Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias

[CyrilVladisla]

Don Carlos (1545-1568) was the eldest son of King Philip II of Spain and Maria Manuela of Portugal. He was deformed from birth. As he grew, Don Carlos began to show increasing signs of mental disabilities.
He was known as the Infante Carlos and Prince of Asturias.

Weeks before his twenty-third birthday, Don Carlos was imprisoned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw-mIeM5ZZA

 

[Blog Real]

Carlos, Prince of Asturias, also known as Don Carlos (8 July 1545 – 24 July 1568), was the eldest son and heir-apparent of King Philip II of Spain. His mother was Maria Manuela of Portugal, daughter of John III of Portugal. Carlos was mentally unstable and was imprisoned by his father in early 1568, dying after half a year of solitary confinement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos,_Prince_of_Asturias

Carlos de Austria | Real Academia de la Historia

 

[Blog Real]

Portrait of Don Carlos by Jooris van der Straeten.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Jooris_van_der_straten-don_carlos-descalzas.jpg

His coat of arms as the Prince of Asturias (1560–1568).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Prince_of_Asturias-Azur_Label_(1560-1578).svg

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The Infante Carlos hated his father Philip II

 

[Blog Real]

On 24 July 1568, the prince died in his room, probably as the result of his delicate health. His death was used as one of the core elements of the Spanish Black Legend in the Netherlands, which needed to justify a revolt against the king. It was later claimed that he was poisoned on the orders of King Philip, especially by William in his Apology, a 1581 propaganda work against the Spanish king. The idea of the poisoning had been held by central and north European historians, based on the pieces of propaganda produced in the Netherlands, until the 20th century, while most Spanish and Italian historians kept claiming that evidence and documentation pointed at a death by natural causes. Modern historians now think that Don Carlos died of natural causes. Carlos grew very thin, and some had interpreted his hunger strikes as an eating disorder developed during his imprisonment, alternating self-starvation with heavy binges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos,_Prince_of_Asturias#Death

Birth of Don Carlos

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Who might have married Don Carlos?
Archduchess Anna of Austria, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II was a possible bride.