When Queen Isabel of Castile died on November 26, 1504, she left behind a unified Spain and a disastrous succession crisis. Over the following thirteen years, a series of unexpected deaths, political conspiracies, and a convenient declaration of madness would turn Spain from an independent power into the centerpiece of a massive Habsburg empire.

This episode explores how Isabel and Fernando's carefully planned anti-French diplomatic strategy—based on marriage alliances with the Habsburg dynasty—backfired dramatically. Four royal deaths wiped out all expected heirs, leaving the succession to Juana of Castile, whose husband, Philip of Burgundy, was openly pro-French. When Philip died suddenly in 1506, both Ferdinand and Philip's advisers had already agreed on one thing: Juana was too mentally unstable to rule.

Building on the work of historians J.H. Elliott, Bethany Aram, and Gillian Fleming, this episode traces the political maneuvers that resulted in Juana's forty-six-year imprisonment at Tordesillas while her foreign-born son Charles—who spoke no Spanish and ruled with Flemish advisers—took control of Spain. We examine the secret clauses of the Treaty of Villafáfila, Cardinal Cisneros's authoritarian regency, and Fernando's desperate efforts to prevent Habsburg control of his kingdoms.

By 1517, the "alien Habsburg" had taken power with foreign ministers, and Castilian gold soon funded wars across Europe in pursuit of dynastic interests unrelated to Spain. How did biological accident combine with political calculation to put Spain into foreign hands? And was Juana of Castile truly mad—or the victim of history's most successful political conspiracy?

Resources:

Imperial Spain 1469-1716 by J.H. Elliott

The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs 1474-1520 by John Edwards

Juana the Mad: Sovereignty and Dynasty in Renaissance Europe by Bethany Aram

Juana of Castile Reconsidered - I Take History With My Coffee blog

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Intro Music: Hayden Symphony #39
Outro Music: Vivaldi Concerto for Mandolin and Strings in D