This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (March 2010)

Crown of Castile Corona de Castilla (Spanish) Corona Castellae (Latin)
←   ← 1230–1715 →
Royal Standard Coat of arms
The Crown of Castile following the 1230 unification of the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon.
Capital	Burgos, Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid[1]
Language(s)	Official languages: Spanish, Latin Unofficial languages: Basque, Galician, Mozarabic, Arabic, Astur-Leonese[1]
Religion	Official religion: Roman Catholic Minority religions: Islam, Judaism
Government	Absolute Monarchy
Monarch
- 1230–1252	Ferdinand III (first)
- 1504–1555	Joanna I (last)
Legislature	Council
Historical era	Middle Ages
- Union of Castile and León	1230
- Conquest of Granada	2 January 1492
- Discovery of the Americas	12 October 1492
- Nueva Planta decrees	1715
Area
- 1516	380,000 km2 (146,719 sq mi)
Population
- 1516 est.	4,500,000
Density	11.8 /km2  (30.7 /sq mi)
Currency	Spanish real, Spanish maravedí
Today part of	Spain
1. ^ Itinerant until Philip II fixed it to Madrid.

The Crown of Castile^{[nb 1]} was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne. It continued to exist as a separate entity after the personal union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon with the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs in 1469 and wasn't formally abolished until the unification policies of Philip V of Spain in the early 18th century. During its existence, the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines were also considered part of the Crown of Castile.

Two kingdoms: León and Castile[link]

The Kingdom of León arose out of the Kingdom of Asturias. The Kingdom of Castile appeared initially as a county of the Kingdom of León. From the second half of the 10th century to the first half of the 11th century it changed hands between León and the Kingdom of Navarre. In the 11th century it became a kingdom in its own right.

The two kingdoms had been united twice previously:

• From 1037 until 1065 under Ferdinand I of León. Upon his death his kingdoms passed to his sons, León to Alfonso VI, Castile to Sancho II, and Galicia to García.
• From 1072 until 1157 under Alfonso VI (died 1109), Urraca (died 1126), and Alfonso VII. From 1111 until 1126 Galicia was separate from the union under Alfonso VII. In 1157 the kingdoms were divided between Alfonso's sons, with Ferdinand II receiving León and Sancho III Castile.

Ferdinand III received the Kingdom of Castile from his mother, Queen Berengaria of Castile, in 1217, and the Kingdom of León from his father (Alfonse IX of León) in 1230. From then on the two kingdoms were united under the name of the Kingdom of León and Castile, or simply as the Crown of Castile. Ferdinand III later conquered the Guadalquivir Valley, while his son Alfonso X conquered the Kingdom of Murcia from Al-Andalus, further extending the area of the Crown of Castile. Given this, the kings of the Crown of Castile traditionally styled themselves "King of Castile, León, Toledo, Galicia, Murcia, Jaén, Córdoba, Seville, and Lord of Biscay and Molina", among other possessions they later gained. The heir to the throne has been titled Prince of Asturias since the 14th century.

[edit] Union of the Cortes and the legal code

Almost immediately after the union of the two kingdoms under Ferdinand III, the parliaments of Castile and León were united. It was divided into three estates, which corresponded with the nobility, the church and the cities, and included representation from Castile, León, Galicia, Toledo, Navarre and the Basque provinces. Initially the number of cities represented in the Cortes varied over the next century, until John I permanently set those that would be allowed to send representatives (procuradores): Burgos, Toledo, León, Sevilla, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén, Zamora, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Cuenca, Toro, Valladolid, Soria, Madrid and Guadalajara (with Granada added after its conquest in 1492).

Under Alfonso X, most sessions of the Cortes of both kingdoms were held jointly. The Cortes of 1258 in Valladolid comprised representatives of Castile, Extremadura and León ("de Castiella e de Estremadura e de tierra de León") and those of Seville in 1261 of Castile, León and all other kingdoms ("de Castiella e de León e de todos los otros nuestros Regnos"). Subsequent Cortes were celebrated separately, for example in 1301 that of Castile in Burgos and that of León in Zamora, but the representatives demanded that the parliaments be reunited from then on.

Although the individual kingdoms and cities initially retained their individual historical rights-including the Old Fuero of Castile (Viejo Fuero de Castilla) and the different fueros of the municipal councils of Castile, León, Extremadura and Andalucía-a unified legal code for entire new kingdom was created in the Siete Partidas (c. 1265), the Ordenamiento de Alcalá (1248) and the Leyes de Toro (1505). These laws continued to be in force until 1889, when a new Spanish civil code (the Código Civil Español) was enacted.

Spanish language and universities[link]

Map of Castilian and Aragonese Universities

In the 13th century there were many languages spoken in the Kingdoms of León and Castile among them Castilian, Leonese, Basque and Galician-Portuguese. But throughout the century Castilian gained more and more prominence as the language of culture and communication. One example of this is the 'Cantar de Mio Cid'.

In the last years of the reign of Ferdinand III Castilian began to be used in certain types of documents, such as the Visigothic Code, then the basis of the legal code for Christians living in Muslim Cordova, but it was during the reign of Alfonso X that it became the official language. Henceforth all public documents were written in Castilian, likewise all translations of Arabic legal and government documents were made into Castilian instead of Latin.

