Why the Queen of Castile traveled with a funeral cortege for a whole year

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Spanish rulers today are the subject of research by geneticists and psychiatrists. The latter are sure that the Queen of Castile, who ruled in the first half of the 16th century, really suffered from a serious mental illness. The subject of Juana's mania was her own spouse, and she loved him so much that she was jealous even after death. Perhaps that is why the queen did not allow to bury the precious remains for about a year, preferring to travel around the country with a funeral cortege. This colorful historical figure has become the heroine of many plays, novels and two operas.

In the family of Trastamara, to which the daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile belonged, madmen were already born. However, when in November 1479 the royal couple had a daughter, of course, no one thought about it. Juana had three sisters and one brother. By the way, one of the younger Infants, Catherine of Aragon, was married for political purposes to Henry VIII - the "blue beard" of the English kings, who changed wives like gloves. Juan, at the age of 17, was married to the Archduke Philip of Austria.

In portraits of 500 years ago, Philip is usually depicted as a young man with golden hair and a somewhat unpleasant face, but this monarch was nicknamed "handsome" during his lifetime. Perhaps the artists could not convey this beauty to us, but his young wife with all her heart fell in love with the young heir to the House of Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire.

The life of a young royal couple should have developed quite happily: Philip inherited a huge and rich Burgundian state, Juana was the heiress of the Spanish lands - Castile and Aragon, and by 1500, after the death of her brother and elder sister, she became the first in the line of succession to the throne. Children were also born in this family, but the behavior of the young queen increasingly surprised those around her.

Of course, the infidelity of a spouse is an ordeal for a loving heart, but those tantrums that Juana rolled to her husband questioned her mental health. The young husband first surrounded Juana with love and care, but soon the family idyll bored him, and he returned to a free lifestyle, and the Spanish princess began to fall into a state of depression, which she increasingly expressed in noisy seizures. Wild scenes of jealousy, promises to shed the blood of rivals and prolonged outbursts of anger made the family life of the rulers of Burgundy too bright.

If the heiress of Castile and Aragon was not so keen on family battles, the young couple could create from their lands a huge empire, including, in addition to Austria, the Netherlands and Burgundy, most of the Iberian Peninsula. However, Juana has established herself so well that even her mother in her will stipulated the possibility of her incapacity - in this case, control would pass to the father of a half-insane woman. However, Juana became queen of Castile after the death of her mother.

As Juana became more and more depressed, the main political struggle unfolded between her father and husband. The question arose squarely - which of them will manage the rich lands under the queen, who is practically not interested in state affairs. This confrontation almost turned into a small war, but Philip the Handsome managed to bypass his father-in-law and was already practically recognized as the king of Castile, but then an event occurred that put an end to all strife. Philip accidentally drank cold water after playing ball, caught a cold and died very suddenly. The 28-year-old ruler left five children and an inconsolable widow pregnant with her sixth child.

If up to this point Juana's unusual behavior could still be called the oddities of a jealous woman, then further on her love for her husband became more like mania. Actually, then those events began, because of which the Spanish ruler received the nickname "la Loca" - insane.

According to a widespread legend, Juana did not allow the body of her beloved husband to be buried for three years, without closing her eyes, day or night. However, this figure is highly exaggerated. Most likely, we are talking about a year of ordeals. In the early days, the insane woman really did not allow anyone to approach the body, arguing with her or using force was dangerous, because the queen carried a child under her heart. She later gave the order to embalm the body and still allowed him to be placed in a coffin. The funeral procession set out from Castile to Granada, to the tomb of the kings, but the journey turned out to be very long.

After 5 weeks, when the procession reached Burgos and the coffin was placed in a temporary tomb, Juana ordered it to be opened. For some reason, rumors arose that the body had been kidnapped, or simply a loving wife wanted to look at her husband again … in just the journey, the coffin was opened five times. Moreover, Juana clearly demonstrated not only ardent love, but also jealousy to the royal remains! She forbade women to approach the coffin, and for rest the procession stopped only in men's monasteries. When one day a line of carts accidentally turned into a women's abode, all looking at night set off again on the road, "out of harm's way." The fact that the cortege moved only at night no longer looks too strange, because "the poor widow, who lost the sun of her soul, had no reason to appear in the light of day."

During this sad journey, the daughter of Juana and Philip, Catherine, was born. It happened in the village of Torquemada, where, in fact, the journey of the mad queen ended. Her father, who nevertheless received power over his daughter's lands as regent, placed Juana in Tordesillas, in the Santa Clara monastery. In fact, the woman continued to remain queen of Castile for another 45 years, but all this time she lived in one room, not showing herself to people. The only consolation for her was the child, whom she did not give to anyone, but for the Infanta Catherine, life with an insane mother turned out to be an ordeal. When the girl was finally rescued from this dungeon, she was distinguished by some oddities, which, however, passed over time.

When many years later, Juana was visited by her children, son Karl, the future emperor, and daughter Eleanor, they were amazed at the sight of a woman who hardly bathed, ate only bread and cheese, and was afraid of people before screaming. Apparently, the oddities of the mad queen, manifested in her youth, led in the end to a serious mental illness.

Frankly speaking, many great people had some oddities in their character: What were historical personalities obsessed with, and how this affected the destinies of states