Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy be Wilson. Tracy.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit of housekeeping to be done, a
Speaker 1: little exciting housekeeping. Yeah, we're going to go on tour again.
Speaker 1: We heard the folks who ask if we could come
Speaker 1: somewhere that didn't have the word coast as part of
Speaker 1: the name, and that's what we're doing. Yes, So brace
Speaker 1: middle of the country for fall, because we will be
Speaker 1: a Denver, Colorado October, Chicago, Illinois October, Austin, Texas November, Dallas,
Speaker 1: Texas November, and Houston, Texas November sixteen. So for our
Speaker 1: super fans who listen to this show as soon as
Speaker 1: it comes out, we have a pre sale happening. The
Speaker 1: pre sale is going to start on the seventeen of July.
Speaker 1: The pre sale password is make History. And then if
Speaker 1: you're listening and it's after the seventeenth, don't worry, you
Speaker 1: can still get tickets. The tickets will be on sale
Speaker 1: to the general public on July nine. Come to our website,
Speaker 1: which is Missed in History dot Com click on Live
Speaker 1: shows up at the top of the page to get
Speaker 1: links to all of the places that you can buy
Speaker 1: tickets or go to missed in History dot com slash tour.
Speaker 1: We are very excited to see everyone, me too, you
Speaker 1: said we. I'm just gonna be also me, I partent,
Speaker 1: me myself and I the royal we which is a
Speaker 1: good way to transition into this episode because it's about royals,
Speaker 1: but outside the royals you often hear me talk about
Speaker 1: because they are my favorites. Uh, this is neither French
Speaker 1: royalty nor anything having to do with Queen Victoria, although
Speaker 1: there is some French relations in the mix, and it's
Speaker 1: sort of a sad royal childhood's mad Monarchs combo in
Speaker 1: that both of those things of the case, and there
Speaker 1: are two people involved. I know that I've been leaning
Speaker 1: a lot into French history brace because there is more
Speaker 1: of that comeing. In fact, I was already working instead
Speaker 1: for today on an episode that was related to Versailles
Speaker 1: when I discovered another book that I wanted for that episode.
Speaker 1: But I have to order that book I have and
Speaker 1: it is not here yet. So this episode is happening
Speaker 1: in that episode will come later. But I have also
Speaker 1: been wanting to look at some other European countries because
Speaker 1: they have been a little neglected in my in my work. Uh,
Speaker 1: the early Bourbon rule in Spain is one that I
Speaker 1: find fascinating because it's often boiled down to a little
Speaker 1: bit of a degree of sensationalism owing to the sexual
Speaker 1: appetites of some of the Bourbons, and how much people
Speaker 1: like to write about that. But of course there's a
Speaker 1: whole lot more to the whole thing than that, and
Speaker 1: it isn't a very important family line because Bourbon descendants
Speaker 1: ruled in so many places, starting with the descendants of
Speaker 1: lou the ninth of France and Margaret of Provence in
Speaker 1: the twelve hundreds, right up into the modern era. But
Speaker 1: today we're just gonna look at one little slice and
Speaker 1: it is centered primarily around one couple that ruled Spain,
Speaker 1: Ferdinand and Barbara. They ruled from seventeen forty six to
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty nine, and there's is a partnership um at
Speaker 1: turns that is sweet and sorrowful, it is ultimately tragic.
Speaker 1: Both of them displayed behaviors that would undoubtedly be recognized
Speaker 1: today as likely mental health conditions or just in need
Speaker 1: of some mental health attention. UM heads up for anyone listening.
Speaker 1: There are some brief discussions of attempted suicide in this episode.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that I find really interesting
Speaker 1: about them is that despite the fact that they ascended
Speaker 1: to power in a court that was filled with intrigue,
Speaker 1: and they were pulled in two directions by those who
Speaker 1: had interests in Britain and others who had interest in France,
Speaker 1: which was a big conflict that was playing out. Uh,
Speaker 1: Ferdinand turned out to be someone of a surprising ruler
Speaker 1: and to have a pretty prosperous reign, and that is
Speaker 1: in no small part due to his wife Barbara. So
Speaker 1: I thought it would be fun to tell their story.
