Kinlight · The House of Habsburg

Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias

1629 – 1646 · Generation XIV · Prince of Asturias · Austrian Habsburgs

Portrait of Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias

Balthasar Charles (1629 – 1646). Prince of Asturias. Heir of Philip IV by Elisabeth of France; died at sixteen. Born in the Royal Palace of Madrid, he was sworn in as heir before the nobility of Castile in 1632. The Countess of Olivares served as his governess, and he was schooled in humanist learning, arms, hunting and drawing, showing a gift for languages; his mother, to whom he was devoted, encouraged his love of music and theatre. A marriage to his cousin Mariana of Austria was agreed. Amid the Catalan revolt his father had him sworn heir of Aragon at Zaragoza in 1645, then of Valencia, and in 1646 of Navarre. In Zaragoza that October, on the eve of the anniversary of his mother’s death, he fell ill with what was thought to be smallpox and died within days. The loss left Philip without a son, and the king went on to marry Mariana himself. Velázquez painted the prince on horseback, as a hunter and with a dwarf.

Place in the family

  • Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias was a great-great-grandson of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
  • Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias was the elder of 2 children of Philip IV of Spain and Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain recorded in this archive.

One of 24 people of Austrian Habsburgs (1527–1754) in this archive. The Vienna line, which held the Holy Roman crown almost without a break.

Line of descent: Rudolf I of Germany → Albert I of Germany → Albert II, Duke of Austria → Leopold III, Duke of Austria → Ernest, Duke of Austria → Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor → Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor → Philip I of Castile → Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor → Philip II of Spain → Philip III of Spain → Philip IV of Spain → Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias.

Read more on Wikipedia

Parents

Siblings

Open Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias in the interactive tree