Queen Juana the Mad of Castile 

She wasn’t mad, she was abused. Is like when men say their ex is crazy but they were the ones that were abusive and their gf just acted in response.

When a Portugese king digs up the corpse of his girlfriend to marry her, it's a romantic story. When a queen mourns over her husband's corpse she's clearly craaaaazy

Sounds like she didn't start out "mad"..she was tortured, gaslighted, and forcefully isolated until she ended up that way :(

I'm starting to think people called him phillip "the handsome" ironically

She was madly in love, used and betrayed by 2 men she trusted most. In 10 years she had 6 children, lost her brother, sister, nephew, mother and her husband all by the age of 25. Tough.

The fact that she is considered crazy and Henry VIII isn’t, tells me everything I need to know about women’s narratives vs men’s.

The three most important men in a woman’s life and she was betrayed by all three. So very sad.

when a man stabs his wife's lover it is so fair and made out of a righteous anger and understood by the society ,on the contrary when a woman stabs his husband's mistress she is called MAD !

This woman was abused and traumatised. No wonder she developed mental illness, she could have even developed something like CPTSD or BPD. I feel so sorry for her and somewhat thankful I live in a time where mental illness isn’t treated that way.

Stabbing her husband's mistress is not a sign of insanity. Her husband's having an affair and expecting his wife to go along with it is a sign of his own insanity.

Dang. None of the women in that family had any luck in marriage. And people wonder why Elizabeth I didn't want any part of matrimony...

Nothing she did seems to say she’s insane. She was such a passionate and loving person. Her only fault was loving too much

45 years of solitude.... Let that sink in people.....

It’s so odd to think of a time the sentence “his grandfather’s 29 year old widow,” wasn’t an out of the ordinary sentence

It's fascinating how often in history men in power smear a woman in power, but never the other way around. Almost to the point of being cliché.

'She lived with her husbands corpse'. I know women who will say the same thing about their marriages even though the husband is alive and well and golfing.

the fact that she is considered crazy makes me sad. she was used and manipulated by her own father, son, and husband. i’m so sad for this poor woman. she deserved better

Poor Jauna, Her treatment in life was enough to magnify the slightest mental health issue. Her own Father, Mother and Husband, tortured and abused Her, then used Her for Her power. This alone is enough to break the strongest mind. This was the True, real life experiences of historical Princesses. They were used as "baby machines"..just in gilded cages with jewels and pretty dresses..but, if they complained?? It was off to a Nunnery for them.. or worse!

What’s most heartbreaking is that they took their daughter from her. The only person who seemed to actually care about her was taken from her.

Abusive mother, abusive father, abusive husband... no wonder she went "mad". Pobre Juana :( La cuerda sounds so painful, I feel so much for her...........

I find it so messed up and ironic when mistresses end up having the sons instead of the wife

"Philip the Handsome" *puts glasses on* I can't see it

If she was mad ~ her family made her that way!

Even a stone would go crazy, if it was subjected to everything she went through, and all of it coming from people who were her family. If anyone was really crazy in that whole affair, it was her mother, husband and co. who acted like a bunch of utter narcissists, sadists and psychopaths. Perhaps Juana shouldn't have used those scissors on her husband's lover though, the woman was probably not in a position to freely reject him. She should've used them on him, but poor girl was too blindly in love with him even though he didn't deserve to be loved.

It’s awful how the people around her, men and women, used a impressionable young girl for power and abandoned her in the end. I don’t blame Juana for going insane. I’d go insane after a while if everyone in my life treated me like that! Rip Juana ❤️

I will maintain until my dying day that she was manipulated and her perspective was erased from history on purpose. I first learned about Juana 3 years ago (American education system hello!) through a fictional account of her life. ever since I was obsessed, I felt deep connection to her immediately. The next year I was on a study abroad in Spain and on the excursion to Granada where else do I unexpectedly find myself but at her tomb. It was like destiny!

I wonder what it would have been like if Juana had taken Catherine back to Spain with her instead of leaving her in England. The king wouldn’t have been happy, but Catherine was technically unmarried at the time.

I feel so bad for her. She was taken advantage by men all her life for their own game. 😭

Something with royals calling people insane when not following their preferred protocol. Makes me think of Diana.

I love Spanish history. My favorite Spanish monarch is Charles II of Spain - “El Hechizado” (the bewitched/hexed). He was so inbred that he had a lot of physical and mental disabilities and he died without an heir so it sent Spain into war.

Honestly she might’ve been a good queen but she was locked up and rumors were spread about her ruining her reputation. If her mother had believed she was mad why did she leave her as her heir?