Speaker 1: Ferdinand and six was born on September thirteen. He was
Speaker 1: a Bourbon. His parents were Philip the fifth of Spain
Speaker 1: and Maria Louisa of Savoy. Then on his father's side,
Speaker 1: Ferdinand was also the great grandson of King Louis the
Speaker 1: four of France and his first wife, Maria Theresa of Spain.
Speaker 1: Philip the fifth had taken the throne of Spain upon
Speaker 1: the death of King Charles the Second, who was also
Speaker 1: Maria TRACE's half brother. It's a little complicated because Philip
Speaker 1: the Fifth had grown up at Versailles. His court often
Speaker 1: contained a lot of nobles and advisers from outside of Spain,
Speaker 1: and that led to a lot of suspicion and intrigue
Speaker 1: and friction. And that also meant that Ferdinand was born
Speaker 1: into a fairly high drama court and at the end
Speaker 1: of the War of the Spanish Succession, which was catalyzed
Speaker 1: by Charles the Second Death. So we're gonna give you
Speaker 1: kind of the quick and dirty version of that conflict.
Speaker 1: Of course, it is much more drawn out and nuanced
Speaker 1: than what you're getting here, because that is not the
Speaker 1: focus of this episode. But leading up to Charles the
Speaker 1: Second Death, the first Treaty of Partition was signed in
Speaker 1: to get in front of a potential conflict about who
Speaker 1: should succeed him, and per that agreement, Prince Joseph Ferdinand
Speaker 1: of Bavaria would inherit Spain its colonies and the Spanish Netherlands.
Speaker 1: The Italian interests of Spain that was Milan, Naples and
Speaker 1: Sicily would be split between France and Austria. But Prince
Speaker 1: Joseph Ferdinand died when that treaty was just months Old,
Speaker 1: so a new treaty had to be negotiated. Essentially, the
Speaker 1: treaty was the same, but instead of Prince Joseph Ferdinand,
Speaker 1: the Spanish throne was going to go to the Archduke Charles.
Speaker 1: He was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold. But
Speaker 1: Leopold wanted his son to get everything. He didn't want
Speaker 1: these various holdings to be split up, so he refused
Speaker 1: to sign it. And then that was why Charles the
Speaker 1: Second named Philip the Fifth as a successor in his will,
Speaker 1: and then that set off a fresh round of disagreement
Speaker 1: and claimants to the throne. All that culminated in the
Speaker 1: conflict known as the War of Spanish Succession. Ferdinand was
Speaker 1: Philip and Maria Luis's fourth born son, although one of
Speaker 1: their previous children had died in infancy, so he was
Speaker 1: the third surviving child when he was born. And while
Speaker 1: he did survive, his mother, Maria Louisa, had some pretty
Speaker 1: serious health issues that were worsened by her fourth pregnancy
Speaker 1: and delivery. She died only five months after Ferdinand was born.
Speaker 1: Ferdinand was in a pretty unique position when he was
Speaker 1: a child. For one, Spain had lost some of its
Speaker 1: power At the conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession,
Speaker 1: the alliance between Spain and France had been weakened, as
Speaker 1: the territories that had originally been planned for them to
Speaker 1: split were instead distributed among a wider field of world powers.
Speaker 1: Philip the Fifth retained his position as King of Spain,
Speaker 1: but he also lost a great deal, and the unification
Speaker 1: of Spain and France was abandoned, so he was a
Speaker 1: prince in a country that was kind of regrouping. As
Speaker 1: the third of Philip's sons from his first marriage, Ferdinand's brothers,
Speaker 1: Lewis and Philip were much more important to the monarchy,
Speaker 1: and when Philip married Elizabeth Farnese, Princess of Parma, after
Speaker 1: Maria Louise's death, Elizabeth busied herself with her own children
Speaker 1: and even encouraged to valry between Ferdinand and her eldest son,
Speaker 1: particularly after the deaths of Louis and Philip, which left
Speaker 1: Ferdinand as Philip the Fifth Air. Additionally, Philip had his
Speaker 1: own problems with mental health. He is often described as
Speaker 1: a sad Soberman who had very few pleasures in life,
Speaker 1: and his devotion to his first wife could be described
Speaker 1: as obsession and could be its own show. After she died,
Speaker 1: he was such a mess that everyone in the know
Speaker 1: was busy trying to find that second wife, Elizabeth A
Speaker 1: s a p. So Ferdinand was really an outsider. He
Speaker 1: had suddenly become important to the monarchy after spending his
Speaker 1: life thinking that one of his brothers would be the
Speaker 1: one leading the country. He'd also been treated really maliciously
Speaker 1: by his stepmother, so understandably he had become an introverted
Speaker 1: and pretty anxious teenager and it's very stressful royal household.
