1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkie listener discretion is advised. Culturally, 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,759 Speaker 1: we are obsessed with the idea of women going mad. 4 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,080 Speaker 1: It's a theme that's pervaded literature for hundreds of years. 5 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: It's a woman sometimed, young, usually beautiful, who becomes a 6 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:34,479 Speaker 1: tragic figure hold away in a gothic, decrepit mansion. The 7 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: woman loses her mind and then usually her life. There 8 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:43,480 Speaker 1: are too many examples to name, the Lady of Shelot, 9 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: Cathy from Weathering Heights, Bertha and Janier, Miss Havisham, and 10 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: of course, perhaps most iconically, Ophelia. Feminist literary critic and 11 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: Princeton professor Elaine show Walter wrote, Ophelia became the prototype 12 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: not only of the deranged woman in Victorian literature and art, 13 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: but also of the young female asylum patient. In fiction. 14 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:15,199 Speaker 1: The madwoman usually comes from a society of rigid gender rules. 15 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 1: Take Ophelia again. Ophelia's madness is the thing that allows 16 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: her to break free of the limitations and restrictions on 17 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: women in her society. In the play, her hair that 18 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: was once neatly covered and pulled back is after she 19 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: goes mad, let down, wavy and untamed at its full length, and, 20 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:41,479 Speaker 1: as Elaine show Walter points out, Ophelia also breaks free 21 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: of her sexual propriety. Ophelia becomes provocative, singing body songs 22 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: and giving away flowers in a not so subtle allusion 23 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: to her deflowering herself. That brings up another aspect of 24 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: the pop culture portrayal of the woman gone mad, that 25 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: madness is the inverse of proper female decorum when it 26 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: comes to sexuality. A mad woman is one who wants, 27 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: one who has explicit female desires. In essay on Ophelia, 28 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:20,639 Speaker 1: Emmy Harmana writes about the idea of mad women as 29 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:25,680 Speaker 1: a rado maniacs. She writes this is based on masculine 30 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: assumptions that women are more inclined to go mad since 31 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: they are closer to the irrational by nature, and that 32 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: young women's madness is more often than not caused by 33 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: sexual frustration of unrequited love. There it is the woman 34 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 1: who goes crazy because she wants a man she cannot have. 35 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: Perhaps it's even the origin of a particularly sexist modern 36 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: trend of dudes telling their friends that all of their 37 00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:00,600 Speaker 1: clingy x is are quote crazy. The link between sexual 38 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: frustration or desire and madness or hysteria in women might 39 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: also help to explain the Victorian invention of the vibrator, 40 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: used to induce what doctors called paroxysms in women in 41 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 1: order to restore their sanity. But the stories when it 42 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: comes to our fictional heroines don't usually end well. Mad 43 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:30,919 Speaker 1: women get a brief chance to break free from social conventions, 44 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: to scream in a society that forced them to whisper. 45 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:40,360 Speaker 1: But then these women's are disposed of. They die by 46 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 1: beautiful suicide in flowy white gowns and water if they're 47 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: beautiful like Ophelia or the Lady of lat or by 48 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: fire if they're not as beautiful like Miss Havisham or 49 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 1: Bertha in Jane Eyre, or more sinisterly, they're disposed of, 50 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: deposited in a asylums or the attic, like the heroine 51 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman story The Yellow Wallpaper. If 52 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: you've never read The Yellow Wallpaper, you absolutely should. It 53 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 1: was written in eighteen two, and the story is framed 54 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: as the diary of a young woman who suffers from 55 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:25,040 Speaker 1: what might be in modern parlance called postnatal depression, and so, 56 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: after this woman gives birth, her husband decides that the 57 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:33,480 Speaker 1: best treatment for her is isolating her in an attic room. 58 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:37,719 Speaker 1: Over the course of the story, the narrator begins to hallucinate, 59 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: to become as mad as her either sinister or misguided 60 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: husband believed her to be. Was the narrator mad all along? 