Now, since the fourteenth century, the Emperor had been exclusively from the House of Habsburg
Nitpick: Wikipedia agrees with my memory that it's the fifteenth. Habsburg was a prominent house before that, but not yet HRE level.
I'm glad I checked, because Wikipedia disagrees with my memory that Maximilian I was the first Habsburg emperor; he was the second, and the first was his father Frederick III. Which, since he was the emperor Frederick in Ash--cahn, you remember Ash!--idk how I forgot he was a Habsburg too. Wikipedia tells me Frederick was MT's 7 times great-grandfather (if I didn't lose count following the links), and given it's the Habsburgs, he was probably her 7 times great-grandfather several times over, 5 times great-uncle and 9 times great-grandfather at least once, and half eighth cousin twice removed, and that's just getting started. :PP
Speaking of Habsburg inbreeding, have you seen Carlos II of Spain's family tree? It's pretty special. Have you seen his jaw? Also special. (You know about the Habsburg family jaw, right? If not, search for "Habsburg jaw" or "Habsburg chin" immediately on Google images and marvel. You can walk through a random museum in Vienna, spot a portrait, and spontaneously identify it as a Habsburg before even reading the description.) MT got lucky by Habsburg standards, in that her parents and grandparents had toned down the inbreeding by the time the line got to her. Which may help account for some of her general with-it-ness.
Non-Habsburg FW and SD were first cousins, btw, and as noted, a bunch of physical and some mental health problems galloped in the family. "[Fritz] suffered repeatedly from colic, stomach cramps, migraine, skin rashes, erysipelas, leg ulcers, gout, cramps, asthma, fits of choking, vomiting, constipation, chest pains, fever, dropsy and hemorrhoids, and often simultaneously from a permutation of any of these. They suggest it is likely that he had inherited the porphyria that had made his father’s life such a misery." To quote Eddie Izzard talking about the European royals: "Because it's a bad idea when cousins marry!"
Also worth remembering that both FW and Fritz remained complete workaholics when not completely incapacitated, and it took a lot to incapacitate them. FW did a famous "painted in torment" self-portrait (weirdly, the man did learn how to paint well enough to do a self-portrait, go figure) of himself in the throes of his illness, Fritz is constantly seen talking in his correspondence and other people's memoirs about the importance of not giving into your hemorrhoids and other health problems, and at one point Voltaire even wrote a poem to Fritz expressing sympathy for the infamous hemorrhoids. Incredible pain tolerance must have also run in that family.
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Re: Charlotte and sisters?
Date: 2019-09-19 03:10 am (UTC)Nitpick: Wikipedia agrees with my memory that it's the fifteenth. Habsburg was a prominent house before that, but not yet HRE level.
I'm glad I checked, because Wikipedia disagrees with my memory that Maximilian I was the first Habsburg emperor; he was the second, and the first was his father Frederick III. Which, since he was the emperor Frederick in Ash--
Speaking of Habsburg inbreeding, have you seen Carlos II of Spain's family tree? It's pretty special. Have you seen his jaw? Also special. (You know about the Habsburg family jaw, right? If not, search for "Habsburg jaw" or "Habsburg chin" immediately on Google images and marvel. You can walk through a random museum in Vienna, spot a portrait, and spontaneously identify it as a Habsburg before even reading the description.) MT got lucky by Habsburg standards, in that her parents and grandparents had toned down the inbreeding by the time the line got to her. Which may help account for some of her general with-it-ness.
Non-Habsburg FW and SD were first cousins, btw, and as noted, a bunch of physical and some mental health problems galloped in the family. "[Fritz] suffered repeatedly from colic, stomach cramps, migraine, skin rashes, erysipelas, leg ulcers, gout, cramps, asthma, fits of choking, vomiting, constipation, chest pains, fever, dropsy and hemorrhoids, and often simultaneously from a permutation of any of these. They suggest it is likely that he had inherited the porphyria that had made his father’s life such a misery." To quote Eddie Izzard talking about the European royals: "Because it's a bad idea when cousins marry!"
Also worth remembering that both FW and Fritz remained complete workaholics when not completely incapacitated, and it took a lot to incapacitate them. FW did a famous "painted in torment" self-portrait (weirdly, the man did learn how to paint well enough to do a self-portrait, go figure) of himself in the throes of his illness, Fritz is constantly seen talking in his correspondence and other people's memoirs about the importance of not giving into your hemorrhoids and other health problems, and at one point Voltaire even wrote a poem to Fritz expressing sympathy for the infamous hemorrhoids. Incredible pain tolerance must have also run in that family.