Speaker 1: In seventy five, when Ferdinand was just twelve, his father
Speaker 1: arranged for his marriage that the actual wedding was planned
Speaker 1: for several years later, when the prince and his intended
Speaker 1: were both bit older, and that intended was Barbara of Braganza,
Speaker 1: who was fourteen when this marriage was arranged, and this
Speaker 1: was actually part of a package deal arranged by Philip
Speaker 1: the Fifth and Portugal's King John the Fifth. In addition
Speaker 1: to the union of Ferdinand and Barbara, the deal was
Speaker 1: also brokered for the marriage of Barbara's brother Joseph to
Speaker 1: Ferdinand's sister Maria Anna Victoria, and this tightly aligned Spain
Speaker 1: with Portugal, which was kind of an effort to create
Speaker 1: a better relationship with Britain, which had very good relations
Speaker 1: with Portugal. Seventive was also the year that Ferdinand's second
Speaker 1: older brother died, and that made him the heir to
Speaker 1: the throne. So while he was just an awkward, shy kid,
Speaker 1: his life had two major shifts in one year, although
Speaker 1: the actual practical effects of those shifts wouldn't be felt
Speaker 1: for some time, and just as an aside, Philip the
Speaker 1: Fifth had actually abdicated to his son Louis in seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty four. There are two different schools of thought on
Speaker 1: this move. One suggests that he gave up the throne
Speaker 1: because his mental state had reached a point where he
Speaker 1: had neither the strength nor desire to continue h there
Speaker 1: were also lots of times where he kind of let
Speaker 1: Elizabeth run things. But the other school of thought is
Speaker 1: that in putting his son Louis on the throne, he
Speaker 1: could circumvent the Treaties of Utrecht, which had ended the
Speaker 1: War of Spanish Succession, and he could get around the
Speaker 1: terms that he agreed to within it, thus opening up
Speaker 1: a possible avenue to regaining some of Spain's lost territory.
Speaker 1: But his motivations mattered little in the end, because Louis
Speaker 1: died just seven months into his reign, and with Ferdinand
Speaker 1: still a child, Philip the fifth once again became king.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about Ferdinand's betrothed in just a moment,
Speaker 1: but first we will pause for a word from one
Speaker 1: of the sponsors that keeps our lights on. Maria Madelena
Speaker 1: Barbara Javier Leonard Teresa Antonia Josepha de Braganza, known more
Speaker 1: commonly as Barbara of Portugal or Barbara of Braganza, was
Speaker 1: the daughter of Portugal's King John the Fifth and Austria's
Speaker 1: Marie Antonia. She was born on December four, seventeen eleven.
Speaker 1: She was a really smart, well educated girl. She was
Speaker 1: multi lingual. I think I read somewhere. She spoke six
Speaker 1: languages fluently. She was very spirited. She loved the arts,
Speaker 1: particularly music. She actually trained under the composer scar Lottie,
Speaker 1: and she could compose music as well as sing and
Speaker 1: play harpsichord. Barbara was not considered attractive, particularly by the
Speaker 1: standards of the Spanish court, and initially Ferdinand's reaction to
Speaker 1: seeing her was allegedly kind of unkind and childish, but
Speaker 1: that quickly changed. And also it's worth mentioning that, similar
Speaker 1: to how we mentioned on our episode on hot Chepst
Speaker 1: and the Voyage to Punt, that the Queen of Punt
Speaker 1: is consistently described in kind of gross terms regarding her appearance.