61 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: Or did the prolonged period of boredom and isolation drive 62 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: her crazy? That brings us to the unlucky subject of 63 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: today's podcast. Want To of Castile, or as she's known 64 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 1: more colloquially, Juana la Loca. The Juanna was technically Queen 65 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: of Castile for over fifty years and of Argon for 66 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,919 Speaker 1: thirty of those. Her title was in name only. For 67 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: the vast majority of her reign. She was imprisoned in 68 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: a castle in tordisse Us, declared insane by the men 69 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: in her life who wanted to rule in her place, 70 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: first her husband and then her father and then her son. 71 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: As a literary figure, Juanna is irresistible. Her supposed madness 72 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,600 Speaker 1: was brought on by her obsessive love for her husband. 73 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: After his death, they say that Wanna refuse to let 74 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 1: them bury the body so that she could continually open 75 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:53,280 Speaker 1: the casket and kiss his cold face. There maybe couldn't 76 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: be a better example of an Ophelia archetype in real life, 77 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: love sick over a man to the point that it 78 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: destroyed her sanity. But it's impossible to note to what 79 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,719 Speaker 1: extent the stories are true, or whether they were just 80 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: convenient propaganda for her father to use in his claim 81 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: to her kingdom. There are versions of Juana's story that 82 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: try to paint her as a maligned feminist of history, 83 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 1: a woman who was perfectly in her right mind, wrongfully 84 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: accused of madness on purpose by men who knew that 85 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: they could have that power. But some of one's behavior 86 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: was genuinely strange, and as an heir of the deeply 87 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:40,039 Speaker 1: inbred Hapsburg family, mental illness was an occupational hazard for 88 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: European monarchs. By the end of Juana's imprisonment, after decades 89 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: in isolation, it's irrefutable that her mental condition had collapsed, 90 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: but plenty of kings ruled freely, even as they behaved 91 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 1: in ways that were charitably called eccentric. Being a woman 92 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: made it easy for Juana's rivals to dispose of her 93 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:09,039 Speaker 1: and to turn her life into easy, appealing fiction. She's 94 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: the type of story about a madwoman that we can't 95 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: help but want to tell over and over again. I'm 96 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. Even if you've 97 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:35,280 Speaker 1: never heard of Juana before, you've probably heard of her parents, 98 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:40,760 Speaker 1: Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Argon and Castile, respectively, 99 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: but their union meant that the pair of them ruled 100 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: a dynastically united Spain. The two of them are famous 101 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:53,559 Speaker 1: for funding Christopher Columbus's exploration of what was then called 102 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: the New World, and for being the Catholic monarchs that 103 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,160 Speaker 1: began the Spanish Inquisition, and for the conversion of all 104 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: of the Jews and Muslims in Spain. You've probably also 105 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: heard of Juanna's younger sister, Catherine of Aragon, who became 106 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: Henry the eighth first wife. Juanna was never supposed to 107 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: be a queen. She had an older brother and an 108 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: older sister in line before her, but still, when she 109 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: was young, she was incredibly well educated, so that one 110 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: day she would be ready for an advantageous marriage. That 111 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: means that she was taught all of the languages of 112 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:35,880 Speaker 1: the Iberian Peninsula, Castilian, Catalan and Galico Portuguese, as well 113 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: as French and Latin to her religious parents Dismay. As 114 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: she was educated, Juanna became something of a religious skeptic, 115 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,319 Speaker 1: but none of that mattered really When she turned sixteen 116 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: and it was finally time for her to fulfill her 117 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:56,160 Speaker 1: real purpose marriage. Juanna was betrothed to Philip of Flanders, 118 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy, also known as Philip the Handsome. This 119 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: is where I will say, if you are near your 120 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: phone or a computer, you should absolutely google a photo 121 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,960 Speaker 1: of Philip the Handsome, just to get an idea of 122 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 1: what passed for good looks in the fifteenth century. Baby 123 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:19,719 Speaker 1: bangs on men were clearly a look that worked back then, 124 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,960 Speaker 1: but by all accounts, Philip was quite the charmer, and 125 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: the pair were married first by double proxy and then 126 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:33,440 Speaker 1: in person in four when Juana arrived in Flanders with 127 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:39,240 Speaker 1: a fleet of over one