The Last Queen

by C. W. Gortner

First published 2008

Amazon

4.5(1,538)

Juana of Castile expects to remain a dynastic princess when she is sent to marry Philip of Habsburg, but a sequence of deaths makes her heir to her mother Isabella’s crown. Her marriage shifts from intense attraction to a struggle over fidelity, children and political authority. After Juana becomes queen, Philip and her father Ferdinand seek control of Castile, while claims about her grief and mental state weaken her position. Told from Juana’s perspective, the novel follows her from the Spanish court to Flanders and confinement at Tordesillas, presenting the woman remembered as “Juana the Mad” as a dispossessed monarch fighting for her inheritance.

Historical Periods

Juana I and the Castilian Succession1496–1555 CE

Genres

Biographical Fiction Court & Political Fiction Dynastic & Royal Fiction Historical Sagas

Historical people

Catherine of Aragon1485–1536 Ferdinand II of Aragon1452–1516 Isabella I of Castile1451–1504 Charles V1500–1558 Juana I of Castile1479–1555 Philip I of Castile1478–1506