AHC: Inbreeding-free Spanish Habsburgs surviving up to the present day

I know that my seemingly obsession towards the Habsburgs/Spain may be scaring/boring some members here, but I swear that I'm only an enthusiast. It would be awkward to write a thread solely to discuss many different Habsburg-related themes at once, so I decided to, once in a while, create a thread about this illustrious family :p

There is a similar thread buried back in the past (last post on the thread is from 2011 I guess), but I'm no gravedigger, so here's a new thread.

The challenge is not simple as it seems, since it must take into account political, diplomatic and economical matters (and the other sides involved) and a certain patience to discuss royal genealogy.

Well, as it says in the title the challenge is to create the less inbred Habsburg family trees possible, in a way that the dinasty survives in Spain to the present day. Austria would also be included and affected by such change in the genealogical chart, as many people from both branches of the family married amongst themselves and led to atrocities like Charles II of Spain and other very ugly people as Leopold I, the children of Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and so on. Bonus points if the Habsburgs manage to survive agnatically in Austria until at least First World War.

While some contest the "Habsburg-inbreeding-destroyed-Spain" theory, probably another reason for that was the very late age by which people like Philip II of Spain and Philip IV of Spain became fathers of their effective male-heirs. As you know, semen loses quality as men age and this can lead to accumulative genetic diseases. So, plus bonus points if the new "fathers" of Spain have children until, at the lastest, their 40 years of age. (I particularly also find the generation gap somewhat bizarre hehe)

Anyway, I hope you liked the premise :) Don't be afraid of suggesting many possible options for the situation.
 
Umm no Charles II, instead a good inbred. Done.

Ehm... what? Well, I forgot to say:

Ultra-plus-bonus points if the survival of Habsburgs does NOT involve the survival of Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (who was a Wittelsbach by his father's side, but a Habsburg by mother's side).
 
Ehm... what? Well, I forgot to say:

Ultra-plus-bonus points if the survival of Habsburgs does NOT involve the survival of Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (who was a Wittelsbach by his father's side, but a Habsburg by mother's side).

Instead of Charles II there is an actual worthy heir. That heir reproduces. That rids Spain of the War of the Spanish Succession. Following the guys instead of Charles II there are many more Habsburg kings. Because of this their legitimacy is sealed. So when revolutions fail people turn to the Habsburgs to retake their throne
 
Inbreeding aside you still have the issues of Spanish entanglements in the rest of Europe as well as the problems with the economy from gold. You could have them survive but having them in a good position is a whole different story.
 
The best option for the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs would have been no (lasting) Reformation. While it didn't half the option the Spanish Habsburgs had (given the number of German princes, that might have been more correct for their Austrian cousins).

Not the most plausible option, so they're still confronted with a group they can choose from. Then there also is 'bad luck', sometimes the surviving heirs were from marriages to close kin.

One could already start with Charles V, IOTL he ended up marrying Isabella of Portugal, a maternal cousin (and the Iberian dynasties had intermarried before), whereas the first choice was an English or French princess, most likely candidate would have been Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor (his daughter never was a real option for a monarch who needed an heir).

Philip II had the 'bad luck' that his third marriage to Elisabeth of Valois did not produce a son, who could inherit. His other 3 marriages were to closer relatives, his heir was born from his 4th marriage with his niece, Anna of Austria, (her parents were his sister and his paternal cousin).

Philip III married once with his first cousin once removed (Margaret of Austria).

Philip IV married twice, his surviving heir came from his second marriage with his niece Maria Anna of Austria; unfortunately the sons he had with Elizabeth of France (Bourbon) died before him (without leaving grandsons).

Finally there's Charles II, who married twice, first to Marie Louise d'Orléans and secondly to Maria Anna of Pfalz-Neuburg, but couldn't have children.

In other words, it would have helped a lot, if the time, that they did marry outside the family, actually would have 'produced' surviving male heirs.
 
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The best option for the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs would have been no (lasting) Reformation. While it didn't half the option the Spanish Habsburgs had (given the number of German princes, that might have been more correct for their Austrian cousins).

Not the most plausible option, so they're still confronted with a group they can choose from. Then there also is 'bad luck', sometimes the surviving heirs were from marriages to close kin.

One could already start with Charles V, IOTL he ended up marrying Isabella of Portugal, a maternal cousin (and the Iberian dynasties had intermarried before), whereas the first choice was an English or French princess, most likely candidate would have been Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor (his daughter never was a real option for a monarch who needed an heir).

Philip II had the 'bad luck' that his third marriage to Elisabeth of Valois did produce a son, who could inherit. His other 3 marriages were to closer relatives, his heir was born from his 4th marriage with his niece, Anna of Austria, (her parents were his sister and his paternal cousin).

Philip III married once with his first cousin once removed (Margaret of Austria).

Philip IV married twice, his surviving heir came from his second marriage with his niece Maria Anna of Austria; unfortunately the sons he had with Elizabeth of France (Bourbon) died before him (without leaving grandsons).

Finally there's Charles II, who married twice, first to Marie Louise d'Orléans and secondly to Maria Anna of Pfalz-Neuburg, but couldn't have children.

In other words, it would have helped a lot, if the time, that they did marry outside the family, actually would have 'produced' surviving male heirs.

