Formerly, the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 put them in line as monarchs of a putatively unified Spain. There was however, much contention along the way. The war with Portugal, the wars against (and the eventual expelling of) Muslims, the several wars between noble houses and the birth of the Inquisition underscore the turbulence of their rule.
Despite it all, by 1497 they seemed to have their legacy in place. Their children were married to secure heirs and the physical bounds of their dominion seemed secure. Within a few short years these efforts fell apart. Their son John died later that year and daughter Isabella the year after that and her son Miguel died in 1500. This left the daughter Joanna who had been marrried (1496) to Philip the Handsome of Burgundy, the sole Hapsburg son of Emperor Maximilian Archduke of Austria and Mary of Burgundy. Joanna spent the next several years in Brussels at the Burgund court where she gave birth to the future emperor Carlos and two future queens.
The entire court of Philip and Joanna returned to Madrid in 1502 and which was chronicled by Philip's chamberlain Antoine de Lalaing. It was there that Joanna officially received fealty from the Cortes, the legislative courts and local nobles of Castile and officially became heiress to be queen of Castile. Philip then left and Joanna stayed in Madrid giving birth to a son Ferdinand. He would become emperor following his brother Carlos. It was but a brief time later that her mother Isabella died in 1504 and Joanna was declared regent of Castile with her husband Philip as titular head. The Cortes were unhappy with this and so, the father Ferdinand tried to solidify his own rulership, even minting coins declaring Ferdinand and Joanna as co-rulers of Castile. But with the death of Isabella, Castile was feeling leaderless and troublesthere began again in earnest.
In 1505, Ferdinand took matters into hand persuading the Cortes that he would rule due to a sickness that Joanna suffered from. Ferdinand also had begun working on a pro-French policy. By marrying Germaine de Foix, a niece of French king Louis XII -and heiress to the province of neighboring Navarre - he hoped to produce a male heir that could assume control of Castile and Navarre and his legacy Aragon. Part of these negotiations included Louis ceding his claim on Naples to his niece Germaine de Foix. This was wrapped up in the Second Treaty of Blois in 1505 which also made a tentative peace in this second round of the Italian wars (1499-1503).
But the next year, when Ferdinand married Germaine, Philip of Burgundy and Joanna returned to Castile to find the locals up in arms. Tensions were high, Ferdinand capitulated to Philip and a treaty was signed. But suddenly in September, 1506, Philip died of fever. Plague following the wars, the desperate lack of funds, and suspicion of intrigue left Joanna almost powerless. Attempts by her confessor Archbishop Cisneros tried to calm things, but to no avail. When Ferdinand returned to Castile in 1507 there was a brief respite in the plague and Ferdinand was seen as healing the chaotic scene.
Joanna 's heir Carlos was six and lived in far off Flanders. Officially the crown of Castile at last would pass to Ferdinand. He would rule at a distance until his death in 1516. The years after his death would again be tumultuous.
In 1517 Carlos came to accept his crown in Castile. He heartily welcomed his widowed step-mother into his court and a year later she gave birth to a daughter Isabel. It is conjectured that she is their daughter. In 1519 they moved to Aragon where he was crowned and then they went to Brandenburg to marry her to a margrave Johann. She would return to help Carlos later.
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