“The Habsburg dynasty was one of the most influential in Europe.” - Roman Vilas
What is the Habsburg Jaw? Its medical name is ‘Prognathism’ and is defined as a protrusion of your upper jaw, your lower jaw or both. It can be present in humans for a variety of different reasons but the most common reason is the most absurd. The Habsburg Jaw exists today, but how did it come into existence and why is it called the Habsburg Jaw? It’s named after the Habsburg family. The Habsburgs were one of the most powerful and influential families in history. They ruled enormous swathes of Europe from the 10th until the 20th century. The Habsburg Empire ruled for nigh on 1,000 years and were accustomed to an extremely high standard of living. They ruled with an iron fist and in order to continue ruling, as with any royal family, male heirs were paramount. Choosing suitable partners for the female members of the family became difficult for a variety of reasons. For one, the Habsburgs were Catholic and with the rapid increase in Protestantism during their tenure, the number of suitable male partners dwindled. Another reason for the difficulty in choosing partners was the Habsburgs’ reluctance to marry outside of royalty. The main reason for this was their implementation of tactile partnerships, the Habsburgs knew that if they could marry within other, wealthy, leading and royal families then, their empire would grow and strengthen. However, this decision comes with some trepidation as when other families are involved, jealousy over land and wealth often takes over and infighting occurs. Leading to massive fractures with the empire. Ultimately, over time the Habsburg family grew suspicious of outsiders and banned marriage outside of the family altogether. Leading to inbreeding. Members of the Habsburg family began to marry other members of the Habsburg family and inbreeding became rife. Inbreeding is the main cause of prognathism. During this period in history there was no other family inbreeding to the extinct of the Habsburg dynasty. Thus, leading to the Habsburg jaw.
Many members of the dynasty had the same physical trait of a protruding bottom jaw. The jutting chin could be so pronounced that the flattering portrait artists of the day could not manage to hide them. The condition even prevented some members of the dynasty from eating or speaking properly. The ‘Habsburg jaw’ was a biological result from generations of inbreeding. In a bid to keep their power, the Habsburgs kept everything within the family. They relied on ‘consanguine’ marriages that partnered close relatives, such as first cousins, or uncles with their nieces. The term geneticists typically use for inbreeding is “consanguinity,” which means “of the same blood” and is pronounced “con-san-gwinity.” The degree of relationship between the two individuals has enormous importance to the severity of deformity. Children of parents who are brother and sister are more consanguineous than the children of two people who are first cousins. For similar reasons, consanguinity within the same family over multiple generations increases the risk for hereditary disorders more than one isolated instance of an incestuous union in a family tree. Beginning in the early 12th century the Habsburgs rapidly expanded their realm. They did this through a series of strategically executed marriages, from the mountains of Switzerland to a territory that included massive plains of Austria, Hungary, Italy, France and Spain. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty helped create an empire that reached its apex in the 16th and 17th centuries. They controlled land from the Philippines to the Americas.
Inbreeding certainly helped them keep hold of power, although over the generations it drained the gene pool nearly dry. In 1517, Italian diplomat Antonio di Beatis described one Habsburg family member and future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as having “a long, cadaverous face and a lopsided mouth (which drops open when he is not on his guard) with a dropping lower lip”. Furthermore, by the end of the 17th century, the results of their marital practices had become apparent. Family members had distinctive protruding lips, a high rate of infant mortality and a host of other health problems. Charles II of Spain (1665–1700) is infamously known as having the worst Habsburg jaw. Also known as “El Hechizado” (“The Hexed”), Charles was severely deformed so much so that it meant, he was raised as an infant until the age of 10. Even as he grew older, he was never able to govern effectively. Charles suffered from a host of conditions and disorders, among them epilepsy, as a result of 16 generations of inbreeding. His grandmother and aunt were the same person, while his mother was also his father’s niece. Such was his physical deterioration, as well as his mental decline, that his autopsy recorded that his body “did not contain a single drop of blood; his heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water”. As for Charles’s Habsburg jaw, it was so pronounced that his upper and lower rows of teeth did not meet. He could not chew his food, which served to exacerbate his health issues as he had multiple stomach concerns, and he had an oversized tongue that meant he could not speak clearly.
From 1516 to 1700, it has been estimated that over 80% of marriages within the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty were consanguineous. In other words they were marriages between the closest possible blood relatives. Most often, these unions took the form of marriages between first cousins, double-first cousins, and uncles/nieces. Charles II’s mother was a niece of his father, his grandmother was his aunt, and his great-grandmother was also his grandmother. In fact, all 8 of this great-grandparents were direct descendants of Joanna and Philip I of Castile. In fact, Joanna appears in his family tree no less than 14 times! Infant and child mortality rose to 50% among Spanish Habsburgs. This is much higher than the average for the period. Unsurprisingly, Charles II was also impotent, though that did not prevent him from having two wives who tried in vain to give him an heir. The homogeneity of the Habsburg genetic pool was so extreme by this point that they had a higher rate of stillbirths than peasants in the Spanish countryside. And ultimately, after 16 generations of inbreeding, Charles II was the end of the line. He died in 1700 just shy of his 39th birthday, and along with him died the Habsburg dynasty in Spain.
This distinctive jaw feature prevalent among European nobility, particularly within the Habsburg dynasty, highlights the implications of extensive intermarriage and limited genetic diversity. While the Habsburg jaw symbolizes the power and legacy of one of history's most influential families, it also underscores the importance of genetic diversity in preventing hereditary anomalies. Studying this phenomenon offers valuable insights into the complex interplay between genetics, history, and health, reminding us of the enduring impact of our ancestral choices on future generations. In a broader historical context, the Habsburg jaw symbolizes the intricate connections between genetics, societal norms, and the exercise of power. As a historical lesson, it reminds contemporary society there are instances from the past that can help us understand medical conditions in the present. Prognathism, is now a much more well-known anomaly and the study of the Habsburg family has shed light on the thousands of people today that suffer from the condition from reasons other than incestuous relationships. The Habsburgs’ legacy, marked by their distinctive jawline, thus continues to inform both historical scholarship and genetic science, bridging past and present in our understanding of human biology and its impact on history.
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