Queen Juana the Mad of Castile

queens of europe juana the first of castile and aragon known as juana la loca or joanna the mad she was haunted by mental health problems she stabbed a romantic rival in the face and lived with her beloved husband's corpse though it is likely that her husband father and son exaggerated rumors of her instability to keep her under their control juana was the third child of queen isabel of castile and king fernando of aragon the power couple who united much of spain in a personal union launched columbus's expedition to the new world conquered southern spain from the muslims and started the spanish inquisition to learn more about queen isabel check out my video about her juana inherited her mother's fair complexion and strawberry blonde hair and her father's dark brown eyes her remarkably intelligent and strong-willed mother made sure that she and her sisters received a rigorous education in multiple disciplines including literature history music needlepoint cooking multiple languages and most importantly the catholic religion juana particularly enjoyed outdoor sports including hunting and hawking she also loved music and played the guitar cavalicord and monacord at age 16 the princess began to show signs of teenage rebellion the best way to assert her independence against her fervently catholic parents was through religious skepticism and lack of devotion for a daughter of the monarchs who made catholicism the national religion banished all jews from the country and began the spanish inquisition to sniff out and torture non-believers this was a dangerous game for yonkwana to play her mother in particular would not tolerate having a heretic for a daughter and subjected juana to la cuerda a form of torture which involved her being suspended by a rope with weights attached to her feet isabelle was fine with endangering her daughter's health and even her life as long as she could save her soul but even under torture juana obstinately refused to confess to heresy or to name anyone who had led her astray in her faith this youthful descent would later be used as evidence of juana's mental instability as a royal daughter juana was trained from a young age to be a good wife as she was expected to make an important political marriage that would further her parents dynastic power at 16 the princess was betrothed to 18 year old philip of flanders known as philip the handsome he was the eldest son of holy roman emperor maximilian the first at the same time juana's older brother juan was betrothed to philip's sister margaret in a double family alliance designed to strengthen both dynasties against the growing power of france in 1496 juana was married by proxy and boarded a ship to flanders in modern day belgium to live with her new husband when the teenagers met it was lost at first sight their wedding was scheduled for the next day but philip insisted that a priest bless the marriage that very night the holy man had barely finished his benediction when the young newlyweds disappeared into their bedroom while living in flanders juana gave birth to her first three children eleanor charles and isabella but the passion the couple felt on their wedding night mutated into melodrama philip's wandering eye fell onto other women of the court and juana became jealous and melancholy the couple argued frequently and philip would punish his wife by ignoring and avoiding her for days at a time meanwhile back in spain juana's brother juan married phillips sister margaret but he died shortly after the wedding he had lived long enough to make margaret pregnant and it was desperately hoped that she might deliver a male heir but sadly she gave birth to a stillborn daughter juan had been isabelle and fernando's only son so this meant their eldest daughter isabelle queen of portugal was now their heir however she died after giving birth to her first child a son miguel miguel then became heir to castile aragon and portugal and would have united the entire iberian peninsula into one kingdom but he died as well at the age of two thus juana now the eldest surviving child of isabel and fernando became heir to both of their kingdoms in 1502 she and philip traveled to spain to receive vows of fealty from the nobility she was named princess of asturias the title which was traditionally given to the heir of castile and is still given to the heir of the throne of spain juana's significantly increased position made her far more politically useful to her husband and he attempted to exert more control over her but the strong-willed princess resisted her husband's dominance and he took to locking her in her room in an attempt to break her will after yet another spousal quarrel philip returned home to flanders leaving pregnant wanna behind in madrid where she gave birth to their fourth child fernando when juana returned to flanders with her new son she found that her beloved husband had taken up with another woman the princess flew into a jealous rage and attacked philip's new lover with a pair of scissors she cut off her rival's hair and slashed her face juana changed her own hair and dress style and even used love potions in an attempt to attract her wayward groom's attention but to no avail she sank deeper into depression and philip charged his wife's attendance with keeping detailed records of her odd behavior and sending reports back to her parents humiliating juana juana was called back to spain when queen isabel fell seriously ill the princess was devastated at seeing her indomitable mother so unwell and in her distress she stopped eating and sleeping but something sparked an argument between mother and daughter and juana decided that she must return home immediately she was advised against returning to flanders by land via france as castile and france were at war at the time but she insisted that castile was at war not her her travel companions refused to embark on this treacherous journey and locked the horses in the stable juana flew into a rage at being defied and stayed out all night banging on the stable doors and refusing to come inside or take a blanket queen isabel died in 1504 at the age of 53 and juana became queen regnant of castile juana and philip set sail for spain but storms diverted them to england where they stayed briefly at the court of king henry vii juana was reunited with her sister catherine who had by this time been widowed by prince arthur heir to the throne of england but had not yet been married to the future king henry viii once they reached spain juana's husband philip and her father fernando went head to head both trying to rest control of castile from juana isabel's will made juan a queen but isabelle had disliked and distrusted her son-in-law and she ensured that he could only be a consort and not a king fernando however would be allowed to rule as his daughter's regent if she were away or incapacitated fernando and philip each tried to gain the support of the government