Historical figures come alive, and relationships and alliances between various 15th century European monarchs are illuminated. The diverse cast of characters in this novel - both heroes and villains - is well developed, sure to evoke a mixture of compassion, admiration, and ire in the reader. She was driven by an underlying loyalty to Spain that compelled her to accept unthinkable risk in order to claim her rightful place as its queen. She missed her children, all of whom she was separated from at various points in time. Juana was anguished by the mistrust she felt toward her husband and parents. The Spanish nobles who had long resented the power held by Ferdinand and Isabella were determined to wrest it from Juana as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Church officials were corrupt, and often the most politically ambitious men around. Her parents put political objectives before family. Her husband was influenced by deceitful, unscrupulous advisors. The life Juana had built in Flanders crumbled as everyone around her scrambled to exploit any and every possible political advantage. But everything changed when, through a succession of family deaths, Juana became direct heir to the Spanish throne she suddenly saw an ambitious, calculating, even cruel side of her dashing husband. Initially resistant to the marriage, Juana eventually fell in love with Philip and resigned herself to life in Flanders, outside her beloved Spain. Her parents arranged a marriage between Juana and Philip the Fair, Hapsburg heir and archduke of Flanders. In 15th century Europe, royal children were betrothed in marriage not for love, but to facilitate political alliances. Ferdinand and Isabella passed their passion and fierce nationalism on to at least one of their four daughters: from childhood, Juana harbored an intense loyalty to her native land. Juana has never known life apart from the crusades and her parents' all-consuming dedication to uniting Spain and expelling the Moors. Her parents, Ferdinand and Isabella, have just conquered Grananda, ending 300 years of Moorish rule. The novel opens in 1492 when Juana is 13 years old. Gortner proves that Juana's story is just as complex and captivating as that of her more famous younger sister. But few people know about Juana of Spain, also known as Juana la Loca, sister to Henry VIII's first wife Katherine of Aragon.
#Juanna la locad childhood series
Juana put the world of reality behind her and defensively sought the solitude of darkness until one day she was unable to escape from its clutches to return to the light of reason.The Tudors of England have enjoyed surging popularity in the past year, with a hit Showtime series and Philippa Gregory's acclaimed historical novel The Other Boleyn Girl, which was adapted to the big screen last winter. Rather, this work is offered as a factual biography and as a challenge to the reader to resolve the frequently posed riddles: Was the mad queen of Spain really mad? If so, what was the cause of her madness? Neither has her abnormality been subjected to psychiatric analysis to pigeonhole the Queen as a manic depressive or a schizophrenic. With that in mind, the following unimagined account of her life has been written, presenting the information derived from such original sources as contemporary chronicles and letters, with no conscious attempt to bias the reader in determining whether Juana was a victim of heredity, persecution, jealousy, imprisonment, frustration, excessive love, abandonment, or a combination of several or all of these factors, each working upon the other. As a result, her figure has become greatly distorted. Since the death of Juana, many facets of her character have taken on a clouded aspect due to the overanxiousness of certain historians to prove the obscure emotions of the Queen with microscopic intensity and search for heretical or monomaniacal reasons for her dementia. To her direct descendants she transmitted a heritage of melancholia and instability which was the blight of succeeding generations of the Hapsburg dynasty in Spain until ultimately the family tree was left withered and barren. Queen Juana of Castile was the weak link in the Spanish succession whose reign united the crusading of the Catholic Sovereigns, Fernando and Isabel, to the resplendent era of King Charles I, the powerful Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.
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