 |
| Falmouth Bay |
Hostages in England
Philip and
Juana did not set sail for Spain until January 1506 when they travelled with
virtually the whole Burgundian court in attendance. Juana created a huge fuss
about the women due to travel on the royal vessel, under the belief that they
would sleep with her husband.
The journey
was a royal progress at sea and the beginning of the journey went well passing;
‘Calais by night, shooting
guns, having great torches lit…..trumpets and minstrels playing and singing.’[i]
 |
| Bishop Foxe |
The fleet
was suddenly becalmed and then hit by a furious storm that scattered the fleet
before it, driving the ships onto the English shore. During the storm Juana sat
entwined between Philips’ legs so that death would not part them. Most of the
fleet put in at Falmouth, in Cornwall, but Philip and Juana landed at Melcombe Regis[ii].
The royal
party was drawn inland on the pretext that supplies were more plentiful there
and Philip sent his secretary to request a meeting with Henry VII, who was more
than pleased to meet what were, in essence, his hostages who were lavishly
entertained.
Sir Thomas Brandon, the Master of the Horse, was sent to escort Philip to
London. En route the party stopped at Winchester where Philip was entertained by the bishop, Richard Foxe[iii]. The party were joined there by
Henry, the Prince of Wales; he then escorted the party to Windsor to meet his father on 31st January.
An Infamous Treaty
 |
| Princess Mary |
In the castle Philip stayed in the king’s own apartments and the
entertainment proffered, ranging from horse baiting to dancing, was
interspersed with sessions of hard bargaining. A treaty was sealed on 9th
February.
On 10th
February Juana arrived at the castle to be met on the privy stairs by Henry
VII, her sister Caterina and Princess Mary. Juana and Philip remained at
Windsor until the weekend when Philip went to Richmond for the hunting and hawking while Juana returned to join the
fleet. It is very possible that Philip arranged to separate Juana from Caterina
fearing that Juana might be encouraged into independence over the matter of
Juana’s inheritance.
At Richmond
Philip joined in a tennis match, playing against the Marquess of Dorset. On Sunday 15th February
Philip paid his bill, undertaking publicly to hand over Edmund de la Pole, a pretender to the English crown[iv]. Philip agreed to the
handover with the proviso that Edmund not be killed. Philip and Henry made
their farewells before a formal dinner on 2nd March. Henry
accompanied Philip on his first leg of the journey, but immediately after
leaving Windsor Philip became feverish;
‘Partly because of the
Lenten fare and partly because of the weather, which was severe.’[v]
He lay sick
at Reading Abbey for
eight or nine days before resuming his journey and meeting Juana at Falmouth on
26th March. The fleet was unable to sail for three weeks due to
adverse winds.
Return to Spain
 |
| Castillo de San Anton, Coruna |
Philip and
Juana did not arrive in Spain until April 1506, landing at Coruňa. Philip was determined to cut Juana out of the equation and rule as sole
monarch of Castile. Ferdinand met Philip at Villafáfila on 20
June 1506 and handed over the government of Castile to his "most beloved children", promising to retire to Aragon.
Philip and Ferdinand then signed a second treaty,
agreeing that Joanna's mental instability made her incapable of ruling and
promising to exclude her from government. Ferdinand recommended that Philip;
‘Cultivate a better understanding with the Queen, his wife….[her health
depended] upon gentle measures being used.’[vi]
 |
| Philip & Juana as rulers of Castile |
Ferdinand then proceeded to repudiate the agreement the
same afternoon, declaring that Joanna should never be deprived of her rights as
Queen Proprietress of Castile.
A fortnight later, having come to no fresh agreement with
Philip and thus effectively retaining his right to interfere if he considered
his daughter's rights to have been infringed upon, Ferdinand abandoned Castile
for Aragon, without having met with his daughter and leaving Philip to govern
in Juana's stead.
But Philip
did not enjoy being king of Castile for long; on 19th September he
caught a chill after a strenuous ball game in Burgos, the chill turned to
fever and he died on 25th at the age of twenty-eight.
The Death March
Rumours of
assassination and poison were rife at the time, despite sickness being rife in
the area during the period in question; it is possible that Juana believed the
rumours. There is no doubt that, emotionally drained and in the throes of
pregnancy, Juana was very badly affected by Philip’s death.
