Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Juana la Loca
Juana (also known as Joan) is the daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferndinand. Juana was sent off to marry Philip the Handsome, son of Emperor Maximilian I, for political reasons. However, as soon as they consummated their relationship, Juana fell in love with him, to the point of madness.
At first, things seemed blissful. Newlyweds just being in love with each other. Soon, they have a child. Then, another one. At this point, you'll start to see that Juana still acts like a newlywed. She's overly affectionate with Philip. She has to know where he is or what he's doing.
Things start to change for the worse when Juana received word that her mother has passed away. Her mother's death has made Juana queen, since her 2 older brothers were dead as well. Upon receiving the news, Juana inquired where was her husband was. No one wanted to volunteer the information. However, with her power, she found her way to her husband, who was having an affair, in the hunting stable, with one of her maids-in-waiting.
Since then, the two have exchanged heated words and conspired to make each other jealous. Despite the martial drama, Juana always open sexually to Philip and then goes right back to conspiring afterwards, including having a sorceress conjure up a spell. Philip would just simply continue to have affairs, whether Juana knew about them or not.
It was at this point that the people, including the noblemen, were noticing Queen Juana's erratic behavior and eccentricities. They wanted to declare her mad. The noblemen were able to convince Philip to have the courts officially declare Juana as mad. By doing this, Juana would lose her powers as queen and Philip would be made king. (In real life, it was actually Philip and Juana's father who conspired to have her declared mad.) However, during this process, Philip's health deteriorated quickly and died.
But before he died, he summoned Juana to his deathbed to beg for her forgiveness. Juana, who was pregnant at the time, begged him to get well. Philip repeatedly asked for her forgiveness. Juana just wouldn't give it to him. When he died, Juana's mental health just skydived for the worst. Philip died at 28 years old.
Juana had Philip buried in a monastery so that she could visit her husband, with the coffin opened. She would be an old lady and would still visit her husband, who was nothing but bones and rotted flesh, and she would shed tears and kiss him.
The movie was pretty good and is worth a watch. I like to watch movies about the royal families because there's all kinds of crazy things going on with them.
You can learn more about real story of Juana the Mad of Castile here.
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