Speaker 1: Even in modern scholarly articles. The same can be said
Speaker 1: of most of the accounts of Barbara. They talk about
Speaker 1: her skin not being very pretty and her being overweighted,
Speaker 1: and there it's just unkind. There are some reports that
Speaker 1: Spain felt like Ferdinand was making this great sacrifice in
Speaker 1: marrying her. In January of seventeen twenty nine, the slightly
Speaker 1: older teenagers were finally married. They became Prince and Princess
Speaker 1: of Asturious in a festival style series of events that
Speaker 1: included both of the marriages that had been agreed to
Speaker 1: back in seventeen. The two weddings were conducted at a
Speaker 1: palace and the Spanish Portuguese border that was built just
Speaker 1: for the occasion, and then another palace was built by
Speaker 1: the Portuguese monarchist sort of an overnight stopping point for
Speaker 1: the guests traveling back to Lisbon after the wedding gala
Speaker 1: was over. Definitely no expense spared on celebrating these two weddings,
Speaker 1: and as a married couple, Ferdinand and Barbara realized in
Speaker 1: pretty short order that they actually had a lot in common,
Speaker 1: in particular their love for music, and they seem to
Speaker 1: have very genuinely fallen in love. They were very devoted
Speaker 1: to each other for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they also shared some similar problems with anxiety and melancholy,
Speaker 1: which today might be categorized as some form of depression.
Speaker 1: As we've said many times, it's always a little bit
Speaker 1: tricky to try to retroactively, uh, apply labels of mental
Speaker 1: health to people that lived in the past, and we
Speaker 1: don't have a full sense of everything that was going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not here for anyone to examine, right. Uh. Unlike
Speaker 1: his father, Ferdinand's mental health ran in cycles of melancholy
Speaker 1: and mania, and at times it seemed like he had
Speaker 1: very little confidence. There's a lot of discussion in any
Speaker 1: biography of him about both his wife and his adviser
Speaker 1: sort of constantly having to prop him up in terms
Speaker 1: of his confidence and be like, no, you can do it.
Speaker 1: He needed a lot of encouragement. Uh. He was a
Speaker 1: quiet man and very gentle for the most part, but
Speaker 1: he did have some pretty angry outbursts in his mormonic periods.
Speaker 1: It really didn't help that the Spanish court looked on
Speaker 1: Ferdinand and Barbara with suspicion and distrust. This was because
Speaker 1: of the influence of Ferdinand's stepmother, Elizabeth Farnese, who wanted
Speaker 1: to keep both of them as far away from having
Speaker 1: any kind of influence as possible. The young couple were
Speaker 1: confined to their apartments a lot of the time, then
Speaker 1: they would be trotted out for various big events. It's
Speaker 1: certainly possible that this isolation might have strengthened their bond
Speaker 1: to each other. Spain's relations with Portugal had hit rocky
Speaker 1: times despite this double marriage that was intended to smooth
Speaker 1: things out, and both Philip and Elizabeth seemed reluctant to
Speaker 1: trust Ferdinand and his Portuguese wife. This situation continued. There
Speaker 1: was a little sort of blipping in in seventeen thirty
Speaker 1: two when Philip had a particularly bad episode during which
Speaker 1: he refused to speak except on occasion, to his wife
Speaker 1: Elizabeth or to his son Ferdinand, and during this time
Speaker 1: Ferdinand was put on a regency council and he tried
Speaker 1: to encourage his father to once again assume his duties
Speaker 1: as king, and eventually the son's efforts did have some effect.
Speaker 1: He was able to get his father to bathe and
Speaker 1: change clothes and start taking on his duties and being
Speaker 1: king once again. But it wasn't as though Philip was
Speaker 1: magically cured just from getting cleaned up, and he still
Speaker 1: had a lot of periods of deep melancholy that alternated
Speaker 1: with manic phases. Although this did seem to get him
Speaker 1: over the hump of this particular episode, this was a
Speaker 1: particularly difficult period, and afterward Philip remained on the throne
Speaker 1: for another thirteen years. Spain did expand its military and
Speaker 1: land holdings under him, but it also fell into bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: At times, he'd spend long stretches of time in bed,
Speaker 1: and sometimes he would only get up at night to eat.
