Joanna of Castille & Philip Of Flanders

Joanna of Castille & Philip Of Flanders

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Joanna of Castile, historically known as Juana la Loca ~Joanna the Mad, was born on November 6th, 1479.

She was the third child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, and elder sister to Katharine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife.

On 28th February 1496, when Joanna turned 16, she married Philip of Flanders, son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Far from being a marriage made out of love, Joanna's marriage to Philip was merely a political alliance between the Habsburgs and the Trastámaras.

Philip was not in a hurry to meet his new bride, but when he finally did he liked what he saw.

They apparently were so attracted to each other in the beginning, that they insisted that they would immediately get the blessing of a priest, so that they could consume the marriage immeadiately.

They got the blessing the same day, and immediately took off to a bedroom together!

They did have the real wedding the next day.....

In the beginning Philip wanted to impress Joanna by showing off his athletic skills.

He was also considered a pretty boy, which earned him the nickname Philip the Handsome and a real prince charming.

Joanna became madly in love with him.

Joanna didn’t understand that her marriage was a political one, and not necessarily love-based.

Philip had a duty to get her pregnant so they would have a heir for the duchy, but it was completely acceptable for a husband like Philip to have other women around and be unfaithful.

This made Joanna very jealous.

The couple often fought over the many females that accompanied Philip.

When Joanna became angry about it Philip confined her, sometimes with force, to her rooms.

He punished her by not visiting her in the bedroom for days!

During her marriage to Philip, she gave birth to two sons and four daughters.

Remarkably all six of their children became emperors and queens.

Their children also had the misfortune of inheriting the recognisable 'Habsburg jaw'~ due to inbreeding within the family.

While Joanna’s children became powerful rulers, she had trouble controlling her crown.

In 1497, one year after Joanna and Philip’s marriage, her older brother and heir to the throne died.

Joanna’s sister, Isabella, Princess of Asturias, died one year later.

Due to her older siblings’ deaths, Joanna became heir to the Castilian throne.

As an indomitable princess, she refused to be told what to do. As punishment, Philip would lock her in her room until she gave up her dominating ways.

Rumors of Joanna’s insanity circled the court.

After the birth of their fourth child, she was rumored to have found her husband in bed with with another woman.

Through her rage, she attacked his lover with a pair of scissors, by slashing her face.

When her mother, Queen Isabella I of Castile, suddenly became ill, Joanna began to fall into a deep depression.

Unfortunately, her mother’s death in 1504 made Joanna the new Queen of Castile.

Although Joanna’s mother had passed away, her father was still a ruling king of Aragon, with no further claim to Castile.

As a result of Ferdinand’s inability to come to terms with losing his status in Castile, he and Philip had Joanna declared insane and unfit to rule Castile…

While it is nearly impossible to know if Joanna of Castile even had any mental illness, historians believe she was depressed, bipolar, psychotic, or schizophrenic.

After Philip died, Joanna tried ruling Castile alone for a few months.

Her father eventually locked her away in a monastery, while he ruled in her “absence.”

For the rest of her life, nearly 45 more years, Joanna was confined to a room, slowly deteriorating physically and mentally.

She died in 1555 at the age of 75.

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https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/joanna-of-castile/

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Portrait of Philip The Handsome & Joanna the Mad c.1500.

Master of Affligem.

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium