Juana I of Castile
Juana I of Castile reigned in name for nearly fifty years and spent most of them confined. Born in Toledo in 1479, she was the third child of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, was exceptionally well educated in Latin and music, and was married at sixteen to Philip the Handsome, heir to the Burgundian Netherlands. She became heir to Castile through a sequence of deaths — her brother, her elder sister and her sister's infant son all died between 1497 and 1500. Her marriage was passionate and unhappy; Philip's infidelities and her jealousy are documented from the Flemish court onwards, and it is from this period that the epithet la Loca, the mad, begins to appear in reports written by people with an interest in her incapacity. Isabella died in 1504 and Juana became Queen of Castile. Both her husband and her father wanted to govern in her place, and each promoted accounts of her instability to that end. Philip had her declared unfit and took power, then died suddenly in 1506 aged twenty-eight. She was reported to have travelled with his coffin. Ferdinand returned as regent and in 1509 confined her at Tordesillas, in a palace where she remained for forty-six years, in poor conditions and largely without contact. Her son Charles V, on becoming king, kept her there. During the Comuneros revolt of 1520 the rebels reached Tordesillas and asked her to sign; she refused to commit herself, and the rising failed. Whether she was ever mentally ill remains genuinely disputed. She died in 1555.
- Lived: 1479 CE – 1555 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: queen, head_of_state