Some scholars think that the substitution of Castilian for Latin was due to the strength of the new language, whereas others consider that it was due to the influence of Hebrew-speaking intellectuals who were hostile towards Latin, the language of the Christian Church.^{[citation needed]}

In 1492, under the Catholic Monarchs, the first edition of the Grammar of the Castilian Language by Antonio de Nebrija was published. Castilian was eventually carried to the Americas in the 16th century by the conquistadors. Because of Castilian's importance in the land ruled by the Spanish Crown, the language is also known as Spanish.

Furthermore, in the 13th century many universities were founded where instruction was in Castilian, such as the Leonese University of Salamanca and the Castilian Estudio General of Palencia, which were among the first universities in Europe.

14th–15th centuries: Reign of the Trastámaras[link]

Ascension of the Trastámara dynasty[link]

On the death of Alfonso XI a dynastic conflict started between his sons, the Infantes Peter (Pedro) and Henry, Count of Trastámara, which became entangled in the Hundred Years' War. Alfonso XI had married Maria of Portugal with whom he had his heir, the Infante Peter. However, the King also had many illegitimate children with Eleanor of Guzman, among them the above-mentioned Henry, who disputed Peter's right to the throne once the latter became king.

In the resulting struggle, in which both brothers claimed to be king, Pedro allied himself with Edward, Prince of Wales, "the Black Prince." In 1367, the Black Prince defeated Henry II's allies at the Battle of Nájera, restoring Pedro's control of the kingdom. The Black Prince, seeing that the king would not reimburse his expenses, left Castile. Henry, who had fled to France, took advantage of the opportunity and recommenced the fight. Henry finally was victorious in 1369 in the Battle of Montiel, in which he had Peter killed.

In 1371 the brother of the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, married Constance, Peter's daughter. In 1386, he claimed the Crown of Castile in the name of his wife, the legitimate heir according to the Cortes de Seville of 1361. He arrived in A Coruña with an army and took the city. He then moved on to occupy Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra and Vigo. He asked John I, Henry II's son, to give up the throne in favor of Constance.

John declined but proposed that his son, the Infante Henry, marry John of Gaunt's daughter Catherine. The proposal was accepted, and the title Prince of Asturias was created for Henry and Catherine. This ended the dynastic conflict, strengthened the House of Trastámara's position and created peace between England and Castile.

Relations with the Crown of Aragon[link]

Expansion of Castilian territory.

During the reign of Henry III royal power was restored, overshadowing the much powerful Castilian nobility. In his later years Henry delegated some of his power to his brother Ferdinand I of Antequera, who would be regent, along with his wife Catherine of Lancaster, during the childhood of his son John II. After the Compromise of Caspe in 1412, Ferdinand left Castile to become King of Aragon.

Upon the death of his mother, John II at the age of 14, took to the throne and married his cousin Maria of Aragon. The young king entrusted his government to regent Álvaro de Luna, the most influential person in court and allied with the lesser nobility, the cities, the clergy, and the Jews. This brought together the mutual dislikes of the king shared by the greater Castilian nobility and the Aragonese Infantes, sons of Ferdinand I of Antequera, who sought to control the Castilian crown. This eventually led to war in 1429 and 1430 between the two kingdoms. Álvaro de Luna won the war and expelled the Aragonese Infantes from Castile.

Second Conflict of Succession[link]

Henry IV unsuccessfully tried to re-establish the peace with the nobility that his father, John II, had shattered. When his second wife, Joan of Portugal, gave birth to Infanta Joanna, it was claimed that she was the result of an affair of the Queen with Beltrán de la Cueva, one of the King's chief ministers.

The King, besieged by riots and the demands of the nobles, had to sign a treaty in which he named as his successor his half-brother Alfonso, leaving Infanta Joanna out of the line of succession. After the death of Alfonso in an accident, Henry IV signed the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando with his half-sister Isabella I in which he named her heiress in return for her marrying a prince chosen by him.

The Catholic Monarchs: Union with the Crown of Aragon[link]

The Recapture of Granada (F. Padilla)

In October 1469 Isabella I and Ferdinand II, heir to the throne of Aragon, married in secret in the Palacio de los Vivero in Castilian Valladolid. The consequence was a dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1479 when Ferdinand ascended to the Aragonese throne. This union however was not effective until the reign of his grandson Charles I. Ferdinand and Isabella were related and had married without papal approval. Although Isabella wanted to marry Ferdinand, she refused to proceed with the marriage until she received a Papal dispensation. Consequently, Ferdinand's father forged a papal dispensation for the two to marry. Isabella believed that the dispensation was authentic and the marriage went ahead. A genuine papal dispensation arrived afterwards. Later Pope Alexander VI bestowed upon them the title of 'los Reyes Católicos' ('the Catholic Monarchs').

Henry IV, half brother of Isabella, considered the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella as breaking the treaty of Tratado de los Toros de Guisando under which Isabella would ascend to the Castilian throne on his death only if her suitor was approved by him. Henry wanted to ally Castile with Portugal or France rather than Aragon. He therefore decided to name his daughter Infanta Joanna as heiress to the throne rather than Isabella I. When he did in 1474 the War of the Castilian Succession broke out over who would ascend to the throne. It lasted until 1479 when Isabella and her supporters came out victorious.

Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs (The return of Columbus)

After Isabella's victory in the civil war and Ferdinand's ascension to the Aragonese throne the two crowns were united under the same monarchs. However, this was only a personal union and both kingdoms remained administratively separate, each maintaining its own identity and laws; both parliaments remained separate, the only common institution would be the Inquisition. Despite their titles of "Monarchs of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Sicily" Ferdinand and Isabella reigned over their respective territories, although they also took decisions together. Its central position, larger territorial area (three times greater than that of Aragon) and larger population (4.3 million as opposed to the 1 million in Aragon) led to Castile becoming the dominating partner in the union.

As a result of the Reconquista (Reconquest) the Castilian aristocracy had become very powerful. The monarchs needed to assert their authority over the nobility and the clergy. With this end in mind they founded a law enforcement body, the Consejo de la Hermandad, more commonly known as the Santa Hermandad (the Holy Brotherhood), which was staffed and funded by the municipalities. They also took further measures against the nobility, destroying feudal castles, prohibiting private wars and reducing the power of the Adelantados (a governor-like military office in regions recently conquered). The monarchy incorporated military orders under the Consejo de las Órdenes in 1495, reinforced royal judicial power over the feudal one and transformed the Audiencias into the supreme judicial bodies. The crown also sought to better control the cities, and so in 1480 in the Cortes of Toledo it created the corregidores, representatives of the crown, which supervised the city councils. In religion, they reformed religious orders and sought unity of the various sections of the church. They pressured Jews to convert to Catholicism, in some cases persecuted by the Inquisition. Finally in 1492, the monarchs decided that those who would not convert would be expelled. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 people were expelled from Castile. From 1502 onwards, they began to convert the Muslim population.

Between 1478 and 1497 the monarchs forces conquered the three Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, La Palma and Tenerife. On 2 January 1492 the monarchs entered Granada's Alhambra marking the completion and end of the Reconquista. Also in 1492, the Christopher Columbus maritime expedition claimed the West Indies for the Crown and began the New World conquests. In 1497 Castile conquered Melilla on the north coast of North Africa. After Castile's conquest of the Kingdom of Granada, its politics turned towards the Mediterranean, and Castile militarily helped Aragon in its problems with France, culminating in the reconquest of Naples for the Crown of Aragon in 1504. Later that same year, Isabella died.

16th–17th centuries: from empire to crisis[link]

Period of regency - Joanna I[link]

Upon Isabella I's death, the crown passed to her daughter Joanna, who was married to Philip of Austria (nicknamed 'Philip the Handsome'). But Isabella knew of her daughter's possible mental health incapacities (and so nicknamed 'Juana la Loca' or 'Joanna the Mad' ) and named Ferdinand as regent in the case that Joanna "didn't want to or couldn't fulfil her duties". In the 'Salamanca Agreement' of 1505, it was decided that the government would be shared by Philip I, Ferdinand V and Joanna. However, poor relations between Phillip, who was supported by the Castilian nobility, and Ferdinand resulted in Ferdinand renouncing his regent's powers in Castile in order to avoid an armed conflict. Through the Concordia de Villafáfila of 1506, Ferdinand returned to Aragon and Phillip was recognized as King of Castile, with Joanna a co-monarch. In 1507, Phillip died and Ferdinand returned once again to be regent for Joanna. Her isolated confinement-imprisonment in the Santa Clara Convent at Tordesillas, to last over fifty years until death, began with her father's orders in 1510.

Charles I[link]

"The Comuneros Padilla, Bravo and Maldonado in the Patíbulo", by Antonio Gisbert, 1860.

Charles I received the Crown of Castile, Aragon and the Empire through a combination of dynastic marriages and premature deaths:

• when his father Philip I died in 1506, he became sovereign of the Netherlands;
• upon the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon (his grandfather) in 1517 he gained rule of the thrones of Aragon and of Castile (with the Americas), in co-regency title with his mother Queen Joanna. He maintained her confinement-imprisonment, and so Queen of Aragon and of Castile in title only.
• upon the death of Maximilian in 1519, Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor as a consequence of which he is better-known as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Charles I was not well-received in Castile. Part of this was because he was a foreign-born King (born in Ghent), and even before his arrival in Castile he had granted important positions to Flemish citizens and had used Castilian money to fund his court. The Castilian nobility and the cities were on the verge of an uprising to defend their rights. Many Castilians favoured the King's younger brother Ferdinand, who grew up in Castile, and in fact the Council of Castile opposed the idea of Charles as King of Castile.

In 1518 the Castilian parliament in Valladolid named Wallonian Jean de Sauvage as its president. This caused angry protests in the parliament, which rejected the presence of foreigners in its deliberations. Despite threats, the parliament led by Juan de Zumel representating Burgos, resisted and forced the King to respect the laws of Castile, remove all foreigners from important governmental posts, and learn to speak Castilian. After taking his oath, Charles received a subsidy of 600,000 ducats.

Charles was conscious of the fact that he had options to become emperor and needed to impose his authority over Castile to gain access to its riches for his imperial goals. The riches from the Americas came through Castile was one of the more dynamic, rich, and advanced territories in Europe in the 16th century and started to realise that it could become immersed within an empire. This, added to the broken promise of Charles, only increased hostility towards the King. In 1520 in Toledo Parliament rejected a further subsidy for the King. Parliament in Santiago de Compostela reached the same decision. Finally, when Parliament was held in A Coruña, many members were bribed and others denied entry, with the result that the subsidy was approved. Those members who voted in favour were attacked by the Castilian people and their houses were burned. Parliament was not the only opposition which Charles would come up against. When he left Castile in 1520, the Castilian War of the Communities broke out. Los comuneros were defeated one year later (1521). After their defeat, Parliament was reduced to a mere consultative body.