Speaker 1: Philip the Fifth died on July ninety six after having
Speaker 1: a stroke. Ferdinand's coronation was August ten, and initially Ferdinand's
Speaker 1: stepmother stayed in the Spanish court and made efforts to
Speaker 1: retain some level of influence, but before long Barbara urged
Speaker 1: the new king to show Elizabeth Farnesi the door and
Speaker 1: to help bolster her cause, Barbara also allied herself with
Speaker 1: three men of the court who were very influential. That
Speaker 1: was Jose de Calvaja, the Marketa and Sonata, and Fernando
Speaker 1: da Silva Alvarez de Toledo. And these men, while they
Speaker 1: all had their own political leanings and alliances with other countries,
Speaker 1: were united in wanting to rid the Court of Spain
Speaker 1: of Elizabeth and her friends and their influence. So by
Speaker 1: July of see Elizabeth and her supporters were exiled from court.
Speaker 1: Ferdinand was not prepared to rule, though he had been
Speaker 1: kept away from any sort of political events, so he
Speaker 1: pretty much had no idea how anything worked. Barbara, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, was a lot savvier. He started to
Speaker 1: defer to her, and this has led to some conclusions
Speaker 1: that like his father, he had married a controlling woman
Speaker 1: and then knocked in to just let her take over.
Speaker 1: But Elizabeth's moves I had always seemed to be motivated
Speaker 1: by her own desire for power, but Barbara seemed to
Speaker 1: really want to foster diplomacy and do it was best
Speaker 1: for the country. One thing that often comes up in
Speaker 1: discussions of this transition of power is the phrase it's
Speaker 1: rather Barbara who succeeds Elizabeth than Ferdinand succeeding Philip, which
Speaker 1: is apparently a statement that the French ambassador to Spain
Speaker 1: made at the time. And Barbara, who was also kind
Speaker 1: of shy like her husband, managed to overcome that part
Speaker 1: of herself to rise to the accase Asian and helped
Speaker 1: Ferdinand in any way possible. And Ferdinand was very much
Speaker 1: in line with Barbara when it came to matters of regencies,
Speaker 1: so even though he was deferring to her, they were
Speaker 1: very like minded, so it was kind of like he
Speaker 1: was letting her do a little more lifting uh and
Speaker 1: his trust in her and in his ministers turned out
Speaker 1: to be very very well founded. The country's debt turned around,
Speaker 1: and Spain was able to stand in a neutral position
Speaker 1: between France and Britain, who were forever at odds and
Speaker 1: trying to learn lure Spain into their conflict. Ferdinand was,
Speaker 1: because of the country's improved fortunes, able to make some
Speaker 1: magnanimous decisions at times. He earned the trust of the
Speaker 1: people this way. During particularly difficult times of strife, he
Speaker 1: would suspend taxation so that the population could recover. He
Speaker 1: also gave generously to charities, and through all of it,
Speaker 1: Barbara was often consulted before the king when the ministers
Speaker 1: had matters to discuss, and much of the work that
Speaker 1: was done during ferdinand the Sixes reign, particularly in the
Speaker 1: seventeen forties, was made possible through the work of the
Speaker 1: marquis event Snata, who we mentioned earlier, and the king
Speaker 1: had inherited him as prime minister from the period of
Speaker 1: his father's reign. Ensenada was an important part of the
Speaker 1: growth of Spain's economy under Ferdinand, and he stayed in
Speaker 1: his position for quite a number of years until a
Speaker 1: disagreement with Queen Barbara and a court scandal led to
Speaker 1: his dismissal in seventeen fifty four. That is also a
Speaker 1: whole other story, but during his time, Ensenada restructured the
Speaker 1: banking system by establishing a system that kept currency exchanges
Speaker 1: in the Royal treasury, and he helped funnel more funds
Speaker 1: to the Royal Navy for both expansion and fortification of
Speaker 1: the existing fleet. Ferdinand and Barbara continued to patronize the
Speaker 1: arts and their roles as the leaders of Spain, and
Speaker 1: while Ensenada it was instrumental to some of these efforts,
Speaker 1: it was a cause near and dear to both the
Speaker 1: monarchs as well. Under their reign, the Royal Academy of
Speaker 1: Fine Arts and Madrid was formally founded, although the seeds
Speaker 1: of that organization were planted during the reign of Philip
