Juana la Loca, or “the Crazy”
as history loves to call her, was the third child and second daughter of
Isabella and Ferdinand. I have previously written about Isabella for the Badass
Women series, and about Juana in a movie post about “Mad Love”, but Juana
deserves more attention, which is why I have chosen to write about her now.
As we look back
retrospectively on history, many historians have called Juana mentally ill or
schizophrenic, and many more have disagreed with these statements. History has
not been kind to Juana, although she received much the same treatment by the
men in her life as her mother, and fought back just as hard.
Being the third child and
second daughter of the monarchs, Juana was never expected to rule, although
that’s exactly what ended up happening. She was given the same education as her
other siblings, and was fluent in many languages. Early in her life she showed
signs of not believing in the Catholic religion, which caused unrest and
controversy within her family, especially because Isabella was an ardent
Catholic.
At the young (but then normal) age of 16, she
was married to Phillip of Flanders (now Holland), and destined to never see her
mother or other siblings, except for her sister Catherine, again. In Flanders
she was often held against her will, not allowed to travel or go back to her
home country. In protest, she often refused to shower or keep up the standard
of hygiene. Within nine years, Juana had given birth to six children, including
the male heir to the throne in Flanders. Soon after the birth of her son and
heir Charles, the deaths of Joanna’s older brother and sister and both of her
siblings’ children caused her to inherit the throne of Castile and prompted her
return to Spain along with her husband, Philip.
Here the manipulation of Juana,
and the misdeeds against her, began. Juana’s father Ferdinand, who remained the
king of Aragón but had lost his right to rule in Castile with the death of
Isabella, had recently remarried and did not want to see Juana’s son eventually
rule Castile, because her son would also have control over what was then known
as the Low Countries (the Netherlands). Ferdinand convinced the courts that
Juana was too ill to rule and they thus proclaimed him her guardian and the
kingdom’s ruler.
Juana’s husband Phillip,
although not wanting her to have complete control of the throne of Castile,
wanting some—or all—of that power for himself, was also equally unhappy with
the court’s decision, which meant even less power for him, and was not happy. So,
behind her back, Ferdinand and Phillip negotiated for control of the throne of
Castile. They marketed Juana as mentally ill, pointing to her lack of religious
beliefs and periods of poor hygiene in Phillip’s court. The negotiations
ultimately ended in Ferdinand handing control of Castile to Phillip, with the
agreement that he could step in if Phillip treaded on Juana’s rights to rule.
In retrospect, this clause seems absurd, as the only thing these two men had
been doing with consistency was treading on her right to rule.
Even after this, however,
the manipulation of Juana’s life was not at an end; a few years later, Phillip
died, and when she tried to regain control of her kingdom on her own, Ferdinand
stepped in to take over once again. After his death, Charles, now of ruling
age, returned from Flanders to rule Castile and Aragón and also to insure that
his mother would remain in confinement for the rest of her life. Juana spent
the rest of her days at Convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas. (I already have
a visit set for Tordesillas, as it has a lot of Spanish history enshrined
there, so there’ll be a blog post about it soon.)
As can be seen from even
this short history, Juana’s life was dominated and controlled by her husband,
father and son, directly or indirectly, for most of her life. She never stopped
trying to claim the power that was rightly hers, and this probably stemmed from
the role model she had in her mother, who also had to fight to her right to
rule. History has not been kind to her, but hopefully there is still the chance
to rewrite her legacy and remember her in a different way.