hundred ships. Their marriage was 128 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 1: supposed to be on October, but the story goes that 129 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 1: one arrived and met Philip in person on the and 130 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:51,960 Speaker 1: was so immediately overcome with love or lust that the 131 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: pair of them begged to be married that very day 132 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:59,719 Speaker 1: that they could consummate their relationship that night. Philip's handsomeness 133 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: clearly worked on Wana, and the two of them had 134 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,959 Speaker 1: three children while they lived in Flanders. It was during 135 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,079 Speaker 1: this period that something unexpected was happening to the line 136 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: of succession back in Spain. A year after Juana married Philip, 137 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: her brother Juan, the heir to the throne, died, But 138 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: to the great relief of everyone, One's wife, Margaret of Austria, 139 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: was seven months pregnant at the time, and the hope 140 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:30,600 Speaker 1: was that she would have a son and a new 141 00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 1: heir who could take his or her father's place in 142 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:38,720 Speaker 1: the line of succession. But that December, Margaret gave birth 143 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:43,600 Speaker 1: to a stillborn girl, with that line ended. Next in 144 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:47,559 Speaker 1: line was one as older sister, Isabella, the Queen of Portugal, 145 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:52,000 Speaker 1: wife of Manuel of Portugal. People in Spain were a 146 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:55,800 Speaker 1: little resisent about a female queen, but the good news 147 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 1: for everyone was that Isabella was also pregnant and she 148 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: had a son that would assuage all of those concerns. 149 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:08,680 Speaker 1: And lo and behold, a son was born, Miguel in August. 150 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: But Isabella of Portugal had had a difficult pregnancy, during 151 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: which she had traveled extensively and that might partly explain 152 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:26,080 Speaker 1: why hours after childbirth Isabella died. The kingdom had little Miguel, 153 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:30,679 Speaker 1: but not for long. The infant Prince of Portugal and 154 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:34,440 Speaker 1: the Spanish Kingdoms, the boy who would have united all 155 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: of the Iberian kingdoms, died when he was just two 156 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:46,640 Speaker 1: years old in his grandmother Isabella's arms. So in just 157 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: three years, Juana became next in line to be queen, 158 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:56,200 Speaker 1: and she was officially recognized by the legislative bodies, the Corteses. 159 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 1: But during her time away in Flanders, rumors had already 160 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: begun to spread about her mental state. Juanna, who had 161 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,439 Speaker 1: been madly in love with her husband Philip the Handsome 162 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:11,480 Speaker 1: since the moment she saw him, was also wildly jealous 163 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: when it came to her husband's infidelities. For what it 164 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 1: was worth, her jealousy was merited. He was a philanderer. 165 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: Once Wanna caught her husband in the throes of passion 166 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: with one of her ladies in waiting, a woman who 167 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: was known in courts for her luscious, shiny, long hair, 168 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:35,960 Speaker 1: Wanna shared the woman's hair off herself and then left 169 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:41,240 Speaker 1: the locks on Philip's pillows. A tom Hagen horsehead maneuver 170 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:47,320 Speaker 1: centuries before the Godfather. Wanna desperately wanted her husband to 171 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: love her to stop his wandering eye. She tried love 172 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: potions and tonics literal snake oil, all to no effect. 173 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,880 Speaker 1: Wanna and Philip had wild fights. Sometimes those fights would 174 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:06,560 Speaker 1: end in Philip literally confining and locking Juana in her rooms, 175 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:10,400 Speaker 1: where she would refuse food and sleep as a tactic 176 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: for control. That was a frequent strategy when Juana Tantrum 177 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 1: in fifteen o four, her mother Isabella, was sick with 178 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: a fever, and Juana went to visit her in Castile. 179 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: It's unclear exactly what happened, but there was some sort 180 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:31,080 Speaker 1: of altercation there, either between Juanna and her mother or 181 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: between Juanna and her husband back home in Flanders. That 182 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:39,960 Speaker 1: meant that Juanna wanted to go back home immediately through France. 183 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:43,960 Speaker 1: The problem was Castile was at war with France, and 184 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: it would be incredibly dangerous for her to transport herself 185 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 1: on land. Castile might be at war with France, Juanna declared, 186 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,920 Speaker 1: but I'm not. She was completely irrational in her determination, 187 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: so much so that her traveling companion in Bishop Fonesca, 188 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: had to physically take her horses back to the stables 189 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,200 Speaker 1: himself to prevent Juanna from leaving. When Wanna reached the 190 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:13,800 Speaker 1: lock stables, she screamed and shook the bars and stayed 191 00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:19,920 Speaker 1: up all night, refusing the basic comforts of food or blankets. 