{"id":953,"date":"2023-02-03T11:15:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T16:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=953"},"modified":"2023-02-03T11:15:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T16:15:44","slug":"joe-biden-as-the-doddering-king-of-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=953","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden as the Doddering King of Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>As I recently had to prepare a lecture series on the kings of Spain, I stumbled upon a striking parallel between the United States today and Spain 300 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the fifty years between 1665 and 1715, the collapse of Spain\u2019s monarchy led to the War of the Spanish Succession.&nbsp;&nbsp;In that war, Winston Churchill\u2019s ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, became an unforgettable historical figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So much of what I found in studying this conflict reminds me of the United States today, especially because of the global anxiety caused by Joe Biden\u2019s apparent fragility of mind and body.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps some lessons can be learned here, or at least we can amuse ourselves by reflecting on Spain\u2019s history and recalling the lines from Ecclesiastes: \u201cThere is nothing new under the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>El Rey Hechizado\u201d or \u201cThe King Who Had a Hex on Him\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the center of Spain\u2019s dramatic decline was one of the most tragic monarchs in history: Carlos (or Charles) II of Spain.\u00a0\u00a0In 1665, his father, King Felipe IV, died.\u00a0\u00a0Carlos II was only four years old.\u00a0\u00a0His mother, Mariana of Austria, had to rule as regent.\u00a0\u00a0Because of the sexual escapades of Carlos\u2019s father, he had an out-of-wedlock brother named Juan Jos\u00e9 de Austria; this person would militate against Carlos in attempt to gain power.\u00a0\u00a0But Carlos\u2019s most lethal enemy was his own DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original article: <a href=\"https:\/\/nworeport.me\/2023\/02\/02\/joe-biden-as-the-doddering-king-of-spain\/\">https:\/\/nworeport.me\/2023\/02\/02\/joe-biden-as-the-doddering-king-of-spain\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I recently had to prepare a lecture series on the kings of Spain, I stumbled upon a striking parallel between the United States today and Spain 300 years ago. In the fifty years between 1665 and 1715, the collapse of Spain\u2019s monarchy led to the War of the Spanish Succession.&nbsp;&nbsp;In that war, Winston Churchill\u2019s ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, became an unforgettable historical figure. So much of what I found in studying this conflict reminds me of the United [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-president-biden"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":954,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}