Juana la Loca

Queen Juana (often Anglicized to Joanna) of Castile and Aragon is known as Juana la Loca for some of her more *ahem* eccentric antics. Forgive me if I make a few errors here; I do not know as much about Spain as I do about Britain, France, and Russia and my history may be a touch off. I'm going by I have an old book on female monarchs throughout history which is where I'm getting most of my information.

Juana was born in 1479 to Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Isabella is well known to history or sponsoring Christopher Columbus and for her many hard-fought battles to keep people who weren't white Catholics out of Spain. By her marriage to Ferdinand, a monarch in his own right, she merged their kingdoms to form what we now know as Spain. Juana's little sister, Catalina, married into the English royal family and became Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. I believe I did a post on her a few weeks ago; not sure if I ever posted it on my blog.

Anyway, when Juana was sixteen she got engaged to Prince Philip of Burgandy, known as Philip the Handsome. And Juana really thought he was handsome. She fell madly in love with Philip very quickly and once they were married it became almost obsessive. For his part, Philip thought she was a nice girl and all. But he still had lady friends with which he spend a great deal of time.

Juana did not like that one bit; she wanted her man to herself. But there was little she could do; she was just a consort and expected to put up with infidelity. Juana and Philip had six children; two sons who became Emperors and four daughters who became Queens. Her descendants were fond of marrying each other and as such Juana and Philip were the ancestors of some of the most inbred royals who ever lived. The famed "Hapsburg Jaw" was a result of this.

Though Juana was the third of her parents' five children, her two older siblings predeceased her parents and made her the heir to the throne. When she was twenty-five, Juana lost her mother, who she hadn't seen in many years since her marriage. As such, Juana was expected to ascend to her mother's title of Queen of Castile. Juana's father didn't like that one bit; he wanted to rule in her stead. So Juana's husband and father ended up in a kind of civil war situation (maybe not quite that bad, at least given the time period) over who was going to rule Castile.

Philip and Juana won and were sworn in as King and Queen in 1506. Tragedy stuck when later that year Philip suddenly died of an illness, most likely typhus. Juana was naturally a bit shaken up, this is well documented. What is not quite as well documented is that she completely went mad and took to running around the roof of the palace naked. There were accounts of that nature that included all kinds of stories; that she wouldn't let nuns be near her husband's coffin, that she tried to stab courtiers, that she would go into violent rages and had to be restrained. But they probably weren't true.

Here's why: Juana's father, who she wasn't particularly close to, wanted to rule Castile in her stead until her oldest son (six when his father died) came of age. If she was mentally ill and declared incompetent to reign, he could do that. As such, it was in his best interest, and in the best interest of his many hangers-on, to convince people Juana was insane. I don't doubt Juana was depressed and perhaps even a bit unbalenced after her husband died. She was still in her twenties and pregnant with her sixth child and had just won the right to rule a kingdom when she lost her husband who, by all accounts, she was deeply in-love with. But I question the madness claim simply because there were enough people who would have wanted her declared mad regardless of her mental state. Plenty of other royal ladies throughout history have been accused of madness by those who would benefit from declaring them as such.

In 1507, Ferdinand invaded Castile and had Juana imprisoned. She refused to sign away her rights to th throne, so her father had her confined to a convent. When Juana's father died in 1516, she was still more or less imprisoned. Her teenage son, Charles, was then meant to share her throne. Juana hoped he would release her after he visited her for the first time in many years, but he did not. Charles ruled both of his grandparents' kingdom and was worried that if he did anything to imply his mother was not insane he would lose some of his power.

In 1520, there was a rebellion staged by subjects who did not like the way Charles was ruling the country; they felt he was too foreign and not properly adhering to Catholic principals. Since Juana was still officially Queen, they sought her support in the rebellion. If they could get Juana to sign a document supporting their claim they would have the official authority to take over in the eyes of many monarchists. Even though it might have meant her freedom, Juana politely declined, not wishing to hurt her son.

Charles was very afraid of his mother undermining his power; he kept her imprisoned in windowless rooms in a convent for the rest of her life. Though her daughters occasionally visited and sent support, she was mostly alone. Juana began to be convinced the nuns who guarded her were trying to have her poisoned. Perhaps she was beginning to go mad after all, or perhaps they were trying to kill her. Given the circumstances, it only made sense for her to be a bit suspicious.

Juana finally died in 1555; she was seventy-five and had been imprisoned for nearly fifty years of her life. I said it before last night in regards to Elizabeth Woodville, and I'll say it again; it really sucked to be a woman in the fifteenth/sixteenth century.