So glad I watched this. Everything I've ever seen on "Juana the Mad" never explained her life. She wasn't "mad"! She definitely had PTSD, probably depression/anxiety. Who wouldn't of?! Her own mother tortured her. As far as I know defiance isn't a mental illness. To the men in her life sure it was tho! That's where these "stories" came from. Men who wanted her power. And when we hear "she lived with her dead husband" sure she sounds a lil batty. But that's not even what happened! She went with his body on a week's travel to bury him. She was mourning. Pretty sure I would've went on that sad trip myself. Whole new opinion of Juana of Castille now. Great bio, ty!!

She went through solitary confinement which is considered the worst form of mental torture. No one emerges from that sane. Her story is honestly heartbreaking, everyone who was supposed to care for her and protect her failed her in every way imaginable.

I've always felt sorry for Juana, tortured by her mother for not believing in her faith, her husband cheated on her constantly, her life was so tragic no wonder she went 'mad' I think I would as well if I were her poor girl screams out to be helped inside but Is tortured and lied to and plotted against instead by those that should have cared for her

I don't think she was insane per say. But she was definitely delusional when it came to Philip. All of Isabella's children had intense feelings of and devotion for their spouses.

I got this notification while reading a book about Catherine of Aragon and she was talking about her sister Juana!

I feel so bad for her.... I don't think she was mad, I think she needed help 😞

stabbing her husband's lover and living w/her husband's corpse are the two things that made me like queen juana. she wasn't mad, just very passionate.

So sad. Poor Juana. She was tough as nails though!

I'd go pretty insane if you locked me up in solitary confinement for a few decades.

I felt my heart break for this queen and wanted nothing more to give this poor woman a hug.

Thank you for this ,we don't have enough documentaries about her

It seems like Juana was “mad” in the sense of crazy, but more pissed at the jerks in her life. A lot of her behavior seems to only go against strict and confining ideas of “ladylike” behavior rather than being truly concerning. I think if she’d had a more supportive husband she wouldn’t have had such a negative enduring reputation.

She was very depressed by trying to keep an adulterous husband. That woman did not deserve to be thrown away in some prison. Terrible children!!!😡😡😡Both her, and Queen Katherine married two unloving men. Bless her heart!!!

Joan in a nutshell Joan: "Hello darkness my old friend"

Please never stop making RU-vid videos about history, I love your channel so much!!

Absolutely horrible how they treated her

Charles was _very_ close to his aunt Catherine of Aragon. And he considered her more as a mother figure than Juana

Juana was an abused child, and an almost case study of an abused wife. After that first night of lust Phillip sent away without pay almost all of Juana’s ladies and servants. Of those servants who insisted on staying he cut off all monies to both them and Juana and some starved on the ships that brought Juana and her large Downey to Flanders. Phillip worked at controlling Juana with women servants whom she did not like, and were frequently his latest lust interest. He insured she had no friends but himself. When Phillip died Juana wished to bury him at the Royal Tombs in Grenada, but her father, returned from his Kingdom of Aragon to attempt to wrest Castile from her, refused to convey them there. Juana organized transport through summertime Spain, traveling in the cool of the night and staying at Monasteries during the heat of the day, placing Phillips coffin in the chapel. (If I had been her I would have either sealed the casket with lead and pitch, or have opened it just to be sure the Bastard as really dead!). Ferdinand, wanted to be King of Castile again, a possession he lost at the death of Isabella, so he did whatever was necessary to discredit Juana, including claiming her madness. He had her taken to the old castle of Tordesillas and locked away with none of her ladies and constantly spied upon (the written reports still exist in the Spanish archives). From then on Juana was treated like a Mad woman with only her last born child for company.

She was not crazy.she was mistreated and abandoned.Anyone who experiences that for a prolonged span will lose mental function.

I have read a ton of material about Jauna. I have deduced that Jauna was terribly wronged by her parents and husband. There is documentation that Jauna's behavior surrounding Phillips death is greatly overblown. As a woman, whether Queen Regnant or not she was manipulated and undermined in a world controlled by men. Possibly bipolar, etc but, her circumstances left scars. Torture an abusive and philandering husband. As you know, royal children were bargaining tools and assets rather than loved children. I see her as a victim.

hearing this story makes me so sad. imagine what she could’ve been if she hasn’t been manipulated and emotionally abused all her life

Relatives that exaggerated mental instability for their own benefit so basically gas lighted her. Yeah I'd believe it. The mom thought it was okay to suspend her daughter and torture her over spiritual bs but the victim of that torture is the one called unstable? Yep I'd believe it.

