History of Europe

The Bourbon that went down in history as a fool, henpecked and cuckolded

Sure there can be worse combinations, but «fool, henpecked and cuckold » I think it is a sufficiently painful combination as a legacy for History.

Charles IV of Bourbon He was King of Spain from December 14, 1788 to March 19, 1808. He was not characterized by being a brilliant monarch, and already as crown prince he pointed out ways. In one of the many talks with his father, King Carlos III, to instruct him in the complicated arts of government, he released his father:

We kings are the only ones who can rest assured that our wives are not cheating on us. Where are they going to find something better than a prince?

His father replied:

What a fool you are my son!

Family of Carlos IV (Goya)

And that in the marriage of his parents, Carlos III and Maria Amalia of Saxony , even being a state link to consolidate alliances, there was love... and a lot of passion. This is the letter that Carlos III sent to the queen mother after the first days of marriage:

We went to bed at nine at night. We both trembled but we started kissing and I was ready right away and after a quarter of an hour I "broke" her. Since then, we've done it twice a night and we always cum at the same time because one waits for the other.

And going back to Carlos IV, years later, and already crowned King of Spain, he fulfilled the rest of the adjectives:his neglect of political issues, his isolation so as not to be infected by the ideas that emerged after the French Revolution and his lack of courage to undertake reforms put the government in the hands of his wife María Luisa de Parma and his favorite, Manuel Godoy , who was said to be the queen's mistress. And not only does this “suspicion” exist… Carlos IV and María Luisa de Parma had 14 children out of the twenty-four times that the queen was pregnant, but only seven reached adulthood, since there is evidence that none of their children were fathered by him . An envelope, with the indication “Reservadísimo ”, included a letter dated January 8, 1819 in which Fray Juan de Almaraz, confessor of the queen, affirmed that six days before, after hearing the last confession, in article mortis, of María Luisa, she had transmitted to him…

none, none of her sons and daughters, none, was from the legitimate marriage... None of my children is from Carlos IV and, consequently, the Bourbon dynasty has become extinct in Spain

Source:The patch of the princess of Éboli – Mª Pilar Queralt del Hierro, The royal sons of the Bourbons