Juana the Mad/Juana, Queen of Castile

The second daughter and third offspring of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, Juana I, entered the world in Toledo in 1479. Raised in her parents’ itinerant court, she received early Latin instruction from fray Andrés de Miranda, from the Dominican monastery of San Pablo of Burgos. In 1495, Juana’s parents married her to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip, as part of a double alliance that also joined her brother, Juan, heir to their realms, to Philip’s sister, Margaret. Juana sailed to the Low Countries with an important escort, much of which returned to Castile with Margaret, in 1496. The assignment of Juana’s dowry in her husband’s lands gave Philip and his councilors effective control of her household after their marriage in Lier. As duchess of Burgundy and archduchess of Austria, Juana performed a series of entries into her husband’s cities and towns, before giving birth to a daughter, Leonor, in 1498, and a son, Charles, in 1500. The successive deaths of Juana’s brother, older sister, and sister’s son made the archduchess of Austria heir to her parents’ kingdoms by 1501. However, another pregnancy and the birth of a daughter, Isabel, delayed her departure for Castile, where the representatives of the cities and towns would confirm her succession to the throne and Philip’s position as prince consort. Hastening back to his realms through France, Philip left Juana, pregnant again, in Castile. After giving birth to a second son, Ferdinand, Juana upset her mother by rejoining Philip in the Low Countries. Queen Isabel’s death in 1504 made Juana her lawful successor. After the birth of another daughter, María, Juana and Philip departed for Castile by sea, with an accidental stop in England, in order to claim Juana’s inheritance. Unsuccessfully, Juana sought a reunion with her father who, instead, pacted with Philip and left Castile. Philip then attempted to isolate Juana and to rule without her, although the representative assembly of Castile and Leon refused to sanction the queen’s confinement. Philip’s death in September 1506 enabled Juana to flee the court and to revoke his grants and appointments before giving birth to her last child, Catalina. Upon returning to Castile in 1507, King Ferdinand resumed the regency in Juana’s name, and, by 1509, he persuaded her to settle in the town of Tordesillas, in a place contiguous to its Royal Monastery of Saint Clare. Following Ferdinand’s death in 1516, the advisors of Juana’s son, Charles, declared him king. In 1520 the queen received the captains of the Comunero rebellion against Habsburg rule and the “Holy Assembly” they represented, yet she refused to sanction measures against her son. Juana also received visits from members of her family and their representatives in Tordesillas, with a brief absence due to plague in 1534, until her death in April 1555.