![]() It would be easy to portray Juana as a helpless victim of circumstance. Some historians question, however, whether she was truly mad or if this was a slander spread by the power-hungry men in her life. She is known to history as Juana la Loca: Juana the Mad. After Queen Isabella died naming Juana heir to the Spanish throne, Philip tried to have her declared incompetent to rule. Philip saw no reason to curb his appetite for women, and Juana reacted with furious jealousy. Despite this early evidence of success, the marriage was tempestuous. When at last they did, they demanded to be married on the spot and retired to their bedroom. At 16, she was betrothed to an 18-year-old Habsburg prince, Philip the Fair of Flanders. And after her mother's death, she had a serious claim to the throne of Spain, thus the novel's title. Both of her sons became Holy Roman Emperors, first Charles V from 1519 to 1556, then Ferdinand I from 1556 to 1564. Her youngest sister was Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Juana of Spain, the subject of The Last Queen, deserves to be better known. ![]()
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