for their own rule they both had coins minted with their own names and faces next to juana's and both beefed up stories of juana's emotional instability into full-blown insanity thus illustrating her inability to rule and justifying their own claims to power this tug of war might have gone on but in 1506 philip fell seriously ill possibly of typhoid fever though rumors circled that fernando had ordered philip poisoned juana pregnant with her sixth child refused to leave her husband's side after six days in limbo philip died at the age of 28. juana still refused to leave his side and she frequently demanded that his coffin be opened so that she could kiss and embrace his corpse she stayed next to her dead beloved during the weeks-long journey to granada where he was to be buried the queen insisted that they travel only at night under cover of darkness so that no women would see her dearly departed and be overwhelmed with desire for him for that same reason she demanded that they rest only at monasteries and never at nunneries philip's well-loved cadaver was eventually buried in granada and juana was forced to bid farewell to his earthly remains and return to castile there she went into labor but refused the help of midwives she gave birth alone to her last child catalina the final remnant of her beloved phillip juana attempted to rule castile on her own for several months but to her misfortune a bad harvest and plague devastated her kingdom that year and public outrage undermined her authority when her father returned to castile in july a new improved harvest was coming in and the plague had died down this was seen by the people as divine approval of fernando's reign and juana had little choice but to sign over power to her father but finally claiming the throne was not enough for this ruthlessly ambitious king fernando promptly dismissed juana's faithful attendance and had his daughter locked away in the monastery of santa clara in tortillas where she would remain a prisoner for the rest of her life her youngest daughter catalina remained with her as one of her few companions now holding at the reigns in castile fernando was so busy that he only managed to visit his daughter twice over the next 11 years fernando also transferred his hatred of philip of habsburg to his and juana's son charles who had been raised in the holy roman empire and was quite foreign to the spaniards unfortunately charles was the heir not only to castile but also to fernando's own kingdom of aragon fernando thus took a second wife french noblewoman jermaine de fois in the hopes of producing a male heir to displace charles's claim on aragon jermaine did give birth to a son juan who sadly died shortly after birth on his deathbed fernando attempted to name wanna's younger son fernando his own namesake who had been raised in spain under his influence as heir to aragon but he was convinced not to as this might very well have led to war between the brothers in january 1516 fernando died at the age of 63 fernando died at the age of 63 leaving both castile and aragon to his imprisoned daughter juana at 17 charles arrived in spain in order to stake his claim on his mother's thrones juana's isolation had caused her to become increasingly unstable and withdrawn and he easily obtained her signature to allow him to rule as her co-monarch however he did not inform her of the death of her father or make any attempt to improve her situation he kept his mother right where she was charles was quite taken with his grandfather fernando's 29 year old widow jermaine de fois and commenced an affair with her jermaine's daughter isabelle may very well have been fathered by the young king in 1519 charles was elected holy roman emperor and castile and aragon thus became part of a personal union with the empire this outraged the spaniard and a revolt broke out against charles the rebels stormed torticius and set juana free they hoped that as the legal queen her blessing would legitimize their attempt to remove charles from the throne but despite their pleading juana refused to act against her son and the rebels gave up and returned her once more to her prison far from grateful for his mother's loyalty charles had his sister catalina who had been the lonely queen's only companion for 18 years stolen away from her in order to marry her off to king juan iii of portugal all of juana's six offspring would grow up to become emperors or queens her children were eleanor queen of france and portugal charles v holy roman emperor isabel queen of denmark fernando the first holy roman emperor maria queen of hungary and catalina queen of portugal lonelier than ever juana's mental and physical health deteriorated charles wrote to his mother's caretakers it seems to me that the most suitable thing is to make sure that no person speaks to her majesty for no good could come of it the queen was no longer able to feed bathe or dress herself and she became paranoid that the nuns who cared for her were plotting to murder her juana subsisted in her royal prison for a further 30 years totaling 45 years of solitude and misery she finally died in 1555 at the age of 75 and was buried in the royal chapel of grenada next to her beloved husband philip and her parents isabelle and fernando but was juana truly mad though it is impossible to diagnose mental illness from 500 years hence historians have speculated that juana suffered from various conditions including depression bipolar disorder psychosis or schizophrenia juana came from a family notorious for inbreeding and resulting mental and physical illness her parents were second cousins and her grandmother isabella of portugal was also considered insane and was locked away in a convent juana's great-grandson carlos was also mentally unstable and violent he died at the age of 23 while imprisoned by his father however many of the reports of juana's deranged actions including stabbing her husband's lover and living with his corpse may have been propaganda spread by her husband father and son in order to undermine her royal authority and bolster their own claims to the throne there is no denying that whatever her true mental state the men in juana's life took advantage of her for their own gain abandoning queen juana to isolation and despair a special thank you goes to my patron matthew kuchanic if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 609,073

Keywords: history, game of thrones, documentary, royal family, royalty, bbc, scandal, royal wedding, women, europe, historic costumes, queen, christopher columbus, spain, spanish history, castile, the spanish princess, the catholic monarchs, spanish inquisition, ferdinand and isabella, catherine of aragon, juana la loca, joanna the mad, isabel I of castile, Prince of Asturias, Philip the handsom, exhumation, insanity, inbreeding, hapsburgs, holy roman empire, columbus, henry viii, madness history

Id: uWuAXK4A4yc

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 24 2020