Joanna the Mad of Castile 1
Another name for Joanna was Juana. General Notes: Joanna (Joanna the Mad), Spanish queen of Castile and León (1504-55), daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella I. She succeeded to Castile and León at the death of her mother. Ferdinand II briefly assumed the regency until he was replaced by Joanna's ambitious husband, Philip I. After Philip's death (1506), Ferdinand again assumed the rule, for Joanna had by this time become quite insane. At Ferdinand's death (1516) Joanna's elder son, Charles (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was proclaimed joint ruler of Castile with his mother. Joanna spent the rest of her life in the castle of Tordesillas. The pretense that she was not actually insane was sometimes used by the discontented, including Juan de Padilla, to justify revolts against the “foreign” ruler, Charles. 2 Noted events in her life were: • Acceded: Queen of Castile and León, 1504. Joanna married Philip I the Handsome Habsburg, son of Maximilian I of Austria Habsburg and Mary of Burgundy, on 21 Aug 1496 in Lille. (Philip I the Handsome Habsburg was born in 1478 in Bruges, Flanders and died on 25 Sep 1506 in Burgos, Castile, Spain 3.) The cause of his death was typhoid fever. |