Thank you for this study of the life of Juana of Castile. May I contribute some dissenting views: What source did you use for the torture of Juana by Isabel? There is evidence that cuerda was used by the Marquis of Denia much later, when Juana was incarcerated at Tordesillas, but I don't recall reading anything about Isabel doing so in Juana's teens. Please do let me know where this information came from. FYI the portrait you are using for the union with Philip the Handsome is not of Juana of Castile. It is Joanna of Naples as portrayed by Raphael. Juana was not herself the heir to Aragon, which observed Salic Law, meaning a female could not inherit. However, the Catholic Kings negotiated the right of the son of a female descendant to inherit, and so Charles was able to become king of Aragon by right of his mother. There is a confusion about Juana in and out of Spain. There were two journeys to Spain by Juana and Philip. During the first journey, there was an attempt to educate Philip to rule the kingdoms, but he was recalcitrant, and left Juana alone. This was when Isabel and Juana had their conflicts and the climax at la Mota and when little Fernando was born. The second journey was when Isabel died. This was the last time Juana left Flanders. The corpse legend has a lot of questions and exaggerations. She did not have the coffin opened many times. It was three times in the early period of Philip's death. Once on All Saint's Day; once on the suspicion that his body had been stolen and once for unexplained reasons. She did not make love to it. Her plan was to transport the coffin from Burgos in the North to Granada, in the South, to obey Philip's request to be buried by Isabel. In the event, she did keep the coffin during her incarceration in Tordesillas and used it as an argument against remarriage as suggested by Fernando (she couldn't remarry with her husband unburied). Philip was not buried at Granada for many years. Juana's child was born during the journey. Juana never made it to Granada with the coffin. Charles attempted to take Catalina away before the Comunero rebellion, when Catalina was a child, not 18. They returned after the traumatic effect on Juana was clear. The incident created a rift between Juana and Charles. Thank you again for this sympathetic and thoughtful review of the life of this unfortunate woman.

Your voice is like honey.. I could listen to it for hours🥰

The Queen actually had her daughter tortured? I didn’t like her before, and I like her even less now.

At least Charles V had a beard to cover that dreaded Habsburg chin...

Poor thing wasn't loved properly by ANY of her family 😭

Those poor women, Juana and Catalina de Aragon... they were abused, tormented, humiliated... i hope they are way better wherever they are according to their religion.

She was worried that a woman would fall for her husband’s corpse?!😳. Juana was a bit short of center.

The craziest thing about her is that she somehow loved that nasty cheating husband of hers.

"She became paranoid that the nuns who cared for her were plotting to murder her." Gee, I can't imagine why she might think THAT.

i was waiting for this one yay 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾 what a sad life she lived surrounded by narcissists 😥😥😥

As a second language Spanish and French speaker, I have been wanting to learn about French and Spanish monarchies.

People were pretty unfair to Juanna

Growing up, we thought it would be so wonderful to be a princess living a royal life. But instead, there are so many stories of tragic lives, and of people hurting each other for the love of power. Ferdinand found it acceptable to hurt, not only a continent of people he’d never meet, but even his own children. Better to live a simple life, it seems.

First off she didn't live with her husband's corpse. Second she didn't stab one of her ladies in waiting, she cut off her hair with scissors. She was in Burgos when her husband died and she wanted him to be buried in Granada. She traveled with the corpse, she didn't sleep nor live with the corpse. The distance was 668 kilometers, which would take 6 1/2 hours to drive in a car today. It was reported she would open his casket to gaze upon him and kiss him. However, she didn't live nor sleep with the corpse. Her husband had been spreading rumors along with her father for years about her instability, so it isn't surprising these rumors were made up to appear that she had gone completely mad and was unfit to rule, leaving her kingdom available for her father to steal from her, with her husband dead. *Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor replaced Juana as regent. She was placed in a royal Monastery/Convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas, Castile. It's interesting to note that during her imprisonment/or stay, Charles V her son, kept her under strict rules and regulations. She was not allowed any visitors. She lived to be 75 years old, quite an long life considering this was the Medieval Period. She was laid to rest in Granada, next to her husband and parents.

I’m so excited every time I see a notification from you! Solely thanks to your videos, I have learned SO much over the course of this pandemic. Thank you for your content. 💛

I have read a lot of books about Juana and Isabel never tortured her, she didn't like that Juana wasn't as religious as her and she tried to hide It but she never tortured her daughter. In fact, she cared a lot about her mental health and hated Felipe for making Juana depresed.

I think Juana was a very strong and stubborn girl, and because of the abuse she started to develop depression leading to mental illness. As I was watching the video I thought of Catherine of Aragon, Catherine was also strong and stubborn as Juana but she didn’t endure all the abuse Juana did, she was also in love with Henry VIII and would do anything to keep him and her title of Queen, her strength and personality are the reasons why she alone put up a fight against Henry VIII when he wanted to annul their marriage. These girls had a strong will and strong personalities, which were not common for that era. Imagine being raised by Queen Isabella of Spain, that’s why Catherine of Aragon even went into battle while pregnant in England. BTW, the portrait of young Juana and young Catherine look so much alike, as if they were the same person, I know they are sisters, but their portraits look as if they were twins

To everyone in the comments being kind to Juana, you are a part of her long needed justice. ❤❤❤❤❤

Hi Lindsey I just wanted to say thank you. I have always been very fond of history especially royal history. You are one of the main sources where I get all my knowledge. I have been watching you for a very long time. So thank you. I also had a request if you could do Elizabeth Woodville it would be nice to get to know more abt her. Thank you again

Nice summary. Just to be clear, the Inquisition was created in France and not in Spain by queen Isabel.