192 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: So that was one as reputation when later that year 193 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: her mother, Isabella died, Argon and Castile being separate kingdoms, 194 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:33,040 Speaker 1: meant that upon her mother's death, Juana became the Queen 195 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: of Castile, although Isabella had stipulated that if Juana was 196 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:41,600 Speaker 1: unfit or unwilling to rule, Juana's dad, Ferdinand, would be 197 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: allowed to govern until Juana's eldest son turned twenty. But 198 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,880 Speaker 1: Ferdinand had been ruling a united Argon and Castile alongside 199 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 1: his now deceased wife, and he was not willing to 200 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,680 Speaker 1: let that go with one and her husband still in Flanders. 201 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:03,640 Speaker 1: For Ferdinand printed coins that said fernand and Joanna King 202 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: and Queen of Castile and tried to persuade the Cortes 203 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: that Juanna was so ill that she would not be 204 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 1: able to govern, which led to the Cortes appointing him 205 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:19,600 Speaker 1: Ferdinand as the kingdom's administrator and governor and as Juan 206 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: as guardian. But Philip the Handsome, Juana's husband, wasn't going 207 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: to take that sitting down. He wanted to rule Castile, 208 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: and so he also printed coins with his and his 209 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: wife's names. For her part, Juanna attempted to dispel rumors 210 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:42,200 Speaker 1: about her insanity. She wrote a letter from Brussels to 211 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:44,760 Speaker 1: a signor de vere that I haven't been able to 212 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: find translated into English, but the general idea is that 213 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 1: she acknowledges the stories about her jealous passions, but that 214 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,760 Speaker 1: jealousy is a trait that she inherited from her wonderful mother, 215 00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: whom they all acknowledge was just one of the most 216 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 1: excellent women in the world. But Ferdinand had already gotten 217 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: the Cortees to appoint him as one as guardian, and 218 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: Tuana and phil the Handsome were still in Flanders, so 219 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: Ferdinand moved in to try to assert his power. He 220 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,880 Speaker 1: was also looking to edge Juana out of succession entirely 221 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: by getting married again with the intention of producing an 222 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: air Ferdinand's second wife was Germaine de Foix, the niece 223 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: of Louis the twelfth of France, and in classic Hapsburg fashion, 224 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: Ferdinand's own grand niece. The two never produced an air, 225 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: and the move actually backfired on Ferdinand, whose pro French 226 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:45,000 Speaker 1: policies only bolstered support for the husband and wife pair 227 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 1: of Juana and Philip. With the nobles on their side, 228 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 1: Juanna and Philip made their way to Castile to try 229 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:57,000 Speaker 1: to cement their power. Although Ferdinand and Philip were rivals here, 230 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,200 Speaker 1: they did put their differences aside for the mutue really 231 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,920 Speaker 1: beneficial arrangement, where they met secretly to declare Juanna unfit 232 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:10,359 Speaker 1: to rule because of her quote infirmities and sufferings. Ferdinand 233 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: did briefly attempt to challenge Philip for Castile, but knowing 234 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: a losing battle when he saw one pretty quickly, Ferdinand 235 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:25,960 Speaker 1: retreated back to our gun. So Philip the Handsome was 236 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,800 Speaker 1: King of Castile with all of the power that he 237 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 1: took from his supposedly infirm wife. But he wouldn't have 238 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:37,359 Speaker 1: the power for long. Philip got sick, and though the 239 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 1: official cause of death was typhoid, many people thought that 240 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:46,199 Speaker 1: he was poisoned, possibly on the orders of Ferdinand. Mad 241 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:52,199 Speaker 1: with love or just mad, Juanna was bereft, Philip the 242 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: Handsome was just when he died. Juanna was pregnant with 243 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:01,359 Speaker 1: their sixth child. It's at the point that, if you 244 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: believe the stories, Juanna had a breakdown. She refused to 245 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,560 Speaker 1: be parted from her husband's dead body for months. They say, 246 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:14,960 Speaker 1: she didn't leave the side of the embalmed corpse, and 247 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: she frequently requested that the casket be opened