Speaker 1: the Fifth, and they both continued to patronize the singer Farinelli,
Speaker 1: who had been popular and fill up the Fifth court
Speaker 1: as well. Barrinelli would often travel down the river on
Speaker 1: a boat with the royal couple, singing as Barbara played
Speaker 1: along on her harpsichord. After a fire in the summer
Speaker 1: Palace in Ferdinand made sure that the plans for the
Speaker 1: rebuild included a space where Farinelli and other opera singers
Speaker 1: could perform. But even as the royal couple found ways
Speaker 1: to settle into and seemingly even enjoy their lives as
Speaker 1: King and Queen, both of them did struggle with their
Speaker 1: mental health, and as they aged, their issues manifested more
Speaker 1: and more severely. Ferdinand continued to have very wide mood
Speaker 1: swings and sometimes just paralyzing self doubt, and Barbara seemed
Speaker 1: consumed by anxiety. We're going to get into the ways
Speaker 1: that the failing mental health of both Barbara and Ferdinand
Speaker 1: played out and how impacted their lives in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But first we will take a quick breather and have
Speaker 1: a little sponsor break. So we mentioned before the break
Speaker 1: that both Barbara and Ferdinand dealt with a lot of
Speaker 1: mental health issues, and and one of those ways that
Speaker 1: it manifested was that they were constantly petrified, each of
Speaker 1: them that they might die suddenly. And in Barbara's case,
Speaker 1: she had put on a great deal of weight as
Speaker 1: she aged, which made movement a little more tricky, and
Speaker 1: her asthma had gotten progressively worse, and her anxiety about
Speaker 1: dying deepened as both of these things happened, and she
Speaker 1: also became completely terrified that Ferdinand would die first and
Speaker 1: that in the aftermath she would be left destitute. To
Speaker 1: try to prepare for that eventuality, Barbara amassed a lot
Speaker 1: of wealth, so much that she didn't need to worry
Speaker 1: about ever losing her fortune, but she still did. Picturing
Speaker 1: herself as an impoverished widow, she decided to have a
Speaker 1: convent built so that she'd have a place to live
Speaker 1: if this greatest fear of hers did come to pass.
Speaker 1: This convent was called Silesis realist and it was designed
Speaker 1: by Renee Carliger, who was a French architect. It also
Speaker 1: served as a girl's school. It still exists in Madrid,
Speaker 1: although it went from being a convent to being the
Speaker 1: Palace of Justice in eighteen seventy, and then it became
Speaker 1: the Church of Santa Barbara in eighteen ninety one. It's
Speaker 1: quite pretty based on pictures. I have not been there
Speaker 1: in person. Barbara, as it turned out, though, did not
Speaker 1: have to prepare for widowhood. In the fall of seventeen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, her health took a really severe downturn. She
Speaker 1: had a chronic cough already, but it just got worse
Speaker 1: and worse and never improved, and over the next year
Speaker 1: she really just died a slow and painful death. She
Speaker 1: became bedridden and she wasted away, and she struggled to
Speaker 1: breathe due to her asthma's progression, and the King stayed
Speaker 1: with her at all times until she died on August
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty eight. She was buried in the chapel of
Speaker 1: that convent that she founded. Barbara left everything to her brother, Joseph,
Speaker 1: the First of Portugal, and this was something of a
Speaker 1: shock to the Spanish public, because it was a much
Speaker 1: larger fortune than anyone had anticipated, and she was sending
Speaker 1: all that prosperity out of the country. Yeah, Barbara had
Speaker 1: been a fairly below loved queen, and apparently in the
Speaker 1: reading of her will, like immediately people kind of turned
Speaker 1: on her because they were not happy with this. This
Speaker 1: series of events um for Ferdinand's part, despite having known
Speaker 1: that the queen was dying during that time. To be frank,
Speaker 1: he was a mess. When she finally passed, his grief
Speaker 1: was pronounced and prolonged, and at times any suggestion of
Speaker 1: taking a second wife made him furious. Barbara had been
Speaker 1: everything to him, his love, his partner, his closest friend,
Speaker 1: and his most trusted guide and adviser in life. Without
Speaker 1: her was something he was just unable to even contemplate.