Charles V was in a tight spot about a French princess. Anne de Bretagne betrothed him to Claude de France, but Louis XII renegged and married her to Francois I when he had no male heir. Then Francois I offered his two eldest daughters - Louise and Charlotte (but they stood about as much chance as the younger Mary Tudor).

Felipe II was really where the crap hit the fan. If one could somehow marry him elsewhere - not a cousin - (for instance I saw once in a novel that he was engaged to Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre as a child, although I have no idea if such an event was contemplated in real life) then we might be cooking with gas. His first marriage produced an earlier version of Carlos II (sorry to say). I saw in one thread though, that for a second wife (the POD was a surviving Edward VI), Felipe II of Spain marries Maria de Medici (1540-1558), it could perhaps give an alternate line of Spaniards.

Another option of course would be to have the son that died with Elisabeth de Valois in childbirth survive to produce children of his own, or make Felipe unavailable to marry Élisabeth and thus let her marry D. Carlos instead (as happens in several threads - although Carlos might need several lobotomies to be remotely close to normal) and have children there.

As to Felipe III, no comment.

Felipe IV had two sons by his first wife, and a shitload of bastard sons. Unfortunately the first one died of APPENDICITIS!!:confused: at 16 (although he was engaged to marry a cousin who later married his father) and the second son died hours after birth. All his bastard sons - excepting Juan José - died without issue, but all lived until at least the 1690s/1700s.

So, the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs hinges on the survival of at least one heir somewhere between 1545 and 1660 - and perhaps let them have a less thrilling view of avuncular marriage too (since Carlos II was the product of 3 uncle-niece pairings, and Josef Ferdinand of Bavaria of 5).
 
This would presumably mean that France would remain an enemy of Spain's, rather than becoming an ally in 1700 due to the dynastic change. In OTL that put an end to 60-some years of regular French invasions of Spanish territories in Europe (and occasionally the Americas). If a Hapsburg still rules Spain, that could mean continued French invasions of the Southern Netherlands, and perhaps Catalonia. Probably the eastern portion of Hispaniola (the present-day Dominican Republic) as well. On the other hand, Britain may become an ally of Spain to counter France.
 
Charles V was in a tight spot about a French princess. Anne de Bretagne betrothed him to Claude de France, but Louis XII renegged and married her to Francois I when he had no male heir. Then Francois I offered his two eldest daughters - Louise and Charlotte (but they stood about as much chance as the younger Mary Tudor).

Felipe II was really where the crap hit the fan. If one could somehow marry him elsewhere - not a cousin - (for instance I saw once in a novel that he was engaged to Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre as a child, although I have no idea if such an event was contemplated in real life) then we might be cooking with gas. His first marriage produced an earlier version of Carlos II (sorry to say). I saw in one thread though, that for a second wife (the POD was a surviving Edward VI), Felipe II of Spain marries Maria de Medici (1540-1558), it could perhaps give an alternate line of Spaniards.

Another option of course would be to have the son that died with Elisabeth de Valois in childbirth survive to produce children of his own, or make Felipe unavailable to marry Élisabeth and thus let her marry D. Carlos instead (as happens in several threads - although Carlos might need several lobotomies to be remotely close to normal) and have children there.

As to Felipe III, no comment.

Felipe IV had two sons by his first wife, and a shitload of bastard sons. Unfortunately the first one died of APPENDICITIS!!:confused: at 16 (although he was engaged to marry a cousin who later married his father) and the second son died hours after birth. All his bastard sons - excepting Juan José - died without issue, but all lived until at least the 1690s/1700s.

So, the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs hinges on the survival of at least one heir somewhere between 1545 and 1660 - and perhaps let them have a less thrilling view of avuncular marriage too (since Carlos II was the product of 3 uncle-niece pairings, and Josef Ferdinand of Bavaria of 5).

It hasn't much to do with avuncular marriage really, but more with dynastic politics and the general trend in this era to prefer to marry royalty. This preference to marry other Royalty, was another reason, why the Reformation was bad for the available gene pool.
The Spanish and Austrian Habsburg branches would still intermarry at times, but at the same time there would have been potential English spouses and the Austrian cousins would have more options within the HRE too, without or with a different attitude towards the Reformation.
Then I want to again point out, that IOTL the Spanish Habsburgs were unlucky, when it came to matches, which could have brought some 'fresh blood' in the dynasty. Though to some degree even the French kings were related too.
So you could arrange different matches in an ATL, but I wanted to point out that even ITTL the Spanish Habsburgs did not only marry relatives. So have an OTL marriage end up with a different heir or rather one, who survives and has children of his own can work too. After that things will diverge anyway.
 
I think one thing people tend to miss is that the Habsburgs didn't start the inbreeding so much as inherit it--the Iberian nobility that they married into was incredibly intermarried, and at first, they simply kept up the old traditions...
 
I think one thing people tend to miss is that the Habsburgs didn't start the inbreeding so much as inherit it--the Iberian nobility that they married into was incredibly intermarried, and at first, they simply kept up the old traditions...

Then there's this too, they also were upholding the traditions of the Iberian Royalty. For instance Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castille AKA the Catholic monarchs were cousins.
Especially the matches with Portugal can be seen in such a light, matches with the other branch of the family, related to a similar degree, also served to keep the bonds between the two branches strong.
 
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