Juana the Mad Marries Philip the Handsome

1496

The Spanish infanta Juana married the Habsburg archduke Philip in the Low Countries, linking Spain and the Netherlands through the womb of a dynastically pivotal young woman. Their son Charles would inherit Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the sixteenth century's most powerful monarch. Juana's passionate devotion to Philip would be exploited by her father Ferdinand to question her sanity and justify her imprisonment.