History Is Present

Joanna of Castile

Joanna la Loca

We all now about Catherine of Aragon who was loved by the English and was discovered by Henry VIII thus creating the Church of England. But what about her older sister Joanna.

Joanna is known to history as Joanna la Loca (Joanna the mad). Her story is a real tragedy and through my research of her I felt pity for her. She was mistreated just like her sister was hundreds of miles away. This is her sad story.

Warning! You may need tissues on standby!

Infanta of Spain

Joanna was born in Toledo, Castille (modern day Spain) on the 6th of November 1479 to Queen Isabella I of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Both of her parents were rulers in their own right; Isabella ruled Castille with Ferdinand as her consort and Ferdinand ruled Aragon with Isabella as his consort.  

She was given a proper education due to any royal princess in Christendom at the time, tutored by the best: a dominican priest called Andrés de Miranda, a respectable educator by the name of Beatriz Galindo and her own mother. Her main studies that she did exceptionally well in were religious studies, court etiquette, dance &music and equestrian skills. Joanna spoke six languages: Castilian, Leonese, Galican-Portuguese, Catalan, French and Latin. Amazing. I can only speak English and French and she could six different languages.

Joanna was raised as a Infanta of Spain, but was never expected to inherit either of her parents' kingdoms. Her brother, John, was heir and then any children he. If John died without issue his sister, Isabella, would take his place and then her children. So there were a lot of people before she could ever ascend to the throne.

Marriage

In August 1496, at the age of sixteen, Joanna was sent to Flanders (modern day Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Germany and Holland) to marry Duke Philip of Burgundy. The marriage was to secure an alliance between the two families and strengthen themselves against the French.

When the two finally met on the 20th of October in Lier you could say it was love at first sight as Philip asked a priest to marry them there and then. No formal ceremony. Just a moment of complete passion. The truth wasn't that he fell instantly in love with her, it was that he wanted to take his bride to bed as soon as possible. Romantic? From my point of view yes for wanting to marry after first sight, but no because of motive of just wanting to have her in the marital bed.

The marriage was fruitful as Joanna gave birth to six children: Eleanor (1498 - 1558), Charles (1500 - 1558), Isabella (1501 - 1526), Ferdinand (1503 - 1564), Mary (1504 - 1558) and Catherine (1507 - 1578).

Like most Dukes of the time Philip would be classed now as a "jerk" as he slept with other women. He tried to usurp her birth rights from her. It was said that Joanna slowly became insane therefore being known as Joanna la Loca. She even cut the hair off Philip's mistress.

By the time of Queen Isabella's death in 1504, the couple lived apart.

Princess of Asturias

On the 4th of October 1497 John died. John's wife, margeret (Philip's sister), gave birth to a stillborn daughter on December the 8th. Their sister Isabella died on August the 22nd of 1498. Isabella's only child, Miguel, died on the 19th of July 1500. This made Joanna sole heir to the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

She was named as Princess of Asturias in 1502. The lords of the land swore a oath to Joanna as the heir and future Queen. She travelled to Cortes in Castile with Phillip and the Burgundy court. Soon Philip left leaving a pregnant Joanna alone. She gave birth to a son, Ferdinand, in Madrid the following year.

Reign as Queen Joanna of Castile

In November 1504, Queen Isabella leaving her 25 year old daughter Queen of her realm.

Ferdinand lost any rights he had as the King, but was given the right to govern in Joanna's abscene or if she refused to rule and to rule until Charles came of age or if she was not able to rule. Ferdinand wanted to have the throne even if it meant stabbing his own daughter in the back. Her husband much better. He wanted the throne for himself and push his wife away. Boo. Hiss. They are a real pair of pantomime baddies. 


Ferdinand persuaded the cortes that Joanna's "illness is such that the said Queen Doña Joanna our Lady cannot govern".  Ferdinand was appointed as Joanna's guardian. Philip was having no of this. He wanted to be King. He had coins made with "Philip and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Leon and Archdukes of Austria". It seemed to be war between these two rulers.

But soon Ferdinand was out of the picture. He married Germaine de Foix, the neice of Louis XII of France. He hoped that she would produce a son and heir for Aragon.

In 1505, Joanna and Philip left Flanders for Castile. Their ships were caught in a storm which were wrecked on the shores of England. What luck. The country which her younger sister was in. They became the guests of the Tudors and stayed at Windsor Castle.

