Juana I of Castile, Spain's Mad Queen

              Catherine of Aragon is perhaps the most well-known of Spanish monarchs. She was intelligent, elegant, devout in her religion, and compassionate. She was once wed to Arthur, Prince of Wales but quickly after their wedding he suddenly passed. Catherine subsequently wed Arthur’s younger brother, the notorious Henry VIII. Their marriage ended in 1533 much to Catherine’s chagrin, due entirely to Henry’s inability to think with his head. But I digress. While Catherine had much of Europe’s attention, her sister, Juana I of Castile, was struggling while trying to cope with the sudden deaths of her mother, brother and then husband. All of this while suffering an apparent mental illness.

            Juana was by all accounts an extraordinary child. She excelled at everything she attempted. She was a marvelous dancer, she was fluent in several languages, and was considered quite attractive with her fair features. Like most European princesses, she was arranged to be married. After a proxy marriage in 1496 and soon sixteen-year-old Juana was headed for Flanders (Northern Belgium) to be with her husband, Philip, Count of Flanders and Duke of Burgundy. It wasn’t until after their marriage, Juana’s mental state would come into question.

            Juana loved Phillip immensely and she wanted to be with him always. Phillip loved carnal extravagance. Before his marriage to Juana, he had already at least one illegitimate child and his marriage was mostly one of convenience as it was financially beneficial to all parties. Spain did not appeal to Phillip. It was melancholy and drab. Juana’s parents, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, devout in their religion, sat in unadorned thrones in dark robes while Phillip dressed in the height of fashion. Phillip wanted to live a lavish life—and he had his eye on the throne of Castile.

            In 1501, Philip and Juana traveled to Spain in hopes of addressing the Cortes of Aragon to petition for their inheritance of the throne of Castile. After the deaths of Juana’s sister Isabella and Isabella’s young child, Juana suddenly became an heiress of several countries but Philip did not think she would be able to rule due to her mood instability. He claimed she was prone to violent tantrums and mood swings and couldn’t possibly be able to rule. Eventually the Cortes declared Juana the Princess of Castile and Philip her consort. But Philip quickly grew tired of Spain and its religious fervor. After a violent argument in 1502, Philip left Spain—and a pregnant Juana—and headed home.

            Upon learning of her husband’s sudden departure, Juana became desolate. She had to be locked away for her own safety after multiple attempts to flee after him. She suffered fainting spells and periods of inconsolable sobbing at the thought of Philip back in Flanders, cavorting with young maidens while she was heavily pregnant and alone in Madrid. Soon, their fourth child, Ferdinand, was born she left Spain to be with her husband against the wishes of her parents who had come to despise Philip, his selfish desires, and his adoration for France.

            In 1504 Queen Isabella I of Castile died suddenly and as per her wishes, her daughter Juana became Queen regnant. She was to co-rule with her father, Ferdinand II, and Philip was fervently against his father-in-law ruling at all. Juana’s father reigned in her stead, as stated in the will of Isabella, while Juana remained in Flanders with her husband. Ferdinand tried everything to keep Philip from taking thrown, including appealing to the Cortes and even re-marrying to his own French great-niece, Germaine de Foix (also the niece of Louis XII) in hopes of producing a new heir as quickly as possible. But he was unable to achieve this before Juana and Philip made their way back to Spain in late 1505 to claim the throne. Again, Philip brought Juana’s mental stability into question. Her tantrums and severe, uncontrollable mood swings were becoming worse. Ferdinand reluctantly agreed to allow Philip to rule in Juana’s stead and he immediately retired to Aragon.

            Just a few months later tragedy struck. Philip died from typhoid fever leaving a very pregnant (and increasingly unstable) Juana to rule alone. It’s reported that she had the coffin of Philip opened five weeks after his death after rumors his body had been stolen. Once the coffin was opened, she thrust herself upon Philip’s corpse and began kissing his feet. She had to be forcibly removed and taken back to her room.

 Spain was quickly falling into disarray as Queen Juana tried to take control of her country. After months of famine and plague ravaging the country, Ferdinand returned to the throne and reigned, although Juana kept the title of Queen. The heir-apparent was named as Charles I, Juana and Philip’s French-raised son, who would later become Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

            After the death of Juana’s father, Charles I was made co-ruler of Spain along with his mother. But her mental health was quickly declining. Charles wanted supreme control of Spain and had his mother confined to a convent Tordesillas for the remainder of her life where she suffered severe paranoia atop her already abundant instability. She believed the nuns were plotting against her life. Soon she could not feed or bathe herself and she suffered was insomnia which most certainly added to her instability. She remained confined within the convent until her passing on April 12, 1555 at the age of 75.

            Juana I of Castile was a brilliant woman who suffered immensely in her lifetime. But was she “mad” as she most often referred to? Perhaps. It must be noted that Juana’s grandmother, Isabel of Portugal, had similar instances of intense mood swings. It seems quite probably that Juana did suffer some type of mental illness, but it also seems likely that this was inhibited by her husband’s selfish ways and later the back-to-back-to-back deaths of her sister, mother and then husband. Whatever the causes may be, Juana (the mad) of Castile is a fascinating and immensely significant character, not only just in the history of Spain, but of Europe as a whole.

Philip (The Handsome) and Juana I.

