The Habsburg Jaw: Why the Empire That Ruled the World Couldn't Chew

Podcast: The Jeremy Ryan Slate Show · Jeremy Ryan Slate

Opublikowano: 2026-07-15

The autopsy of Charles II of Spain found a heart the size of a peppercorn, corroded lungs, and a brain reduced to a liquid state. He was a man who couldn't chew, hadn't walked until age eight, and whose own physicians decided witchcraft was the most plausible diagnosis. Most history books read that as tragedy. On this channel, we read it as a balance sheet. The Habsburg motto was Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube — "Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry." That wasn't romance. It was an...