JOANNA (1479-1555)

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 421 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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JOANNA (1479-1555) , called the Mad (la Low) ,queen of Castile and mother of the emperor Charles V., was the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain, and was born at Toledo on the 6th of November 1479. Her youngest sister was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. In 1496 at Lille she was married to the archduke Philip the Hand-some, son of the German King

Maximilian

MAXIMILIAN
MAXIMILIAN (1832—1867)

I., and at

Ghent

GHENT (Flem. Gent, Fr. Gand)

, in February 1500, she gave

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

to the future emperor. The death of her only brother John, of her eldest sister Isabella, queen of Portugal, and then of the latter's infant son Miguel, made

Joanna

JOANNA (1479-1555)

heiress of the Spanish kingdoms, and in 1502 the

cortes

CORTES
CORTES, HERNAN

of Castile and of Aragon recognized her and her husband as their future sovereigns. Soon after this

Joanna

JOANNA (1479-1555)

's reason began to give way. She mourned in an extravagant fashion for her absent husband, whom at length she joined in Flanders; in this country her passionate jealousy, although justified by Philip's conduct, led to deplorable scenes. In November 1504 her mother's death left Joanna queen of Castile, but as she was obviously incapable of ruling, the duties of government were undertaken by her father, and then for a short time by her husband. The queen was with Philip when he was wrecked on the English coast and became the guest of Henry VII. at Windsor; soon after this event, in September 15o6, he died and Joanna's mind became completely deranged, it being almost impossible to get her away from the dead

body

BODY

of her husband. The remaining years of her miserable existence were spent at Tordesillas, where she died on the 11th of April 1555 In spite of her afflictions the queen was sought in

marriage

MARRIAGE

by Henry VII. just before his death. Nominally Joanna remained queen of Castile until her death, her name being joined with that of Charles in all public documents, but of necessity she took no part in the business of state. In addition to Charles she had a son Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I., and four daughters, among them being Maria (1505-1558), wife of Louis II., king of

Hungary

HUNGARY
HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszdg)

, afterwards

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

-general of the Netherlands.
See R. Villa, La Reina dona Juana la Loa; (Madrid, 1892) ; Resler, Johanna die Wahnsinnige (Vienna, 189o) ; W. H.

Prescott

PRESCOTT, WILLIAM HICKLING (1796-1859)

, Hist. of Ferdinand and Isabella (1854) ; and H. Tighe, A Queen of Unrest (1907).

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