The Mystery of the First European Settlement in the United States

Two years ago, I was doing some research on something completely unrelated to history and stumbled upon the name “San Miguel de Gualdape”. This peaked my curiosity and I did some reading and discovered that San Miguel de Gualdape was the very first European settlement in what would later become the United States of America. Founded in late 1526 by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, as granted by King Charles V, the settlers who inhabited the settlement endured disease, famine, and skirmishes with local indigenous peoples before bailing. There was even an uprising of the African slaves brought to the settlement against their owners, the first documented slave uprising. The settlement lasted about three months and had dwindled from about 500 settlers (including men, women, children, clergy, and African slaves) to barely 150. Even the founder had died at this point.

One of the most interesting aspects of San Miguel de Gualdape, is that it’s location is heavily disputed. For decades, archaeologists have combed the coast of South Carolina in search of any indication of the 16^th century Spanish settlement. The settlement was originally thought to be located off the Winyah Bay area of South Carolina near the Hobcaw Barony, but searches of the area only yielded artifacts of much later settlements. Some archaeologists have pegged the actual location much further south near Savannah. Recently, archaeologists from South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology or SCIAA have begun re-examining the searches of the Hobcaw Barony from the early 1990s to gain a more in-depth look at the location of the ill-fated settlement.

The clandestine story of San Miguel de Gualdape was of particular interest to me, not only as a student of European History living in the states, but I live just an hour or so away from Hobcaw Barony so this is all a local mystery for me. There are actually many other Spanish settlements within the United States, including another here in South Carolina called Santa Elena located near Beaufort. (You can read more about Santa Elena at https://santa-elena.org.) To find out more about San Miguel de Gualdape by checking out Between the Waters, a collaborative blog with SCETV on the history of South Carolina from an anthropological perspective. 

(Image from usg.edu, the University System of Georgia.)

A Very Brief History of the Sephardic Jews

Chances are you may not have ever heard of the Sephardic Jews, or even realize that the Iberian Peninsula once held a large population of Jewish peoples. Sephardi simply means “Spanish” or “Hispanic” and is a reference to Sephard, a Biblical location. (Obadiah 1:20). The Sephardi people were Jews that migrated from North Africa into the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista (the period of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula beginning around 711 AD). They established dense communities throughout the Peninsula and had distinct traits and customs that differed from the Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe. However, much like the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic Jews of the Iberian Peninsula faced many attempts on their lives and ideals.

In 1391, mobs on two separate occasions attacked the Jewish communities in the Iberian Peninsula, The attack on June 6, saw the deaths of at least 4,000 Jews and thousands more were forced to convert to Catholicism as a means of avoiding execution. These events directly led to the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, or more commonly known as, the Spanish Inquisition. Originally, Isabella I of Castile, and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, requested a Papal bull (basically a kind of public decree supported by the Pope) to establish an inquisition into those conversos (Iberian Jews that had converted--against their will--to Catholicism). It was rumored that many of the conversos were still actively practicing Judaism and the Crown wanted to make Spain a Catholic state after centuries of Islamic rule. The Inquisition formally began in 1478 and intensified quickly.

The 1492 Alhambra Decree was an edict formally ordering the expulsion of all practicing Jews from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Jews were paraded through the streets and tried for “the crime” of practicing Judaism. Those found guilty were either expelled from the Peninsula or, more commonly, executed. The more intense periods of persecution lasted until the early 19th century. Collectively, at least 150,000 Sephardic Jews were charged with a crime and at least 3,000 Jews were executed. The Spanish Inquisition did not officially end until 1834 and the Alhambra Decree was formally rescinded in 1968.

It wasn’t until the latter half of the 19th century, although much worship was kept private, especially during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939). In the years surrounding WWII, thousands of Jews fled Nazi persecution and sought asylum in Portugal and Spain.

In 2013, Sephardic Jews descended from those expelled during the Inquisition are entitled to reclaim citizenship in Portugal under the “Law on Nationality”. In 2014, a similar law was passed in Spain.

The history of the Sephardi peoples is rich and extensive. This entry simply highlights a few significant events in that history. For more information on Sephardic Jews, check out Faith and Fanaticism: Religious Fervour in Early Modern Spain by Lesley Twomey.

The Inquisition Tribunal by Francisco de Goya (ca. 1819) depicts a tribunal during the Spanish Inquisition also called auto da fe (which in a completely non-ironic twist, translates to "act of faith") in which the accused were forced to wear pointed, paper hats called a coroza. Those found to be guilty of continuing to practice Judaism, were paraded about, humiliated, forced to convert to Catholicism or were executed.

Welcome//Bienvenido

Whenever I tell people that I am a European History major, one of the most common responses I get is, “Oh! Have you watched The Tudors?” Yes. Yes, I have seen The Tudors. I am familiar with Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, “Bloody Mary”, and, of course, Henry VIII. His colossal, full-length Hans Holbein portrait is forever engraved into my memory. The Tudor reign was significant to world history, religion, etc., but it is unfortunate that such a short-lived dynasty (only 118 years!) is the most focused upon part of European history. There are a great many other people and events that are equally important and as interesting as they. So, if you have happened upon this blog in hopes of scandalous tales of the goings on within the bedchambers of Hampton Court, this is probably not the blog for you.

But if you fancy stories from Spain, Portugal and surrounding areas, analyses of classic works of art, and accounts of fascinating occurrences beginning around the fall of the Western Roman Empire—well, then you are in luck. I have crafted Iberia and Beyond to chronicle this niche area of history, often neglected from most history books and documentaries. I hope you appreciate it as much as I.