Book 45: "The Story of Spain" by Mark Williams
Friday, June 12th, 2009 12:30![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwake"Every country and society is different, but Spain is a bit more different." Julian Pitt-Rivers
A history of Spain, from the pre-historic painters of the Altimira cave-paintings, up to Spain's entry into the EEC (although for most of the historical period there wasn't actually such a country as Spain).
One thing that was extremely interesting, was the incompetence of most of the Spanish kings, who allowed their country to remain backward and practically bankrupt, only propped up by the treasure ships from their American colonies. The nobles despised business and trade, but unlike their counterparts in Britain they even found farming beneath them, and their vast estates (one noblewoman could travel from the East coast to the Portuguese border without leaving her own lands) were left largely untilled.
If you have a look at the family tree of Carlos II, the last Hapsburg king of Spain, you can see that his father and two of his great-grandfathers all married their nieces. There are also three marriages between 1st cousins, one between 2nd cousins and one between two people who are both first and second cousins (being the children of uncle/niece couples).
Madness and health problems ran in the family, so it's not much of a surprise that after so much inbreeding Carlos II was a physical and mental wreck. He didn't learn to speak until he was four or walk until he was eight, and according to the book, his nurse used to hold him up with strings like a marionette. He surprised everyone by living for thirty-nine years.
An interesting book about a European country that really is different from the rest.
A history of Spain, from the pre-historic painters of the Altimira cave-paintings, up to Spain's entry into the EEC (although for most of the historical period there wasn't actually such a country as Spain).
One thing that was extremely interesting, was the incompetence of most of the Spanish kings, who allowed their country to remain backward and practically bankrupt, only propped up by the treasure ships from their American colonies. The nobles despised business and trade, but unlike their counterparts in Britain they even found farming beneath them, and their vast estates (one noblewoman could travel from the East coast to the Portuguese border without leaving her own lands) were left largely untilled.
If you have a look at the family tree of Carlos II, the last Hapsburg king of Spain, you can see that his father and two of his great-grandfathers all married their nieces. There are also three marriages between 1st cousins, one between 2nd cousins and one between two people who are both first and second cousins (being the children of uncle/niece couples).
Madness and health problems ran in the family, so it's not much of a surprise that after so much inbreeding Carlos II was a physical and mental wreck. He didn't learn to speak until he was four or walk until he was eight, and according to the book, his nurse used to hold him up with strings like a marionette. He surprised everyone by living for thirty-nine years.
An interesting book about a European country that really is different from the rest.
