 Charles suffered from an enlarged lower jaw, a congenital deformity that became considerably worse in later Habsburg generations, giving rise to the term Habsburg jaw.This deformity may have been caused by the family's long history of inbreeding, the consequence of repeated marriages between close family members, as commonly practiced in royal families of that era to maintain dynastic control of territory.He suffered from epilepsy and was seriously afflicted with gout, presumably caused by a diet consisting mainly of red meat.