Imperial policies of Philip II[link]

Philip II continued the politics of Charles I, but unlike his father he made Castile the centre of his empire, centralising all administration in Madrid. The other states within the peninsula maintained their autonomy, being governed by a Viceroy.

Since the reign of Charles I the financial burden of the empire had fallen mainly on Castile. Under Philip II the cost quadrupled. During his reign, as well as increasing existing taxes he created some new ones, among them the excusado in 1567. That same year Philip ordered the proclamation of the La Pragmática; an act whereby all Moriscos had to abandon all Moorish traditions and become true Catholics. This edict limited religious, linguistic and cultural freedom of the Morisco population and provoked the Morisco Revolt (1568–1571), which was put down by John of Austria.

Castile entered a phase of recession in 1575, which provoked the suspension of wages (the third of his reign). In 1590 the Cortes approved the millones; a new tax on food. This ruined Castilian cities and eliminated their weak attempts at industrialisation. In 1596, pay was once again suspended.

Kingdom of the "Austrias Menores"[link]

In the previous kingdoms, positions in national institutions were filled by educated gentlemen. Philip II's administrators would normally come from either the University of Alcalá or the University of Salamanca. After Philip III the nobility once again asserted their right to govern the country. In order to show that there was a new order ruling there was a cleansing of the blood of Spain. Religious persecution led Philip to declare the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609.

Faced with the collapse of the Exchequer, in order to maintain the hegemony of Philip IV's Spanish Empire, the Count-Duke of Olivares, the king's favourite (valido) from 1621 to 1643, tried to introduce a series of reforms. Among these was the Unión de Armas, the creation of a new army of 140,000 reservists. Every territory within the kingdom contributed citizens proportionally in order to maintain the force. His aims of union did not work and the Spanish Crown continued as a confederation of kingdoms.

Luis Méndez de Haro took over from Olivares as favourite Philip IV between 1659 and 1665. This was in order to alleviate interior conflicts sparked off by his predecessor (revolts in Portugal, Catalonia and Andalusia) and achieve peace in Europe.

Upon the death of Philip IV in 1665, and with the incapacity of Charles II to govern, Spain suffered an economic slowdown and battles for power between the different 'favourites'. The death of Charles II in 1700 without descendants provoked the War of the Spanish Succession.

Spanish territorial divisions within the Crown of Castile[link]

The Crown in modern-day Spain

In Spain[link]

• Old Castile/Castilla la Vieja
• New Castile/Castilla la Nueva
• Kingdom of León/Reino de León
• Kingdom of Castile/Reino de Castilla
• Principado de Asturias
• Kingdom of Galicia/Reino de Galicia
• Biscay/Señorío de Vizcaya
• Gipuzkoa/Provincia de Guipúzcoa
• Provincia de Álava
• Extremadura
• Kingdom of Toledo/Reino de Toledo
• Kingdom of Murcia/Reino de Murcia
• Kingdom of Córdoba/Reino de Córdoba
• Kingdom of Jaén/Reino de Jaén
• Kingdom of Seville/Reino de Sevilla
• Kingdom of Granada/Reino de Granada (after 1492)
• Kingdom of Navarre/Reino de Navarra (after 1512)

Overseas[link]

• Viceroyalty of New Spain/Virreinato de Nueva España (after 1535)
• Viceroyalty of Peru/Virreinato del Perú (after 1542)
• New Kingdom of Granada/Nuevo Rieno de Granada (after 1538)
• Captaincy General of Chile/Reino de Chile (after 1541)
• Captaincy General of Manila/Capitanía General de Manila (after 1571)
• Viceroyalty of New Granada/Virreinato de Nueva Granada (from 1717–1724 and after 1739)
• Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata/Virreinato del Río de la Plata (after 1776)
• Captaincy General of Venezuela/Capitanía General de Venezuela (fully autonomous territory after 1777)

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• List of Castilian Monarchs

References[link]

Coordinates: 40°23′N 3°43′W / 40.383°N 3.717°W / 40.383; -3.717

Joanna
Portrait by Juan de Flandes, c. 1500
Queen of Castile and León
Reign	26 November 1504 – 12 April 1555
Predecessors	Isabella I & Ferdinand V
Successor	Charles I
Co-rulers	Philip I Charles I
Queen of Aragon
Reign	23 January 1516 – 12 April 1555
Predecessor	Ferdinand II
Successor	Charles I
Co-ruler	Charles I
Spouse	Philip I of Castile
Issue
Eleanor, Queen of Portugal and France Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Isabella, Queen of Denmark Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor Mary, Queen of Hungary Catherine, Queen of Portugal
House	House of Trastámara
Father	Ferdinand II of Aragon
Mother	Isabella I of Castile
Born	(1479-11-06)6 November 1479 Toledo, Spain
Died	12 April 1555(1555-04-12) (aged 75) Tordesillas, Spain
Burial	Capilla Real, Granada, Spain
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), nicknamed Joanna the Mad (Spanish: Juana la Loca), was the first queen regnant to reign over both the Crown of Castile (1504–55) and the Crown of Aragon (1516–55), a union which evolved into modern Spain.^[1] Besides the kingdoms of Spain, she also ruled the kingdoms of Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples in Italy; a vast colonial empire in the Americas; and was Countess of Burgundy and the consort of the Burgundian Netherlands, thus initiating Spanish interests there. She was the last monarch of the House of Trastámara and her marriage to Philip the Handsome initiated the rule of the Habsburgs in Spain. Throughout most of her long reign she was under the regency of either her husband, father or son, and she was long confined to a nunnery under the pretense of mental illness^{[citation needed]}.

