That Other Juana: Juana la Loca: Queen Juana I of Spain

Descripción

Brief Synopsis. That Other JuanaQueen Juana I of Spain(Juana La Loca). A story of obsessive love, uncontrolled passion – and cruel, cynical betrayal. That Other Juana is the story of Queen Juana I of Spain (1479–1555), daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel, sister of Catherine of Aragn, mother of Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor) and grandmother of Philip II.Juana, a remarkable woman of her times, was highly intelligent and talented, had her own strongly held views and opinions, was daring and valiant, was always faithful to her high moral and ethical principles, but at times, was a victim of her strong emotions.A founder of the powerful Hapsburg dynasties of Spain and Austria, she never knew or enjoyed their fortunes. Instead, throughout her long life, she suffered at the hands of three men driven by their insatiable thirst for power.Her husband, Philip the Fair, the handsome Archduke of Austria, with whom she fell hopelessly and passionately in love at first sight, is her first tormentor. From the start he schemes to get all power and influence for himself. He denies her her rightful status and her own money, and subjects her to physical and mental abuse; he also repays her absolute devotion and worship of him by his open philandering. Eventually she is provoked into attacking one of his mistresses, hacking at her hair and face with scissors. Philip beats her and has her imprisoned. When she inherits the crown of Castile he grants her partial freedom while his treachery in pursuit of power plumbs greater depths. Philip dies suddenly. Juana, at twenty-six and heavily pregnant, is devastated.She invites her father, King Ferdinand, to be joint ruler but he has other plans. By callous and meticulous scheming he paves the way to securing sole power. He publicly accuses her of morbid and excessive mourning then, when she is at her lowest ebb, tricks her into appearing before the assembled nobles. In her unkempt and dishevelled state she is deemed totally incapable of ruling and he gains the right to reign alone. To ensure there is no challenge to his power he has her forcibly taken to a small isolated town and put under house arrest.When her father dies Juana becomes heir to Aragn as well as Castile and it falls to her son, Charles, to be the supportive and joint ruler. Instead he becomes the final and most savage of her male tormentors. His regime of imprisonment and torture designed to break her include the abduction of her cherished young daughter, the replacing of her stolen jewels with pebbles, and the flagrant deceit that her father is still living and is responsible for her detention. When, some time later, her daughter does leave to marry the King of Portugal Juana is left to face a further three decades of suffering – alone.With astonishing fortitude and indomitable spirit she endured the imprisonment and relentless physical and mental cruelty meted out by her husband, father, and son. Few knew of her plight, and those who did either could not or would not try to change it.Her spirited resistance to a lifetime of barbaric persecution earned her, unfairly, the infamous nickname Juana la Loca, Joan the Mad. This book speaks for her; it is her story.(107,000 words)