By the time they got to Castile there was civil war in which Ferdinand was trying to take power. His invasion was crushed. Joanna met her father in June 1506 at Villafáfila where Ferdinand handed over the rights of government and retired to Aragon. Ferdinand and Philip met in secret to dethrone Joanna by claiming her to be mad thus unable to rule. 

Ferdinand after his secret meeting with his son-in-law tried to put his actions right by securing her rights as Regent Queen. No agreement was agreed by the two and Ferdinand fled back to his own realm of Aragon.

Philip's Death

The Cortes swore allegiance to Joanna and Philip as Queen and King & Charles as their heir. 

On the 25th September 1506 Philip died of typhoid fever in Burgos, Castile. Joanna was pregant at the time with Catherine. 

By December, she was trying to exercise her power to rule alone, but the country started to fall into ciaos. Her six year old son, Charles, was raised by his aunt in Flanders, while her father stayed in Aragon watching his daughter's realm to fall to pieces. What a nice father.

Plague and famine spread across Castile killing half of the population. It was like an apocalypse. Two of the horsemen of the apocalypse were present: famine and death.

Ferdinand's Rule

When Ferdinand came back to Castile in July 1507, the plague went. This gave the impression that he was the kingdom saviour as he had driven the plague out.

Ferdinand was named regent in 1510. Joanna was sent to a Santa Clara a convent in Tordesillas on the basis that she was mad. Apparently she took Philip's dead body and sleep beside him. A little bit creepy.

Ferdinand ruled until his death in 1516. The crown of Castile, Leon and Aragon were passed to Joanna and Charles with Ferdinand's bastard son Alonso de Aragon acting as regent on behalf of Charles.

Charles' Rule

In 1517, Charles with his sister Eleanor met their mother at Tordesillas where he secured the right to rule as co-King. Even though she agreed, he still kept her in confinement at the convent. The Cortes didn't like Charles very much and called him Su Alteza (your highnes) and reserved majestad (majesty) for Joanna. 

Charles rule of Aragon and Castile plus its territories unified the country creating Spain in 1519. He then became Holy Roman Emperor the same year. He made Spain the most powerful country in the world by building on the achievements and wealth of his grandparents: Isabella and Ferdinand.


Revolt of the Comuneros

In 1520, the Revolt of the Comuneros broke as a response to Charles' rule. The rebels demanded that Castile be governed like in the days of the Reyes Católicos and the Comuneros turned to Joanna. 

Joanna had given written approval to the rebellion, it would have been legalized and would have triumphed. In an attempt to prevent this, a group of royal councilors went to Tordesillas, asking Joanna to sign a document denouncing the Comuneros. Before she could sign the Comuneros stormed the city and requested her support. 

Although she was sympathetic to the Comuneros, she was persuaded by Ochoa de Landa and her confessor Fray John of Avila that if she supported the revolt it would damage the country and her son's kingship. She refused to sign the document granting her support to the Comuneros. At the Battle of Villalar Charles crushed the revolt.

Confinement

Charles was unhappy with his mother after she given her support to the rebels that he had her imprisioned in the convent. Remind you of another Queen. Yes, it reminds me of Eleanor of Aquitaine who was imprisoned.

Joanna health got worst. She did go a bit mad. She was convinced that the nuns wanted to kill her. It became difficult for her to eat, sleep, bathe and clothe herself.

Charles wrote to the convent:  "It seems to me that the best and most suitable thing for you to do is to make sure that no person speaks with Her Majesty, for no good could come from it". 

Her youngest daughter Catherine, stayed with her from 1507 - 1516. Eleanor then created a household within the convent to be near her mother.

Joanna died on the 12th April 155 at the age of 75 at the convent. She had survived her mother, father, her husband, six siblings, her brother-in-law Henry VIII and her daughter Isabella. She is entombed in the Royal Chapel of Granada (la Capilla Real) in Spain alongside her parents Isabella I and Ferdinand II, her husband Philip I and her nephew Miguel da Paz, Prince of Asturias. A statue of her stands in Tordesillas and the convent in which she was confined for fifty years can be visited.

Now here comes to a important question. Was Joanna mad? I think at the beginning no. She was just madly in love with her husband. But after everything: betrayed by her husband, father and even her own son she went into a deep depression. Anyone would of gone mad if they were imprisoned in a convent for 35 years.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_of_Castile