Background

Ethnicity: Joanna of Castile​​​​​​​ was descended from the representatives of multiple dynasties of various nations.

Joanna of Castile was born on November 6, 1479, in Toledo, the capital of the kingdom of Castile, to Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon of the royal house of Trastámara. She had four siblings: Isabella, Queen of Portugal; John, Prince of Asturias; Maria, Queen of Portugal; and Catherine, Queen of England. John died at 19. Isabella died in 1498, just after giving birth to her son. Joanna became an heiress to the Spanish kingdoms after the deaths of her brother John, her sister Isabella, her son Miguel, and the stillbirth of John’s daughter. Her other sisters survived but were younger than her. In 1502, she was recognized as the heiress to the Castilian throne and to the throne of Aragon, with Philip as her consort.

Education

Joanna was described as an intelligent young woman and received a good education. She loved to read and could speak the main languages of the Iberian Peninsula (Castilian, Leonese, Galician-Portuguese, and Catalan), along with Latin and French. She was never meant to be a sovereign, so her education was aimed mainly at turning her into a suitable wife. Her future marriage was supposed to create a royal alliance, extend the kingdom’s strength, and keep peaceful relations with other powers.

As a result, she studied canon and civil law, heraldry, grammar, history, mathematics, and philosophy. She also read a lot of classical literature. She was taught by Dominican priest Andrés de Miranda, educator Beatriz Galindo, and her mother. She also took lessons for good manners, etiquette, dancing, drawing, embroidery, needlepoint, and sewing. She was said to be a talented musician. She was also trained in hawking and hunting.

Career

In 1504, Isabella I of Castile died, leaving Joanna as the Queen regnant of Castile and her husband as the "jure uxoris" king. This meant, her father, Ferdinand II, would lose his monarchical status. However, the Queen's will stated that he could govern if Joanna was absent or did not want to rule until she was 20.

Both Joanna's father and her husband could not come to terms with the fact that she was the queen and wanted the power for themselves instead. Ferdinand II stated that she was too sick to govern and was appointed her guardian as well as administrator and governor of the kingdom. This infuriated Joanna's husband, who reacted by minting coins that presented them as the king and the queen. Philip actually tried to usurp her power many times, but that did not affect her huge affection toward him.

Philip died from typhoid fever on September 25, 1506, in Burgos in Castile. However, there were rumors that he had actually been poisoned by his father-in-law. At that time, Joanna was pregnant with their last child and was trying to exercise her rights to rule by herself, but the country was going through a serious crisis. Ferdinand II profited from the situation and took her power again, confining her at the royal palace in Tordesillas. He also got rid of all her loyal servants.

On Ferdinand’s death, Joanna's son Charles arrived from the Low Countries and ascertained her unfitness to rule, before taking power. She was legally queen of Spain throughout almost all of his long reign.

Achievements

• Joanna of Castile left a bright and controversial legacy in history. Her peculiar personality traits stimulated historical research of the period and cultural reminiscence in art, literature, and films.

Religion

Although her mother, Queen Isabella, had established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, Joanna being a Roman Catholic seemed to be a skeptic and had no interest in religious rites. This infuriated her mother and led to a series of punishments meant to correct her behavior. She was suspended by a rope while weights were attached to her feet.

Politics

Joanna of Castile was kept out of politics by her father, husband, and son, so her political views are unclear.

Personality

Joanna had started exhibiting signs of mental instability in 1504 when her mother was stricken with a fever. As was seen at other times during her lifetime, Joanna was not eating or sleeping when her mother fell ill. After visiting with her mother, Joanna wished to join her husband in Flanders, which would mean she would have to travel through France at a time when France and Castile were at war. When she was prevented from leaving for Flanders, twenty-four-year-old Joanna flew into a rage.

Perhaps one of Joanna's most notorious, lurid displays of mental instability occurred when her husband died in September of 1506. Already known to fly into jealous rages over her husband's mistresses, even reportedly going so far as to attack at least one, Joanna refused to part with her deceased husband's remains for a disturbingly long time. Pregnant, Joanna traveled with her husband's body from Burgos to Granada, where he was to be buried. This is a distance of 668 kilometers. Joanna was said to have opened her husband's casket to embrace him and kiss him.

Historians have speculated that Joanna may have suffered from a wide range of mental illnesses, from depression to schizophrenia to even postpartum depression. However, her increasingly erratic behavior was reported following the deaths of her siblings, nephew, mother, and her husband. Both Philip the Handsome and Charles V had a lot to gain from Joanna being declared incompetent to rule and whether she was really ill or portrayed so is disputed.

Physical Characteristics: Joanna of Castile died on April 12, 1555, aged 75, well exceeding the life expectancy of those times.

Interests

• music

Connections

Joanna married Philip of Burgundy, son of the emperor Maximilian, as part of Ferdinand's policy of securing allies against France. They had two sons, Charles, born in 1500, who succeeded as emperor and king of Spain, and Ferdinand, his lieutenant and successor as emperor, and four daughters, all of whom became queens - Eleanor, who married Manuel I of Portugal and then Francis I of France; Elizabeth, who married Christian II of Denmark; Maria, who married Louis II of Hungary; and Catherine, who married John III of Portugal.

Philip was known as "The Handsome" because of his steel grey-blue eyes and fair hair. They got married in Lier, and although it was an arranged marriage meant to unite the Habsburgs and the Trastámaras, apparently, they had a passionate relationship. Although Philip's passion soon dissipated, and he found other love interests, Joanna remained dedicated to her husband throughout her life. In fact, she loved him so much that the news of his infidelities drove her into depression and insanity.

Father:

Ferdinand V

Mother:

Isabella Queen of Castile

husband:

Philip I of Castile

Daughter:

Eleanor of Austria

Son:

Charles V

Daughter:

Isabella of Austria

Son:

Ferdinand I

Daughter:

Mary of Hungary

Daughter:

Catherine of Austria

teacher:

Andrés de Miranda

teacher:

Beatriz Galindo

References

• Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Elizabeth of York
  2010
• Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile
  2012
• Juana I de Castilla La Loca
  2015
• That Other Juana
  2007
• A Queen of Unrest: The Story of Juana of Castile, Mother of Charles V., Born 1479, Died 1555
  1905