Charles II of Spain Net Worth

Background and career

Charles II (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700) was King of Spain from 1665 to 1700. The last member of the House of Habsburg to rule Spain, his death without children resulted in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession.

For reasons still debated, Charles experienced lengthy periods of ill health throughout his life. This made the question of who would succeed him central to European diplomacy for much of his reign, historian John Langdon-Davies writing that "from the day of his birth, they were waiting for his death".

The leading candidates for the succession were Charles of Austria, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Philip of Anjou, 16-year-old grandson of Louis XIV of France. Charles made the latter his heir shortly before dying in November 1700, but the acquisition of an undivided Spanish Empire by either candidate threatened the European balance of power and resulted in war.