Life as Princess[link]

Early life[link]

Juana around the time of her marriage, c. 1496. Juana was not just a great beauty in her youth, but one of the most educated women in Europe, fluent in several languages.

Joanna was born in the ancient Visigothic city of Toledo, the capital of the Kingdom of Castile. She was the third child and second daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon of the royal House of Trastámara. Joanna was an intelligent child and student. In the Castilian court her main tutors were the Dominican priest Andrés de Miranda, the respected educator Beatriz Galindo who was a member of the queen's court, and her mother the queen. She was accomplished in religious studies, court etiquette, the arts of dance and music, and equestrian skills. Joanna mastered all of the Iberian Romance languages: Castilian, Leonese, Galician-Portuguese and Catalan. She also was fluent in French and Latin. She was trained and educated for a significant marriage that, as a royal family alliance, would extend the kingdoms' power and security as well as its influence and peaceful relations with other ruling powers. As an infanta she was not expected to be heiress to the throne of either Castile or Aragon, although through deaths she later inherited both.

Joanna was said to have been an extremely attractive woman during her youth. She had a fair complexion, blue eyes and her hair colour was between reddish-blonde and auburn; these were typical traits in the Trastámara family which descended from Peter I of Castile. English ambassadors at Valencia on 23 June 1505 attempted to give a detailed description of her appearance according to fifteen criteria though her clothing hampered their estimation.^[2]

Marriage[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012)

In 1496, Joanna, at the age of sixteen, was betrothed to Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy (titular), in the region of Flanders in the Low Countries. Philip's parents were Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife, Duchess Mary of Burgundy. The marriage was one of a set of family alliances between the Habsburgs and the Trastámaras designed to strengthen both against growing French power.^{[citation needed]} Joanna entered a proxy marriage at the Palacio de los Vivero in the city of Valladolid, Castile (her parents had secretly married there in 1469). In August 1496 Joanna left from the port of Laredo in northern Spain on the Atlantic's Bay of Biscay. She would not see her mother or siblings again except for her younger sister Catherine of Aragon in 1506, who was then the Princess Dowager of Wales. She would see her father Ferdinand II again in the course of his ruthless efforts to prevent her and Philip from gaining and then from keeping their crowns.^{[citation needed]} Joanna began her journey to Flanders in the Low Countries, which consisted of parts of the present day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Germany, on 22 August 1496. The formal marriage took place on 20 October 1496 in Lier^[3], north of present day Brussels. Between 1498 and 1507, she gave birth to six children; two emperors and four queens.^[4]

The marriage contract of Joanna and Philip (1496).

Joanna's life with Philip was rendered extremely unhappy by his infidelity and her political insecurity.^{[citation needed]} He consistently attempted to usurp her legal birthrights to power.^{[citation needed]} This led in no small part to rumors of her insanity, stoked by reports of her depressive or neurotic acts while she was imprisoned or manipulated by her husband.^{[citation needed]} Before her mother's death in 1504, husband and wife were already living apart.

Princess of Asturias[link]

The death of Joanna's brother John, the stillbirth of John's daughter and the deaths of Joanna's older sister Isabella and Isabella's son Miguel made Joanna heiress to the Spanish kingdoms. Her remaining siblings were Maria (1482–1517) and Catherine (1485–1536), younger than Joanna by three and six years, respectively. In 1502, the Castilian Cortes of Toro^[5][6] recognized Joanna as heiress to the Castilian throne and Philip as her consort. She was named Princess of Asturias, the title traditionally given to the heir of Castile.^[7] Also in 1502, the Aragonese Cortes gathered in Zaragoza to swear an oath to Joanna as heiress; however, the Archbishop of Saragossa expressed firmly that this oath could only establish jurisprudence by way of a formal agreement on the succession between the Cortes and the king.^[8][9]

In 1502, Philip, Joanna and a large part of the Burgundian court traveled to Spain for Joanna to receive fealty from the Cortes of Castile as Princess of Asturias, heiress to the Castilian throne, a journey chronicled in great detail by Antoon I van Lalaing (French: Antoine de Lalaing). Philip and the majority of the court returned to the Low Countries in the following year, leaving a pregnant Joanna in Madrid where she gave birth to her and Philip's fourth child, Ferdinand, later a central European monarch and Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand I.