Rumours
abounded; Juana had had Philip’s body embalmed and refused to allow him to be
buried, his coffin went wherever she travelled, she opened his coffin and
kissed the corpse’s feet and would allow no woman other than herself near the
corpse. The rumours only helped to add to Juana’s reputation as ‘la Loca.’ Her
secretary, Juan Lopez, always maintained that Juana was;
‘More sane than her mother.’[vii]
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| Archbishop Cisneros (as cardinal) |
Juana wanted
Philip to be buried at Granada, to be buried close to her mother. Philip had
apparently also intimated that he be buried there. The journey from Burgos to
Granada commenced in the depths of winter and the heavily pregnant Juana chose
to travel with the cortège. The journey was halted in Torquemada where Juana’s last child, Caterina, was born on 14th January
1507.
A regency council under Archbishop Cisneros was set
up, against the queen's orders, the day before Philip’s death. But the council
was unable to manage the problems besetting the kingdom. Castile was suffering
from growing public disorder; plague and famine devastated the kingdom with
supposedly half the population perishing of one or the other.
Juana was unable to secure the funds required to assist
her to protect her power. She revoked all of Philip’s grants of lands, monies
and offices to his cronies on 18th December 1506. The revocations
were ignored.
Thoughts of Marriage
 |
| Painting believed to be Caterina d'Aragona |
In January
1507 that arch-schemer the King of England conceived the idea of marrying the
Queen of Castile, the widowed Juana. This idea was more attractive than
marrying Caterina to Prince Henry, but to keep Ferdinand sweet Henry did not
want to break off that engagement. Henry VII had found Juana sultry and
oriental and knew, more to the point, capable of bearing healthy children as he
informed Caterina.
Caterina was
in favour of the marriage as it would bring her into closer contact with her
sister. But this was not a marriage that Ferdinand would ever assent to, having
no intention of letting that sly fox Henry anywhere near the throne of Castile.
To keep his ally sweet he told Caterina to inform the sly fox that it was;
‘Not yet known whether Queen
Juana be inclined to marry again….[if so] it shall be with no other person than
the King of England.’[viii]
The marriage
of course never happened, but it is highly likely that Henry VII was well aware
that the rumours of Juana’s madness were just that; rumours.
‘The story of her “madness”
was never, until perhaps the end of her long life, more than very successful
propaganda put out by her ruthless and unscrupulous father and son. It is
probable that Henry VII knew or suspected the truth.’[ix]
 |
| Homillos |
Betrayal
In the face of the troubles plaguing the kingdom and
sensing an opportunity to regain power, Ferdinand II returned to Castile in
July 1507. His arrival coincided with a remission of the plague and famine, a
development which quieted the instability and left an impression that his
return had restored the health of the kingdom.
Ferdinand II and Juana met at Hornillos,
Castile on 30 July 1507. Ferdinand then forced her to yield up her power over
the Kingdom of Castile and León to himself. On 17 August 1507 Juana summoned
three members of the royal council and ordered them to inform the grandees, in
her name, of her father Ferdinand II's return to power:
‘That they should go to receive his highness and serve him as they would
her person and more.’[x]
Juana refused to sign the instructions, issuing a
statement that she did not endorse the surrender of her own royal power. Eventually Ferdinand, as regent, had
Juana locked away in the fortress at Tordesillas. Philip’s coffin was handed to the nuns of the adjacent Santa Clara convent.
Bibliography
Henry VII –
SB Chrimes, Eyre Methuen 1987
Sister
Queens – Julia Fox, Ballantine Books 2011
Ferdinand
and Isabella – Melveena McKendrick, Cassell 1969
Henry –
David Starkey, Harper Press 2008
Six Wives –
David Starkey, Chatto & Windus 2003
Catherine of
Aragon – Giles Tremlett, Faber & Faber 2010
The Wives of
Henry VIII – Alison Weir, Pimlico 1992
The
Hapsburgs – Andrew Wheatcroft, Folio Society 2004
[i]
Henry - Starkey
[iii]
Lord Privy Seal and Henry’s principal minister
[iv]
Killed in the Tower of London in 1513, Henry VIII considering himself not bound
by a treaty signed by his father.
[v]
Henry - Starkey
[vi]
Sister Queens - Fox
[vii]
Ibid
[viii]
The Wives of Henry VIII - Weir
[ix]
Henry VII - Chrimes
One of those points on which to speculate, what might have happened if Henry VII had managed to marry her; if he had further sons, Henry VIII would not have had so weighty a 'great matter'.
ReplyDeleteI wove a plot around Edmund de la Pole - not of his making - for a later Felicia and Robin plot, leading to his execution over its existence ...