That Other Juana
Queen Juana I of Spain
(Juana La Loca)
That Other Juana is the story of Queen Juana I of Spain (1479–1555), daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel, sister of Catherine of Aragon, 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)
A Matter of Pride
(Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor)
king, soldier, lover
In 1557 the ruler of much of Europe for thirty years, carried in a leather covered box‑like litter, arrived at a small sleepy monastery tucked away in remote hilly western Spain. This is where Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain, and always referred to as Carlos) has chosen to retire.
He is only 57 years old but, ravaged by wars and politics and a lifetime of overindulgence, he is ill and prematurely aged. He suffers from chronic painful gout, crippling arthritis and other serious afflictions and is further tortured by the unresolved problems of his reign plus the uncomfortable fact that his policies have plunged Spain into bankruptcy.
Accompanied by his lifelong friend now his major-domo, his secretary, his doctor, and a few servants, a grumbling and very irritable Carlos arrives at his specially designed small palace adjoining the monastery demanding tankards of iced beer.
Through his staff and servants we soon learn about the real Carlos and we start to wonder whether this querulous, beer-swilling, belching gourmand, womaniser and egotist could possibly be the man known as the greatest emperor since Charlemagne.
When his temper rages no one is allowed to escape his fury: the 'bastard' merchants who had refused him gold and are to be taught a lesson on the rack; family members who incur his wrath for not living up to his expectations; nor does 'the son of a whore' in the choir who is singing off key escape his fury.
His view of himself as a great victorious military leader is challenged by one of his former soldiers: 'All of us up to our bloody necks in mud, blood and guts; he had no bloody idea what was going on'.
Carlos naturally prefers praise and delights in the immortal image of himself as the conquering hero on his black stallion, but descends into child-like rage when reminded of his failures.
But from time to time there are glimpses of a loving, sensitive, and sympathetic Carlos. When a distressed widow and her beautiful young daughter Barbara appeared at his court begging for help it was the beginning of a lasting and very generous support for both of them. And it was with Barbara that Carlos, a lonely widower, found love. She brought him romance, passion, tender loving care which he would remember for the rest of his days, and bore him a child upon whom he can, secretly, lavish his affection.
Carlos was ruthless in his quest to protect and strengthen the Hapsburg Dynasty and to this end he used his family shamelessly; he made one sister marry a sadistic Danish maniac, another was forced into accepting the aged dribbling king of Portugal. He has his son Felipe marry the sad and somewhat elderly Queen Mary Tudor. He succeeds in having his deformed and retarded grandson, Don Carlos, whose subnormal and sadistic behaviour includes ‘holding live struggling rabbits over flames, and slitting the throats of horses and wallowing in their blood as they kick and scream’ made heir apparent to the Portuguese throne.
One of the most shocking revelations about the emperor is that he had his mother, Queen Juana, imprisoned for forty years and approved the use of mental and physical torture by his appointed gaoler. His only concern was that she fulfilled her religious obligations and avoided heresy, which would have brought disgrace and the wrath of God upon him.
At this time the reform movement had the Church in Europe in turmoil and much to the delight of Carlos’s servants he has trained his parrot to screech 'incestuous bastard' whenever Luther’s name is mentioned. On the darker side his response to alleged heresy is ruthless. He wants no trials, only peremptory judgements, and then punishments of the severest kind for the guilty - or innocent: his face purple with fury he screams ‘The heretics shall burn and the news will spread throughout Europe!’
We get to know yet another very different Carlos through his lifelong close friend and confidant Quijada who has been by his side in war and peace and is now his major-domo. Uniquely, he is allowed total freedom to speak his mind and give his opinion on any subject. His impartial, objective and often contradictory viewpoint mixed with his humorous and sometimes sarcastic comments result in many very funny, and very revealing, confrontations with Carlos.
Quijada adopted Carlos’s love child with Barbara never divulging the identity of the father. This child, the half-brother of King Felipe, will become His Excellency Don Juan of Austria, Spain’s greatest and best loved military leader, the famous heroic commander of the Christian forces at the battle of Lepanto when the Turk was finally repulsed and Europe saved for Christianity.
The portrait now complete we are left with Carlos the toothless old grandfather who is frustrated, unable to do little other than sit by a fire in pain, making petulant outbursts like a spoiled child.
But if Quijada can see beyond his master's faults and excesses and still continue to love him, then perhaps, despite all, so can we.
(109,000 words)
Wives & Other Women
(Philip II of Spain)
Philip II of Spain is struggling under the continuing pressures of his royal responsibilities: to God, to his country and, most importantly, to provide a suitable male heir.
His first brief marriage does provide a son, Prince Carlos, who is severely damaged, mentally and physically; clearly not the heir that he and Spain require.
For years Philip has found his only happiness in the arms of his one true love and mistress, Isabel de Osorio. But now he must leave for England to marry again. In an emotional farewell he surprises her with the gift of an ample estate and a generous pension to provide for their illegitimate children.
Mary Tudor, the chosen bride, his ‘dearly beloved aunt’, is even older looking than her thirty-eight years. She is entranced by this young and handsome prince. It is the first time she experiences love for a man. After countless years surrounded by hatred and brutality, and living in fear for her life, this new and overwhelming emotion does little to help her cope with the challenges of this marriage. Her newly found happiness quickly disappears along with her phantom pregnancies. Within four years Mary is dead. The inadequate Prince Carlos remains Philip’s sole heir.
In Brussels Philip enjoys a brief and carefree interlude with his sparkling and beautiful cousin Princess Christina, his special ambassador to England, and his clandestine mistress.
Philip now ventures beyond the family to seek his next bride, the French Princess Isabel de Valois, until now the intended bride for Prince Carlos. She is thirteen, still a child, so Philip must be patient and wait before the marriage can be consummated. Conveniently there are two obliging ladies in his court to help him through these difficult times. The beautiful Ana is his favourite, her black eye patch alluring and mysterious; but an ever suspicious Philip fears that she and her powerful husband, one of his chief advisers, are disloyal.
Queen Isabel reaches womanhood, her first pregnancy ending in a miscarriage brought on by the devastating discovery that Philip’s mistress is also pregnant. Prince Carlos screams his fury and his intention to kill his father.
Isabel’s next two pregnancies provide Philip with two healthy girls. He finds it galling that while he sires sons with his mistresses his wife offers him and Spain only daughters. There is also the alarming news that his half-brother, the infamous Don Juan, a young, intelligent, handsome, and extremely popular young man already a threat to his throne, is about to become a father.
That the unacceptable Prince Carlos is still the sole heir is embarrassing and dangerous. Philip alleges treason and has him arrested and imprisoned in solitary confinement. His death a few months later is very convenient – and suspicious.
Isabel is with child again. Four pregnancies in four years have undermined her health and her extremely weakened condition combined with the shock of Carlos’s death cause a miscarriage and, within hours, her own untimely death.
Widowed for the third time Philip chooses his young niece Anne of Austria as his next wife. She is one of eleven children in a family where sons outnumber daughters, so hopes are high that she will give him the son he so desperately needs.
All the frustrations and threats of the past can be set aside; at last he feels he is in control of his and Spain’s destiny.
(98,000 words)