Reign[link]

This portrait of Joanna was done in Flanders, ca 1500: it is a detail from the wings of the Last Judgement Triptych of Zierikzee, by the Master of Afflighem (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)

Queen of Castile[link]

Succession[link]

Upon the death of her mother in November 1504, Joanna became Queen regnant of Castile and her husband jure uxoris its king. Joanna's father, Ferdinand II, lost his monarchical status in Castile although his wife's will permitted him to govern in Joanna's absence or, if Joanna was unwilling to rule herself, until Joanna's heir reached the age of 20. Ferdinand refused to accept this: he minted Castilian coins in the name of "Ferdinand and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Léon and Aragon," and, in early 1505, persuaded the Cortes that Joanna's "illness is such that the said Queen Doña Joanna our Lady cannot govern". The Cortes then appointed Ferdinand as Joanna's guardian and the kingdom's administrator and governor. However, her husband Philip the Handsome was unwilling to accept any threat to his chances of ruling Castile and also minted coins in the name of "Philip and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Léon and Archdukes of Austria, etc."^[10] In response, Ferdinand embarked upon a pro-French policy, marrying Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII of France (and his own great-niece), in the hope that she would produce a son to inherit Aragon and perhaps Castile.^[11]

Ferdinand's remarriage merely strengthened support for Philip and Joanna in Castile, and in late 1505, the pair decided to travel to Castile. Leaving Flanders on 10 January 1506, their ships were wrecked on the English coast and the couple were guests of Henry, Prince of Wales, later Henry VIII and Joanna's sister Catherine of Aragon at Windsor Castle. They weren't able to leave until 21 April by which time civil war was looming in Castile. Philip apparently considered landing in Andalusia and summoning the nobles to take up arms against Ferdinand in Aragon. Instead, he and Joanna landed at La Coruña on 26 April, whereupon the Castilian nobility abandoned Ferdinand en masse. Ferdinand met Philip at Villafáfila on 20 June 1506 and handed over the government of Castile to his "most beloved children", promising to retire to Aragon. Philip and Ferdinand then signed a second treaty, agreeing that Joanna's mental instability made her incapable of ruling and promising to exclude her from government. Ferdinand then proceeded to repudiate the agreement the same afternoon, declaring that Joanna should never be deprived of her rights as Queen Proprietress of Castile. A fortnight later, having come to no fresh agreement with Philip and thus effectively retaining his right to interfere if he considered his daughter's rights to have been infringed upon, he abandoned Castile for Aragon, leaving Philip to govern in Joanna's stead.^[12]

Philip's death[link]

By virtue of the agreement of Villafáfila, the procurators of the Cortes met in Valladolid, Castile on 9 July 1506. On 12 July,^[13] they swore allegiance to Philip I and Joanna together as King and Queen of Castile and León and to their son Charles, later Charles I of Castile, Leon and Aragon and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as their heir-apparent.^[14] This arrangement only lasted for a few months. On 25 September 1506 Philip died suddenly of typhoid fever in the city of Burgos in Castile. Some suspected that he had been poisoned by his father-in-law Ferdinand II who had always disliked his foreign Habsburg origins and with whom he never wanted to share power. Joanna was pregnant with their sixth child, a daughter Catherine (1507–1578). By 20 December 1506 she was in the village of Torquemada in Castile, attempting to exercise her rights to rule alone in her own name as Queen of Castile. The country fell into disorder. Her son and heir-apparent, Charles, later Charles I, was a six-year old child being raised in his aunt's care in northern European Flanders; her father, Ferdinand II, remained in Aragon, allowing the crisis to grow. A regency council under Archbishop Cisneros was set up against the queen's orders but it was unable to manage the growing public disorder; plague and famine devastated the kingdom with supposedly half the population perishing of one or the other. The queen was unable to secure the funds required to assist her to protect her power. In the face of this, Ferdinand II returned to Castile in July 1507. His arrival coincided with a remission of the plague and famine, a development which quieted the instability and left an impression that his return had restored the health of the kingdom.^[15]

Father's regency[link]

Joanna and her husband with their Spanish subjects

Ferdinand II and Joanna met at Hornillos, Castile on 30 July 1507. Ferdinand then constrained her to yield up her power over the Kingdom of Castile and León to himself. On 17 August 1507 she summoned three members of the royal council and ordered them to inform the grandees, in her name, of her father Ferdinand II's return to power: "That they should go to receive his highness and serve him as they would her person and more." She refused to sign the instructions – a last gesture of defiance – and issued a statement that she did not, as queen regnant, endorse the surrender of her own royal power. Nonetheless, she was thereafter queen in name only and all documents, though issued in her name, were signed with Ferdinand's signature, "I the King". He was named administrator of the kingdom by the Cortes of Castile in 1510, and entrusted the government mainly to Archbishop Cisneros. He had Joanna confined in the Santa Clara convent in Tordesillas, near Valladolid in Castile, in February 1509 after having dismissed all of her faithful servants and having appointed a small retinue accountable to him alone.^[7] At this time, some accounts claim that she was insane or 'mad', and that she took her husband's corpse with her to Tordesillas to keep it close to her.^[12]

First Queen of Spain[link]

Succession as Queen of Aragon[link]

Ferdinand II ended his days embittered: his second marriage had failed to produce a surviving male heir leaving his daughter Joanna as his heiress-presumptive. Ferdinand resented that, upon his death, Castile and Aragon would effectively pass to his foreign-born-and-raised grandson Charles I, to whom he had transferred his hatred of Philip I. He had hoped that his younger grandson and namesake, Ferdinand I, who was Charles I's brother and had been born and raised in Castile, would succeed him. Ferdinand II had named Ferdinand as his heir-apparent in his will before being persuaded to revoke this bequest and rename Joanna and Charles I as his heirs-presumptive instead. When Ferdinand II died in 1516, the Kingdoms of Castile and León, and Aragon and their associated crowns and territories/colonies would pass to Joanna I and Charles I.^[16] With Charles I still in Flanders, Aragon was being governed after Ferdinand II's death by his bastard son, Alonso de Aragón. Meanwhile, Castile and León, already subjects of Joanna, were governed by Archbishop Cisneros as regent. A group of nobles, led by the Duke of Infantado, attempted to proclaim the Infante Ferdinand as King of Castile but the attempt failed.

