Born in 1479, Joan, or Joanna, was a beautiful and intelligent woman who had been tutored in Latin, French, Spanish, and other Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula. The red-haired princess became, however, a pawn in a geo-political struggle between Spain and its mortal enemy, France. The ruling House of Valois in France hoped to be joined with Germany and thereby outflank Spain. Joan eventually was joined in an arranged marriage in 1497 with Philip “the Handsome” – the scion of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Joan fell in love with Philip as soon as they met and this passionate nature was again aroused throughout their marriage. Joan would slip into black moods during Philip’s absences or when he was said to have taken another lover. The two, nonetheless, would have six children.
Court intrigue led to quarreling over the succession to the throne of Castile when Joan’s mother Isabella died in 1504. There was bad blood between Joan’s father Ferdinand of Aragon (a devotee of Niccolo Machiavelli) and Philip. To avoid an armed conflict, Ferdinand tactically gave up his own claim while Philip was crowned King of Castile.
A year later, on September 25, 1506, Joan’s beloved Philip was to die suddenly amid rumors of poisoning while it was also bruited about that Joan had gone mad. Given Joan’s supposed mental breakdown, Ferdinand again became regent of Castile – this time in the name of Joan and a grandson who would later become Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The heartbroken Joan never left his casket’s side as Philip’s funeral procession wended its way at night from Burgos, where he died, to Granada, where he was buried. Wearing widow’s weeds thereafter, Joan reportedly refused to bathe or change clothes. Finally, in 1509, at the age of 28, Joan was confined permanently against her will for 46 years even though she was never formally found incapable by the royal courts. Official documents of Castile continued to refer to Joan as queen.
Joan has been the figure of romantics ever since. Vicente Aranda, for example, directed the movie “Mad Love” or “Juana la Loca” (2001) that starred Pilar López de Ayala as the heart-broken young queen. The famed painting done in a romantic/academic style by Francisco Pradilla y Ortíz (1877) called “Joan the Mad” hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid. A French-Canadian music group “La Nef” recorded “Music for Joan the Mad: Spain 1479-1555” (Dorian Discovery disc DIS-80128). The lyrics of one of the songs on the disc read “If I lost my friend, it would not be a laughing matter. I have served so long, true God, what would you say. A year and a half ago, I chose him over all.”
Romantics might say that Joan died over unrequited love. But a cynic, or a student of power, might say that she died at the hands of her faithless husband and a ruthless father whose political ends trumped his title as “Catholic King”.
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