over and 248 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: over again so that she could gaze upon her dead 249 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:26,439 Speaker 1: husband's handsome face once more and kiss his cold and 250 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:31,159 Speaker 1: waxy lips. At least dead in his coffin, Philip the 251 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:35,680 Speaker 1: Handsome couldn't incite his wife's jealousy, or so you might think, 252 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,640 Speaker 1: I want to accompanied the casket to its final resting 253 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,639 Speaker 1: place in Granada, and she insisted that the procession only 254 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:47,360 Speaker 1: travel at night so that other women wouldn't see Philip 255 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:51,520 Speaker 1: the Handsome's body and be tempted by the corpse. It 256 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: was during these travels that Juanna gave birth to a 257 00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: daughter named Catherine for her sister at She finally let 258 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: them put Philip's body in the ground for a good 259 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: Wanna returned to a castile plagued by disaster, with a 260 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: literal plague first of all, but also famine. Juanna was 261 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,879 Speaker 1: out of her depth. On one hand, some of those 262 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: problems would have been impossible for a monarch to solve, 263 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: but Juanna also probably did suffer from some mental illness 264 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,160 Speaker 1: that was wildly exacerbated by the death of her husband. 265 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:30,960 Speaker 1: It was a loss that she would never be able 266 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: to get over. For whatever reason, Juana was incapable of 267 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,680 Speaker 1: ruling her kingdom effectively against her will. The Cortes set 268 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,679 Speaker 1: up a regency council for Juana in fifteen o seven, 269 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: and Juanna just didn't have the resources or the tactical 270 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 1: ability to raise the support she would need in order 271 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,359 Speaker 1: to protect her right to the throne. Just as the 272 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,920 Speaker 1: plague and famine were finally letting up the next year, 273 00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:02,160 Speaker 1: her father, Ferdinand swooped in he who was promptly placed 274 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:08,359 Speaker 1: as regent. In fifteen o nine, Ferdinand confined his daughter 275 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,119 Speaker 1: to the royal palace at tortoisse Us on the basis 276 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,400 Speaker 1: of her supposed insanity. There are rumors about her paranoia, 277 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:21,720 Speaker 1: suicidal urges, and her necrophilia with the dead body of 278 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:25,480 Speaker 1: her husband, but it's tricky to parse out exactly what's 279 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: true and what isn't. It's always challenging to retroactively diagnose 280 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: illness in historical figures, mental or otherwise. But it's especially 281 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,439 Speaker 1: tricky here because it was in Ferdinand and Philip's interest 282 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,399 Speaker 1: for the general public to think that Juana was so 283 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,639 Speaker 1: insane that they could rule in her stead, and we 284 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,399 Speaker 1: know for a fact that both had forged letters and 285 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:56,760 Speaker 1: documents from her at different points to suit their purposes. Ferdinand, 286 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,520 Speaker 1: one his father, was never able to have a new heir, 287 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,639 Speaker 1: and so, though he didn't like it, one as eldest son, Charles, 288 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: was the heir to the thrones of Argon and Castile. 289 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: Ferdinand especially hated Charles because he was raised in Flanders 290 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,720 Speaker 1: and Ferdinand saw his grandson as a foreigner. Fernand tried 291 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: to instead put another one of juan as sons, a 292 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,560 Speaker 1: younger son who was raised in Castile, next in line 293 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:27,199 Speaker 1: for the throne, but it didn't Ultimately work, Charles and 294 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:31,240 Speaker 1: port Juana were left the kingdom's jointly when Ferdinand died, 295 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,919 Speaker 1: although for a brief period after his death, Argon was 296 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,840 Speaker 1: ruled by Ferdinand's illegitimate son Alonso. They say that for 297 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,119 Speaker 1: the rest of his life, Ferdinand only visited his daughter 298 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:48,440 Speaker 1: Juana twice while she was in prison. Young Charles inherited 299 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,399 Speaker 1: the kingdom and also custody of his mad mother in 300 00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:55,159 Speaker 1: tord to see Us, where she was kept for the 301 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: rest of her life. Charles the Fifth in Spain would 302 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: go on to be the Holy Roman Emperor as Charles 303 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 1: the First. For forty five years, Juanna remained imprisoned. There 304 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 1: was one year where she was briefly freed by rebels 305 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:13,960 Speaker 1: against Charles, but he swiftly put an end to that 306 00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:17,880 Speaker 1: and put Juana back in toward to see Us. Charles 307 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 1: instituted