Son's regency[link]

Joanna with two of her children (one of them being Charles I)

In October 1517, seventeen-year-old Charles I arrived in Asturias at the Bay of Biscay. On 4 November, he and his sister Eleanor met their mother Joanna at Tordesillas – there they secured from her the necessary authorization to allow Charles to rule as her co-King of Castile and León and of Aragon. Despite her acquiescence to his wishes her confinement would continue. The Castilian Cortes, meeting in Valladolid, spited Charles by addressing him only as Su Alteza ("Your Highness") and reserving Majestad ("Majesty") for Joanna.^[17] However, no one seriously considered rule by Joanna a realistic proposition.^[18]

Since Charles I now ruled the Kingdom of Aragon and its territories and the Kingdom of Castile and León and its territories, the two kingdoms were officially unified into one country: Spain, in 1519. King Charles I of Spain became, in addition, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V the same year, and was able to create the most powerful country in the world at the time by building on the achievements and colonial wealth of his mother's parents, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs.

Revolt of the Comuneros[link]

In 1520, the Revolt of the Comuneros broke out in response to the perceived foreign Habsburg influence over Castile through Charles V. The rebel leaders demanded that Castile be governed in accordance with the supposed practices of the Catholic Monarchs. In an attempt to legitimize their rebellion, the Comuneros turned to Joanna. As the 'on record' sovereign monarch, had she given written approval to the rebellion, it would have been legalized and would have triumphed. In an attempt to prevent this, Don Antonio de Rojas, Bishop of Mallorca, led a delegation of royal councilors to Tordesillas, asking Joanna to sign a document denouncing the Comuneros. She demurred, requesting that he present her specific provisions. Before this could be done the Comuneros in turn stormed the virtually undefended city and requested her support. The request prompted Adrian of Utrecht, the regent appointed by Charles V, to declare that Charles would lose Castile if she granted her support. Although she was sympathetic to the Comuneros, she was persuaded by Ochoa de Landa and her confessor Fray John of Avila that supporting the revolt would irreparably damage the country and her son's kingship and she therefore refused to sign a document granting her support.^[19] The Battle of Villalar confirmed that Charles would prevail over the revolt.

Forced confinement[link]

Real Monasterio de Santa Clara de Tordesillas

Charles ensured his domination and throne by having his mother confined for the rest of her life in the rooms of the Convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas, Castile. Joanna's condition degenerated further. She apparently became convinced that some of the nuns of the convent wanted to kill her, a fear which was never proved. Reportedly it was difficult for her to eat, sleep, bathe, or change her clothes. Charles wrote to the Convent of Santa Clara caretakers: "It seems to me that the best and most suitable thing for you to do is to make sure that no person speaks with Her Majesty, for no good could come from it".^{[citation needed]}

Joanna had her youngest daughter, Catherine of Austria, with her during Ferdinand II's time as regent, 1507–1516. Her older daughter, Eleanor of Austria, had created a semblance of a household within the convent rooms. In her final years, Joanna's physical state began to rapidly decline with mobility ever more difficult.

Joanna died on Good Friday, 12 April 1555 at the age of 75 in the Convent of Santa Clara at Tordesillas.^[7] She is entombed in the Royal Chapel of Granada (la Capilla Real) in Spain alongside her parents Isabella I and Ferdinand II, her husband Philip I and her nephew Miguel da Paz, Prince of Asturias. A statue of her stands in Tordesillas and the convent in which she was confined for fifty years can be visited.

The Capilla Real in Granada, where Juana (Joanna) is entombed.

Coat of arms of Joanna as Queen of Castile

Mental health[link]

Most historians now agree that she had melancholia,^[20]:9 severe clinical depression,^[20]:9[21] a psychosis,^[21] or a case of inherited schizophrenia^[20]:9.^[21]There is debate about the diagnosis that she was mentally ill considering that her symptoms were aggravated by non-consensual confinement and control by others who had assumed her royal powers. To legitimize the claims of her husband, father, and son to the throne, Joanna was nominalized as Queen regnant of Castile, León, and Aragon until her death. It is possible that she inherited mental illness from her mother's family: her maternal grandmother Isabella of Portugal, Queen of Castile suffered from it in widowhood after her stepson exiled her to the castle of Arévalo in Ávila, Castile.^[20]:12[22]

Legacy in arts and letters[link]

The story of Queen Joanna attracted authors, composers and artists of the 19th century romanticist movement, with her qualities of unrequited love and moral fidelity. Later authors often focus on the grief-stricken woman and her mental illness. An incomplete list of these works follows:

• Felipe el Hermoso (1845) — Eusebio Asquerino and Gregorio Romero. A play in four acts.
• La Locura de Amor (1855) — Manuel Tamayo y Baus. Play
• Doña Juana la Loca (late 19th Cent.) — Emilio Serrano. Opera.
• Juana la Loca (1877) — Francisco Pradilla. Painting (shown above). Currently in the Prado museum of Madrid, Spain.
• Locura de amor (1948) — Juan de Orduña. Film.
• The Prisoner of Tordesillas (1959) — Lawrence Schoonover. Novel.
• La Loca (1979) — Gian Carlo Menotti. Opera.
• Mariner by the playwright Don Nigro. Play.
• Las Ruinas del Corazon (1999) — Eric Gamalinda. Poem.
• Juana la Loca (2001) — directed by Vicente Aranda and starring Pilar López de Ayala as Joanna, was nominated for 12 Goya Awards, and was released in the US as Mad Love. Based on La Locura de Amor by Manuel Tamayo y Baus.
• El Pergamino de la Seducción (2005) — Gioconda Belli. Novel in Spanish.
• The Last Queen (2007) — C.W. Gortner. Novel in English and Spanish

Children[link]

Ferdinand, the couple's younger son.