Speaker 1: For the next twelve months, there was just a long
Speaker 1: series of progressively more troubling behavior from the king. He
Speaker 1: retreated to a monastery at Villaviciosa. He essentially refused to
Speaker 1: fulfill his duties as monarch any longer. He vacillated between
Speaker 1: silent stillness and a kind of manic rage, and he
Speaker 1: just refused to be comforted even when his favorite singer
Speaker 1: Farinelli came to sing to him. That was something that
Speaker 1: had often calmed him and even his worst episodes of
Speaker 1: mania before. Yeah. Allegedly, when Fairinelle arrived and started singing,
Speaker 1: the king just clapped his hands over his ears and
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want any of this. Um. Ferdinand's
Speaker 1: behavior was, of course, very, very troubling, and it only
Speaker 1: got worse. He attempted suicide, first with a pair of
Speaker 1: scissors and then by trying to hang himself in the
Speaker 1: monastery's draperies. Alternately, he became so manic and afraid of
Speaker 1: dying that he would refuse to lie down. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: would walk around allegedly for like ten and eleven days
Speaker 1: at a time he was completely certain that if he
Speaker 1: were to lie down, he would never get up again.
Speaker 1: He stopped dressing, he stopped eating everything but soup at first,
Speaker 1: and then he started denying any food at all. Naturally,
Speaker 1: this was not a healthful way to live. He wasted away,
Speaker 1: and he died on August tenth, seventeen fifty nine, at
Speaker 1: the age of forty six. That was just a little
Speaker 1: less than a year after Barbara died, and he too,
Speaker 1: was buried in the convent chapel with her. There's a
Speaker 1: passage in the nineteen ten edition of Encyclopedia Britannica that reads, quote,
Speaker 1: the memoirs of the Count of Ferdinand Nunez give a
Speaker 1: shocking picture of his deathbed. So out of curiosity, Holly
Speaker 1: tried to look into that. What did you find there, Holly? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, it's in Spanish, which I do not read. Um.
Speaker 1: I ran it through Google Translate, and it did indeed
Speaker 1: offer up some fairly horrific imagery of a man who
Speaker 1: very clearly had lost all connection to any sense of
Speaker 1: royal propriety, of course, but also just normal life. But
Speaker 1: I also do not trust that translation enough to quote it.
Speaker 1: It was pretty clunky in some places because it was
Speaker 1: written in kind of an old school style. It is
Speaker 1: also a little bit rambolly in its structure. It kind
Speaker 1: of jumps from talking about one person to another without
Speaker 1: a lot of warning involved. So sometimes the pronouns he's
Speaker 1: still using pronouns even though he's actually referencing like a
Speaker 1: different royal. Uh. It can be a little bit hard
Speaker 1: to follow, and I will put the link to the
Speaker 1: Spanish language one in the show notes, which is online
Speaker 1: and digitized. But if anybody wants to look at it themselves,
Speaker 1: but just know that at the end Ferdinand was in
Speaker 1: a really, really bad state, both mentally and physically. Nothing
Speaker 1: you would want for even your worst enemy. Ferdinand and
Speaker 1: Barbara had had a pretty passionate marriage, but they never
Speaker 1: had children. So when Ferdinand died, Elizabeth Farnese's wishes came true.
