it was deeply resented. Francisco
Cardinal Jiménez, the regent until Charle’s arrival in Spain, had to battle the old
antagonisms between nobles and towns that were flaring up again when the
magnates took the opportunity of the regency to try to regain their old power
• The 16th century Was marked in Spain by the reign of the monarchs of the
Habsburg dinasty. Represented by Charles I and Philip II.
• Carlos I (1516-1556) son of Felipe of Habsburg and Juana I of Trastamara
(daughter of reyes católicos), was proclaimed king of Spain in 1516 and 3 years
later electoral Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
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