All Joanna's children except Mary had children. However, only Charles, Ferdinand, and Isabella have descendants today.

Ancestry[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joanna of Castile

Biographies

• W. H. Prescott, Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella (1854)
• Rosier, Johanna die Wahnsinnige'(1890)
• H. Tighe, A Queen of Unrest (1907).
• R. Villa, La Reina doña Juana la Loca (1892)
• Bethany Aram, Juana the Mad: Sovereignty and Dynasty in Renaissance Europe" (Baltimore, John Hopkins UP, 2005).

Works cited

• Miller T. The Castles and the Crown. Coward-McCann: New York, 1963
• Aram, Bethany, "Juana "the Mad's" Signature: The Problem of Invoking Royal Authority, 1505- 1507", Sixteenth Century Journal
• Elliott, J.H., Imperial Spain, 1469–1716
• de Francisco Olmos, José María: Estudio documental de la moneda castellana de Juana la Loca fabricada en los Países Bajos (1505–1506), Revista General de Información y Documentación 2002, vol 12, núm.2 (Universidad complutense de Madrid).
• de Francisco Olmos, José María: Estudio documental de la moneda castellana de Carlos I fabricada en los Países Bajos (1517); Revista General de Información y Documentación 2003, vol 13, núm.2 (Universidad complutense de Madrid).
• Juan-Navarro, Santiago, Maria Gomez, and Phyllis Zatlin. Juana of Castile: History and Myth of the Mad Queen. Newark and London: Bucknell University Press, 2008.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joanna of Castile

• Biography of Juana the Mad of Castile (1479–1555)
• Juana of Castile at Find-A-Grave

v t e Princes of Asturias Infante Felipe (1977–present) Infante Henry (1388–1390) Infanta Maria (1402–1405) Infante John (1405–1406) Infanta Catherine (1423–1424) Infanta Eleanor (1424–1425) Infante Henry (1425–1454) Infanta Joanna (1462–1464) Infante Alfonso (1464–1468) Infanta Isabella (1468–1470) Infanta Isabella (1470–1478) Infante John (1478–1497) Infanta Isabella (1497–1498) Infante Michael of Portugal (1498–1500) Infanta Joanna (1502–1504) Infante Charles (1504–1516) Philip II (1527–1556) Infante Charles (1556–1568) Infante Ferdinand (1571–1578) Infante Diego (1578–1582) Infante Philip (1582–1598) Philip IV (1605–1621) Infante Balthasar Charles (1629–1646) Infante Philip Prospero (1657–1661) Infante Charles (1661–1665) Prince Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (1698–1699) Infante Louis (1709–1724) Infante Ferdinand (1724–1746) Infante Charles (1759–1788) Infante Ferdinand (1788–1808) Infanta Isabella (1830–1833) Infanta Isabella (1851–1857) Infante Alfonso (1857–1868) Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (1871–1873) Infanta Isabella (1875–1880) Infanta Mercedes (1880–1904) Infante Alfonso (1907–1931)

v t e Monarchs of Castile House of Jiménez Ferdinand I  · Sancho II  · Alfonso VI  · Urraca House of Burgundy Alfonso VII  · Sancho III  · Alfonso VIII  · Henry I  · Berengaria  · Ferdinand III  · Alfonso X  · Sancho IV  · Ferdinand IV  · Alfonso XI  · Peter House of Trastámara Henry II  · John I  · Henry III  · John II  · Henry IV  · Isabella I & Ferdinand V  · Joanna & Philip I

v t e Monarchs of León Beni Alfons Alfonso III  · García I  · Ordoño II  · Fruela II  · Alfonso IV  · Ramiro II  · Ordoño III  · Sancho I  · Ordoño IV  · Sancho I  · Ramiro III  · Bermudo II  · Alfonso V  · Bermudo III House of Jiménez Ferdinand I  · Sancho II  · Alfonso VI  · Urraca House of Burgundy Alfonso VII  · Ferdinand II  · Alfonso IX  · Ferdinand III  · Alfonso X  · Sancho IV  · Ferdinand IV  · Alfonso XI  · Peter House of Trastámara Henry II  · John I  · Henry III  · John II  · Henry IV  · Isabella I & Ferdinand V  · Joanna & Philip I House of Habsburg Charles I

v t e Monarchs of Aragon House of Jiménez Ramiro I Sancho Ramírez Peter I Alfonso I Ramiro II Petronilla House of Barcelona Alfonso II Peter II James I Peter III Alfonso III James II Alfonso IV Peter IV John I Martin House of Trastámara Ferdinand I Alfonso V John II Ferdinand II Joanna