Speaker 1: Her eldest son from her marriage to Philip the Fifth,
Speaker 1: which was Charles the Third, took the throne. This was
Speaker 1: the wish of King Ferdinand, who had left Madrid for
Speaker 1: his self imposed exile at the monastery in December of
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty eight. Just before leaving, he had named Charles
Speaker 1: the Third as his air presumptive. And what's truly unique
Speaker 1: to me about the reign of Ferdinand and Barbara is
Speaker 1: not that they had mental health issues, or that, despite
Speaker 1: being an arranged marriage that other people did not understand,
Speaker 1: they felt in love and were so deeply devoted to
Speaker 1: one another. Um it is, in fact, the surprising thing
Speaker 1: to me is in fact that they were both, particularly Ferdinand,
Speaker 1: incredibly earnest. They really wanted to do their best and
Speaker 1: be good rulers, and they were are also kind of
Speaker 1: almost naively trusting sometimes of their advisors, and they could
Speaker 1: have really been exploited terribly and things could have gone
Speaker 1: very badly. But for the most part, during Ferdinand's time
Speaker 1: on the throne, Spain was prosperous and recovered from a
Speaker 1: lot of problems and avoided any dramatic political entanglements. Uh.
Speaker 1: To me, that's what surprising, even though a lot of
Speaker 1: other parts of their their life and their rule is sensationalized.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I tend to come away with thinking, Yes,
Speaker 1: but they really really did want to do their best job,
Speaker 1: and in many ways they did, uh, which is sort
Speaker 1: of a happy ending to a fairly tragic story. I'm
Speaker 1: going in a way different direction on listener mail today. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about some evolutionary biology. Uh. This is
Speaker 1: a reference back to our episode on France. Nope, check
Speaker 1: it came. It comes from our listener Adrian shrites Hi, Holly,
Speaker 1: and Tracy. Thank you so much for your work on
Speaker 1: the podcast. I listened to it every day during my
Speaker 1: commute lab work and while reading assignments. I'm a PhD
Speaker 1: candidate studying geology and evolutionary biology. A K. A paleontology
Speaker 1: and the podcast helps get through those slower parts of
Speaker 1: my day. I recently listened to your episode on Baron
Speaker 1: Frantz Noche. Not only do I love learning about the
Speaker 1: history of paleontologists that came before me, this episode in
Speaker 1: particular caught my attention due to his work involving island animals.
Speaker 1: I am studying the evolutionary history of some island lizards
Speaker 1: for my dissertation. It is true that's some and maybe
Speaker 1: most question mark cases uh island ecosystems support dwarfed animals. However,
Speaker 1: in some cases there is island gigantism. I just read
Speaker 1: a paper about an island that supports giant iguanas. It
Speaker 1: is thought that in the case of gigantism, the presence
Speaker 1: of marine birds and their guano can fertilize the plant
Speaker 1: life and boost the nutritional value of those plants, which
Speaker 1: trickles up the food chain. A fun historical tidbit, part
Speaker 1: of the push for colonization of Pacific islands was to
Speaker 1: gain control of islands that had large deposits of guano.
Speaker 1: Up until the advent of the haber Bosch process, a
Speaker 1: major source of fertilizer was bird guano. Unfortunately, the mining
Speaker 1: of guano was often very disruptive to the ecosystem, and
Speaker 1: island ecosystems are often viewed as particularly fragile. In good news,
Speaker 1: the conservation and restoration of these bird rich islands is
Speaker 1: being pushed by biologists. Adrian, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing your scientific knowledge of this. Uh yeah, I had
Speaker 1: not thought about gigantism. If anybody needed a refresher. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of debate during Baron Franz Nopea's time about
Speaker 1: some of the discoveries he was making in a lot
Speaker 1: of theorizing about why animals were smaller, including that he
Speaker 1: was only ever finding immature animals. So if you would
Speaker 1: like to write to us le's share your expertise, you
Speaker 1: can do that at History Podcast at House of Works
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us pretty much everywhere
Speaker 1: on social media. As Missed in History and Missed in
Speaker 1: History dot com is our website. You are l You
Speaker 1: can come there and check out every episode of the
Speaker 1: show that has ever existed, including those that came well
Speaker 1: before Tracy and I were ever involved. If you would
Speaker 1: like to subscribe to the podcast, we would not like
Speaker 1: you to do that, as well, you can do that
Speaker 1: on the I heart Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever it is you listen to podcasts. Stuffy Missed in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I heart Radios How
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