a policy of isolation for his mother. Quote it 308 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: seems to me that the best and most suitable thing 309 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,439 Speaker 1: for you to do, he wrote to her attendants, is 310 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: to make sure that no person speaks with her Majesty, 311 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 1: for no good could come of it. The longer Juana 312 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,200 Speaker 1: was confined, the worse her condition became. Although it's hard 313 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: to pretend that being locked up and more or less 314 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 1: ignored for a few decades wouldn't make someone well lose 315 00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:51,199 Speaker 1: their mind. By the end of her life she was paranoid, 316 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,800 Speaker 1: but the nuns wanted to kill her. Juanna refuse to 317 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: eat or sleep, or bathe or change her clothes. She 318 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: died at age seventy five on Good Friday in fifteen fifty. 319 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,960 Speaker 1: They buried Wana in the royal chapel, beside her parents 320 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,920 Speaker 1: and her husband. And even though her life ended there 321 00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,879 Speaker 1: alone and all but forgotten, all six of one as 322 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,560 Speaker 1: children would go on to become monarchs in their own 323 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: right France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, and Portugal. 324 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: Whatever mental illness they might have inherited from their mother, 325 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:36,080 Speaker 1: they also inherited her royal blood. That's the story of 326 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,480 Speaker 1: Juanna la Loca. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, 327 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,160 Speaker 1: to hear a little bit more about one of her 328 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:53,200 Speaker 1: most macabre relatives. I think you're gonna like this one. 329 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,040 Speaker 1: The part of juan a story that tends to get 330 00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:01,959 Speaker 1: the most attention, perhaps justifiably, is the exhimation of her 331 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:07,440 Speaker 1: husband's corpse and her rumored necrophilia. But there's another story 332 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,440 Speaker 1: about a dead body in the nobility of the Iberian 333 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,760 Speaker 1: Peninsula that I think is worth our attention. Peter, the 334 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:18,280 Speaker 1: first King of Portugal, was a direct ancestor of Juana, 335 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:21,840 Speaker 1: albeit one almost two hundred years before she was born. 336 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,440 Speaker 1: He was in love with a woman named Inez de Castro, 337 00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,800 Speaker 1: and they were forbidden to marry. And though the story 338 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,320 Speaker 1: of their lives are fascinating and maybe even a story 339 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:36,720 Speaker 1: for another future podcast. It's the story of Inez's death, 340 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,000 Speaker 1: or rather her life after death, that I think seems 341 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: appropriate to talk about at the moment. Inessa had only 342 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,639 Speaker 1: been Peter's mistress in her lifetime, and when she died, 343 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,280 Speaker 1: he wanted to find a way to legitimize their children 344 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,760 Speaker 1: in the line of succession. He claimed that he had 345 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: secretly married Annez before she died, but there was no 346 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,360 Speaker 1: proof of that. The Pope refused to recognize that secret 347 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: marriage or the legitimacy of the children that they had, 348 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: so in an attempt to force the court to recognize 349 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,360 Speaker 1: her as the legitimate queen, and as a show of 350 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,879 Speaker 1: his love for her and his power, rumor has it 351 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,679 Speaker 1: that Peter exhumed in as his body from her grave, 352 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,359 Speaker 1: dressed the body in all of the regalia of a 353 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:29,439 Speaker 1: massive coronation dress Jules robe for and crown, and held 354 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,479 Speaker 1: a coronation for his queen even though she was just 355 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: a dead body. Peter then forced every single noble in 356 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:43,240 Speaker 1: his court to kiss the hem of his dead love's robes, 357 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: and then to kiss her cold waxy hands. For what 358 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,440 Speaker 1: it's worth, no one ever called him Peter a loco, 359 00:25:53,520 --> 00:26:02,919 Speaker 1: but for Juana, maybe it ran in the family. Noble 360 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,520 Speaker 1: Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm 361 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,399 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show is written and 362 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,320 Speaker 1: hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, 363 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social 364 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,320 Speaker 1: media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more 365 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,240 Speaker 1: about the show over at Noble blood Tales dot com. 366 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:24,919 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I 367 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,359 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 368 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.