This may well have been the first new genetic information introduced in generations. Charles II also had congenital syphilis (his father was infected through sex with prostitutes, then transmitted it to his wife, who in turn passed the disease on to her unborn son), which is known to cause severe birth defects and genetic mutation.Philip of Castille note (died 1506) and Joanna of Castille note (died 1555) together were both 3x-Great grandparents and 5x-Great-grandparents to Charles II, and provided about 40.6% of his note (born 1661) genes.The rest of Europe was terrified of either power gaining control of the Spanish empire and moved to stop them both. When the third candidate (six-year-old Joseph Ferdinand/José Fernando of Bavaria ) died, the French king moved to have his grandson crowned, and the Austrian emperor moved to have his son crowned. Problem was, one had a mother who was the other's mother's older sister, the other had a wife who was the other's wife's older sister, and nobody could figure out which trumped which. Louis XIV of France and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of Austria both had claims to the Spanish throne through Charles II's grandfather, by way of their mothers and their wives. Hence his host of physical and intellectual disabilities, hence him being unable to produce children (they actually tried, with two wives that were 'merely' second cousins, but the man was literally too malformed to breed), hence the Succession Crisis, hence the War of the Spanish Succession, or the third-biggest family feud of all time. 'Crazy Jane', is most of his great^5 and 6 grandmothers, when it'd be normal to have 16 and 32, respectively. Not only that, but Joanna of Castile, a.k.a. In case you don't want to work it out, that means a grand total of eight separate genomes introduced over the course of seven generations and at least three cases of men marrying their nieces. The family tree ◊ of Charles II of Spain is also incredibly tangled.Just because he's your brother and your cousin doesn't mean that you can't go to war with him, right? Which makes the Thirty Years' War (aka, the bloodiest European war pre-WWI) the second-biggest family feud of all time. All that is before you consider that these people were often all rulers in different nations.

Admittedly, that's not directly a Tangled Family Tree, but when it carries on for a while (and it did, for centuries) it can get ludicrously tangled. Instead of the usual 24 great- and great-great-grandparents, he had 10. note As the Wikipedia article notes, though, it is speculated that Alfonso XII's father was not his mother's husband/second cousin.

The worst example historically is probably Alfonso XII of Spain whose grandfathers were brothers who each married their own nieces.

Even in the modern day, it still happens - Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were both second cousins once removed and third cousins via different paths. The number of times people married their first cousins to reaffirm long-standing alliances or some such was absolutely unbelievable.

The Julio-Claudians were pikers compared to a lot of European dynasties a few hundred years ago.

The dictator was actually named Gaius Julius Caesar (of which there were only three, not including himself). Even further complicated by Roman naming traditions (in which Julius Caesar was more like a family name), there are 9 other Julius Caesars before and concurrent with the one you're thinking of in the family tree.Also not helped by the Romans' love of adopting nephews as sons, sleeping around as much as the Gods, and giving all of their daughters the same name.Big, Screwed-Up Family doesn't even begin to cover it. Agrippina the Younger, was (allegedly) the lover of Emperor Caligula, despite being his sister, the wife of Emperor Claudius, despite being his niece, and the mother of Emperor Nero, and was also rumored to have had Parental Incest with him before the two had a falling out over a woman and he had her killed.His maternal grandmother was Augustus's daughter of his first marriage, Julia, who married Augustus's friend, General Agrippa. His paternal grandmother, Antonia, was the daughter of Mark Antony and Augustus's sister Octavia. For example: Caligula Caesar's paternal grandfather, Drusus, was the son of Augustus's second wife Livia by her first marriage.Others avoid looking at the family tree at all, as it contains spoilers.) (Some people have discovered that having a copy of the Julio-Claudian family tree at one's side greatly helps a viewer grasp who's who and what's what while watching I, Claudius.

The family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire is just about the closest thing to a real-life Tangled Family Tree as you're going to find, as many very confused first-time viewers of The BBC miniseries I, Claudius have discovered.

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