An Earlier (Less Bewitched) Carlos II

Okay, so I'm back on my Baltasar Carlos soap box.

What might have happened if he had lived, fathered children, become king etc etc. Might he have become as great in Spain as his cousin was in France?
 
I think you might want to change the title so people don't think this is about the historical Charles II.
 
If Baltasar Carlos is anything like his double-first cousin - and it stands to reason that he has a 50% chance he could be - Europe's gonna look a whole lot different.

For example, in Philip IV's waning years Baltasar Carlos is gonna be a young man - probably if anything like Louis XIV - with a desire to prove himself, and may well be the sort of warrior-king Spain hasn't seen in a while.

Point being, if he's inherited any of Philip II and Henri IV's genes he's gonna be a warrior-statesman, who just might stop Spain's decline (or at least slow it down).

In the thread All Hail Germania an Emperor Baltasar - who has more or less the same birth-year and parentage - becomes one of the greatest kings in Europe. Although, the thread admits to being a Germanwank and a Hapsburgwank.
 
If Baltasar Carlos is anything like his double-first cousin - and it stands to reason that he has a 50% chance he could be - Europe's gonna look a whole lot different.

For example, in Philip IV's waning years Baltasar Carlos is gonna be a young man - probably if anything like Louis XIV - with a desire to prove himself, and may well be the sort of warrior-king Spain hasn't seen in a while.

Point being, if he's inherited any of Philip II and Henri IV's genes he's gonna be a warrior-statesman, who just might stop Spain's decline (or at least slow it down).

In the thread All Hail Germania an Emperor Baltasar - who has more or less the same birth-year and parentage - becomes one of the greatest kings in Europe. Although, the thread admits to being a Germanwank and a Hapsburgwank.
Well, given how his first cousins - Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France, turned out, King Carlos II of Spain is going to do well. However given the state of Spanish bureacracy at this time, he'll be realistically swimming against the tide.
And a Louis XIV-esque attempt at "no validos" policy can end up badly for him. Not "poisoned by Olivares-like person" maybe, but still not good. I also can see the "progressive" and "devout" parties forming at Spanish court - Devout party naturally gravitating towards Queen and her German favorite who may (or may not) enjoy such a shower of honors as OTL.
 
So, say he keeps on the more competent ministers of his father - but knows that a system to govern France would not work so well in Spain - and streamlines the Spanish bureaucracy by taking the French ideas that would work, but leaving the ones that wouldn't be compatible with Spain?
 
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