Queen Joanna of Castile: Was She Mad or Abused by her Family?

Joanna I of Castile was the daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand and the older sister of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife.
She was called “La Loca” or “The Mad.” And her Kingdom was ruled by her husband, her father, then by her son, the three people who declared her mad.

Chapters:

00:00 Joanna of Castile
00:17 Was Joanna mad?
01:25 Living with Her Husband’s Casket and Body
02:09 Her Powerful Lineage: Isabella and Ferdinand
02:37 Catherine of Aragon’s Sister
02:50 Joanna’s Upbringing
03:35 Marriage to Phillip the Handsome
04:17 Heir to the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon
04:44 Why did everyone want Joanna to be Mad
05:41 Outro

Joanna of Castile: Was she mad? or Was it something more sinister?
Who was Joanna of Castile?
Joanna of Castile (1479-1555) was the beautiful Spanish Queen whose reign united the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
Her nickname was La Loca, which meant 'the Mad.'
The recorded evidence of her "madness" included using scissors to cut the hair and slash the face of her husband's mistress.
Secondly, while pregnant, she spent an entire night banging on stable doors when her mother refused to let her leave to join her husband.
There were also consistent rumours that Joanna indulged in witchcraft, love potions and other supernatural rituals to try and win back her husband's interest.
Joanna would also dress in black to mourn her father when her father was still alive and embarked on multiple hunger strikes to get her will.
Finally, the most gruesome detail against her was holding onto her husband's casket for years and opening it to kiss the feet of his decaying body.
Joanna finally allowed the burial of her husband when his grave was made right outside her window.
Were these signs of madness, or were they her way of acting against her father, husband and son for declaring her insane to grab onto her royal rights?
In our first video about Joanna, we want to explore her background and understand who she was before diving into these claims against her.
Joanna came from a powerful royal family where her mother, Isabella of Castile, and father, Ferdinand of Aragon, were monarchs in their own right.
They were the power couple who united Spain and funded Christopher Columbus's voyages while starting the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain.
Joanna was also the older sister of Catherine of Aragon, who was Henry VIII's first wife and his brother, Arthur's, widow.
She was brilliant as a young princess, and her mother ensured that she and her sisters received rigorous education.
Joanna spoke many languages, was knowledgeable in anything from literature and geography to cooking and played multiple musical instruments.
When she was young, she chose not to follow the strict form of Catholicism that her mother practised. Instead, the rumour was that her mother tortured her to try and correct her beliefs.
As the third child and second daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella of Castile, her parents did not expect her to inherit the crown.
They arranged for her to marry Phillip the Handsome, the son of Mary of Burgundy and Maximillian I when Joanna was 16, and she left to join her husband in Flanders, in present-day Belgium.
Despite a promising start, the marriage between Phillip and Joanna was a failure, as Phillip was in love with many women, and Joanna could not accept his adulterous behaviour.
However, her brother, sister, nephew and stillborn niece all died in rapid succession, which made her the heir to inherit the crown of both Castile and Aragon.
After becoming heir to the throne, her life worsened, becoming one of the most abused women in history due to her father and husband's greed.
As Isabella hated Phillip and knew he never loved Joanna, she did not want Phillip to benefit from Joanna's royal claims.
Isabella made Phillip king jure uxoris, which meant he could only have power when Joanna was unfit to rule.
She added that her husband and Joanna's father, Ferdinand II of Aragon, could administer the Kingdom of Castille for Joanna if Joanna was unfit.
These clauses were probably the cause of Joanna's most profound pains in her life as these clauses made these men whom she was supposed to trust into the people who most wanted her to be mentally unfit.
Was she insane? Or was her madness the excuse for those close to her to get to her throne or wealth?

The music is “In Those Dancing Shapes (Mattia Vlad-Morleo)” by Sonder House, licensed via Music Vine: ECBSQIIKP3P44AK2

The second music is “Waltz (Sergio Diaz De Rojas)” by Sonder House, licensed via Music Vine: XT5IPEA9FWO2LXLF.

#JoannaOfCastile, #MeetingHistory, #SpanishQueen, #IsabellaOfCastile, #JoannaTheMad, #FerdinandOfAragon, #PhillipTheHandsome, #PhillipOfFlanders, #CatherineOfAragon, #KatherineOfAragon, #HenryVIII, #MeetingHistory, #HistoricalFigures, #BeautifulHistoricalFigures, #BroughtToLife, #Castile, #Aragon, #SpanishHistory