About Juana la Loca (1479 - 1555) "Joanna the mad"
Composed & produced by Jeroen Englebert from the album Eternal Woman
"An honest woman must flee from the light of day, when she has lost her husband"
Joanna was the daughter of Isabelle of Castile and Leon and Ferdinand of Aragon, Spain's most famous royal couple. In 1495 she wed Phillip the Flair, Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy. It was an arranged and highly political marriage.
Joanna was raised a devout Catholic. By nature she was a shy and somewhat abrupt girl. Phillip on the other hand was outgoing, gentle, friendly, flightly, and a notorious womaniser. However, when the two finally met, they did fall in love, and were married in Antwerp in 1946.
Even though they had five children, Phillips marital infidelities and Joanna's jealousy prevented a happy marriage. During this time, she started to display some of the symptoms that later in life earned her the moniker "Joanna the mad".
After the death of Isabelle, Phillip and Joanna were installed as Castile and Leon's royal couple, but Ferdinand remained regent. This state of affairs created a tremendous amount of tension between Phillip and Ferdinand. Joanna, ignored by both her husband and her father, had to stand idly by as Phillip all of sudden took deathly ill and died within a week, allegedly poisoned on Ferdinand's orders.
For two years Phillip's coffin never left her side. At this point, her father Ferdinand declared her insane, and Joanna spent the next 45 years isolated in Tordasillas castle. Whether she was truly insane or merely a pawn in a high-stakes political game, history does not reveal. What is known is that she never stopped loving her husband, as she gazed at his tomb from her lonely castle window.
9 years ago
9 years ago
9 years ago