The Crappy Life of Juana the “Mad”
Mentally ill or another pawn of the patriarchy?
On November 6, 1479, Juana, the third child and second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, was born. Like all royal families of the time, their daughters were raised to marry foreign princes or kings and spread Spain’s influence across Europe. Juana’s kid sister, Catherine of Aragon, was married to Henry VIII of England, the lucky girl.
Juana had been promised since birth to Philip of Flanders, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian’s heir. He was the chief reason Juana became known to history as “Juana the Mad.”
Long since married by proxy, the teenage Juana finally made the trip to Flanders in 1496 to get married for real and see if her 18-year-old groom deserved his moniker of “Philip the Handsome.”
He did. In Juana’s estimation, anyway.
But if Juana was expecting her happily ever after, she was sorely mistaken. Unfortunately, Philip’s interest in his new wife was almost exclusively carnal.
The next few years were a tumultuous tug-of-war as Philip was habitually unfaithful and Juana supposedly retaliated with fits of anger and dramatic fainting spells. Nevertheless, Juana popped out two kids quickly, Eleanor in 1498, and Charles in 1500.
