Juana I and the Castilian Succession

Juana I’s marriage and inheritance formed part of the dynastic politics of Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. In 1496 she married Philip of Habsburg, ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands. A sequence of deaths among her siblings unexpectedly made Juana heir to her mother Isabella I of Castile and placed the future of the Spanish kingdoms at the centre of a wider Habsburg alliance.

After Isabella’s death in 1504, authority in Castile was contested among Juana, Philip and her father Ferdinand II of Aragon. Philip became king in 1506 but died after a brief reign. Juana retained the royal title, yet Ferdinand and later her son Charles governed in her name. She was confined at Tordesillas from 1509 until her death in 1555, while claims about grief and mental illness were used to justify her political exclusion.

It connects the personal struggle of Juana and Philip with the larger transfer of power that made Charles V ruler of an extensive European and Atlantic monarchy.