What about Maria the Mad? She seems a bit more certifiable than Juana.

Interesting that her niece Mary I was also seen as mad, even though her supposed mental instability was also caused by circumstances. Honestly if I had the pressure of being a royal I'd go insane pretty quickly.

I went throughout the comments, and is crazy!!!, lets have the facts right, HER MOTHER, QUEEN ISABEL NEVER TORTURED JUANA.

It’s hard to keep up sometimes there are so many Juan’s, Juana’s, Fernandos and you name it. Never the less finding your Channel really sparked my interest in history and I will rewatch these videos ♥️

I bet you she had ptsd...

YES! Finally she pronounced Castile correctly! Great vid!

It's like that one Taylor Swift song "mad woman" which is about a woman being in an abusive and toxic relationship but when she acted in response, people labeled her as mad

There is no formal evidence of Joanna's torture, it's most like a rumour started by her mother's enemies, such as when Isabella said that she won't take a bath until they conquer Granada. I'm a Spanish history lover, especially the Catolic Monarchs era, and I didn't hear about that rumour until I saw The Spanish Princess... Formal evidence show that Isabella was a loving mother who cared for her children and gave them the best education she could find (Joanna, Catherine and Maria were considered the most intelligent queens in Europe); I'm not saying she was a perfect mother (it was discovered that she neglected Joanna because she was third in line and therefore she centered in Juan and Isabel) but the torture...

It is so sad that every single man in her life only wanted to take what was hers and cared nothing for her. Even her own son. Just so sad.

In summary: Ugh, men.

Charles II couldn't talk, could barely eat, and was rendered completely disabled by hydrocephalus. But no one tried to rip the crown from him. Juana no doubt had some sort of psychological pathology, but it was far more likely that those around her amplified these issues to undermine her power. After all, she was a woman.

"Juana was increasingly unstable" Me: "Juana bet?" ;)

2:58 I just about spat out my coffee. I just think my definition of handsome is a little bit different but to each there own.🤷🏻‍♀️

Please make a video of Juana's grandmother, Queen Isabella of Portugal! Was she really insane or was she, like Juana, a victim of abuse and toxic relationships?

Seems like teens were always rebellious lol

She definitely had a tragic life and become a political prawn. Did any of her 6 children really loved her?

Thank you for speaking the truth and shedding light on many of these women's lives.

Thank you for illustrating Juana’ s hardships and abuse! Suffering from Depression seems to me to have been inevitable. Taking anger out on a light of love of her husband’s who was being flaunted before the whole court to their nasty smirking, isn’t particularly unreasonable for a still beautiful Queen and Spanish Beauty. Ferdinand and Charles had everything to gain by convincing the very up tight Spanish Nobility that she was unstable and they needed a Man to rule. The belief was common and stayed that way in Europe until the present day and England passing a law that girls may inherit the throne in the same birth order as boys. Finally, 30 years of seldom being spoken to will drive most people nuts!

14:05: “Holly Roman Emperor” sounds like a huge fan of Christmas.

Wow! you are so amazing! I have learned more from you than I did in all of my schooling when I was younger and I am a 55 year old women. Thank you for posting this and for taking the time to do the massive research it must take to create such videos I just discovered you during the lock-down and you are very entertaining!

Super excited for this video! I absolutely love your channel

Queen Juana of Castile and Aragon was mad, but no so mad. She was manipulated by her husband, father and son. Her son was not much attached to her; because he was raised by her aunt Margarita of Borgoña ; sister to Felipe the handsome. RIP Queen Juana of Castile and Aragon ❤️🌷🌹♥️ Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷

Where is the "data" that says Juana was "tortured" for her faith? Research states that Isabella "may have" tortured Juana for her rebelliousness, but there is no verification of this.

Other than the stuff with her husband's corpse, which can be waved away as temporary insanity from extreme grief, she sounds like a perfectly reasonable, intelligent woman (albeit one with a slight temper, although nowhere near as bad as many of her male contemporaries) who was continually undermined & disrespected without any allies who she could trust. Just think what she might have accomplished had her mother set aside her religious zealotry long enough to take her under her wing.

I always felt so bad for Juana. She had a rough lot.

How her father and her son treated her! Unfathomable. What beasts.